In the future...exception will be Notre Dame and there is a clause in the contract that allows UM out of the contract with a 4 year notice. So move over Gators you have company!! There was a time when Mich scheduled only home/home for non-conference games even those not involving Notre Dame. Now it's certainly been the trend for the major schools like Michigan over that 10-15 years to change their traditional scheduling philosophy. If I remember correctly, UM used to play good non-conf games in additon to the series with ND. I forget when but it's relatively recent that they said they will no longer play 2 good teams in non-conference as they felt it hindered them in the quest for a NC. I guess what I don't get though is the use of $$ as the reason, not just for UM but for most of the major powers. This at a time when revenues from all sources are huge, B10 has a huge TV contract, lots of Bowl revenues, and the BTNetwork is very successful returning even more money to teams. So it seems to me that Mich probably has never had more money to invest in it's program and it has right now, same for SEC schools and other major conferences as well. Mich Schedule
Oh and I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that ND refused to sign a home/home contract with UConn as well unless UConn agreed to play their home games in Foxboro. This caused a huge uproar at the audacity of ND to make such a dictate to UConn. We also refused to sign home/home with Rutgers unless they agreed to play their home game against us in Giants Stadium. So ND has it's share if "greed" if you will when it comes to scheduling.
I sat at a Notre Dame / Rutgers game played in Piscataway on the campus of Rutgers when Bob Davie was coaching.
It wasn't that long ago that M was playing noncon games with the likes of Col., Ore., and Bc. Somewhere along the way they dropped the big boys and went with the Appy States. What could be more rewarding than making money by forcing your fans to buy tickets to games against D II teams and then tanking?
Notice that when the topic of schedule come up, especially out of conference games, Notre Dame fans usually are the ones making the comments about other teams schedules. Realistically Notre Dame is about the only top college team who can maintain their independent status. Most of the rest of us fans teams belong to conferences. That's the way we survived as teams and most of us now have considerable pride in our conferences and wouldn't want to be independent. However being independent it is much easier to schedule non conference games away as there is no conference to deal with. However let's look at Notre Dame's home schedule this year. South Florida, Notre Dame is their only non conference road game Michigan State, Notre Dame is their only non conference road game Air Force plays Navy and Notre Dame on the road So. Cal, Notre Dame is their only non conference road game Maryland, Notre Dame is their only non conference road game Boston College, plays UCF and Notre Dame on the road. In addition I would put the Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10 and SEC as conferences where I doubt any team plays more than one non conference game on the road. Maybe there is one but I didn't see it. Some of them, the Gators this year, don't play any. Most teams don't have the luxury that Notre Dame has to schedule games all over the country so it's comparing apples to oranges.
:idea: The Pac10 no longer exists: it's the 12Pac. All the large conferences now have room for only 2 non-league games and they want to make money from one of them and get an easy road win with the other. There is, however, an exception to this: BYU. The Cougars dropped out of conference play in football and they've gone independent. They'll play in the WAC in other sports, so it appears that they're trying out the Notre Dame model to see if it works for them...
You are right JO'Co, it's the Pac 12 and that's accurate. On the other hand we have the Big10 with 12 teams and the Big 12 with 10 teams. It all makes sense with me. I am going to be curious as to how BYU makes out with the independent thing. The SEC plays 8 conference games so have room for 4 non conference games. However the 12th game is a farce. For instance our 12 game, the game added of course, is the week before the FSU game so I am sue you can imagine what kind of games we schedule there. As far as I am concerned they should dump the 12 game. However that is another topic, but every conference has added conference games and some good non conference games have gone away, in our case the Miami game.
As long as there is so much money to be made playing non-conference patsies at home the big schools will load up with those games. The home and away thing may be a thing of the past. We (Ohio State) are finishing up a home and away with Miami this year...start one with Cal next year, and then who knows? We have Navy (away) in 2014.
That's the norm now Stu, one or zero non conference games on the road. But the number of conference games have increased.
Stu, after Cal, we travel to Navy and then have scheduled home/home with VaTech, followed by Oklahoma followed by Tennessee. Granted it is becoming increasingly more difficult, but I hope they keep it up.....these intersectional games between traditional powers is college football at its very best imo
Bill you are right, it's pretty much everybody. My thought though is that this is at a time when Teams (esp the top programs) are making more money from all sources than ever before, that this is the time when(teams) they can afford to get out and play some great intersectional matches rather than say they have to stay home because they need the money.
Terry, and I will enjoy those games if I get to see any of them. However it is still just one road game a year against a non conference opponent and I imagine it will stay that way. I don't believe Ohio State played a non conference game on the road last year and don't have one scheduled next year. So it appears that looking at it not as who you play but what category do they fit in, Ohio State typically plays 4 non conference games, one of them a good game and that game seems to rotate. Giving Ohio State a road game for non conference every other year and the next year all of them at home. Other teams that play the same non conference opponent every year do about the same. The Gators play FSU at home and away. On the year they are at our field we typically do not play a road non conference game. I do look for that to change in the future in the years that their is one more Sat in football season than the other years. I believe that happens in 2013 and 2014. We play Miami in Miami in 2013 and have not scheduled an opponent for 2014 yet, but the word seems to be that we are searching for a team to play a home and home with in 2014 and the next time that situation comes up.