One of the worst things about Big Ten Media Days was listening to coaches complain about having to play good teams.
USC head coach Lincoln Riley basically said that USC would continue to play the Notre Dame game, but only if there were guaranteed playoff berths, otherwise, essentially, it wouldn't be worth it.
Coach after coach, except for one at least, talked about how these non-conference games aren't fair to the Big Ten, with the SEC only playing eight conference games. That made it extra refreshing to hear Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore take a different approach, embracing the idea of playing "marquee" games.
"I kind of like scheduling the games — those brand-name, marquee games," Moore said to the Cover 3 Podcast. "One, it's really awesome to see where you're at, to test yourself against the best of the best, and to put yourself in a position to be ready for our conference, who I think is the best conference in football. I think all these conferences should play nine games. There's teams that want to play eight. We should all play nine, and we should all play the same type of opponents out of conference."
That means not all cupcakes.
Over the next three years, Michigan football will play Oklahoma twice, and also Texas. The Longhorns came to Ann Arbor last season. The Wolverines will return the favor in 2027.
These games are difficult, but if Michigan football beats Oklahoma on the road in the second game of the season, it will get credit for it on its playoff resume. A loss won't hurt that much either.
Last season, teams that missed the playoff, like Alabama, did so because they didn't have enough marquee wins. They also had bad losses. The schedule wasn't the issue. It never is.
Either you're good enough or you aren't. Michigan football has the right mentality, which is just one reason it's had the success over the past few seasons that it has had.
Hopefully that mindset never changes.