Wolverine247 Board

The ND rivalry is a nice OOC rivalry, but it's only the 3rd most important in the grand scheme of things. I'd be perfectly fine dropping them and maybe just playing them once every few years.

Meh. I like the ND game, no doubt...but for me, it is #3 after OSU and MSU. If it goes...I am not sure how much I will miss it. Maybe after a decade I will think differently.

Everyone who wants to drop the ND series should be careful what you wish for. When Brandon replaces the ND game with another home MAC opponent every year, you might start having second thoughts. And the same with ND fans. A move to the B12 isn't going to look as good once reality sets in and you realize you just traded annual games with UM, Stanford, MSU and BC for ones with Texas Tech, TCU, Kansas and Louisville.

The annual P12 game is going to happen regardless. This has nothing to do with that. And you might not enjoy playing ND or consider it an important rival, but that wasn't the point of my post. Everyone just seems to assume that once we drop the ND game we will replace it with a similar opponent (e.g. Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, UT). I highly doubt it. That might happen occasionally, but most years it will just be replaced with another game against Akron or CMU or Ball State. I would much rather continue to play ND.

Sure we can, and I haven't heard one peep about the P12 game interfering with the UM-ND series. We play 4 home B10 games every year. We also usually "buy" 2 baby seal games. That makes 6 home games. If we alternate the ND and P12 games so that one is always home when the other is away, we always end up with 7 home games. That is Brandon's stated goal.

Interestingly, it will be USC and Stanford that have the most trouble keeping ND on their schedules every year once the B10/P12 series starts. The P12 already plays 9 conference games (and has stated they are not going to change that). Throw in an annual B10 game and suddenly USC and Stanford only have 2 games to play with. If ND is always one of them, USC and Stanford will only end up with 6 home games some years. Not sure how they will feel about that, but it would never fly at UM.

I see where you're coming from, but some people iTT seem to be confused and are looking at this as a trade off of ND for a P12 opponent every year. It's not. It's a trade off of ND for Ball State/EMU/WMU every year with maybe a home-away series against Maryland/Vanderbilt/Syracuse thrown in every few years for variety. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't see how that is better than keeping the ND series.

Agree with this a lot...the past few years, Michigan has gone from unranked to ranked just on the strength of beating Notre Dame. Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson became nationally known, nationally discussed players on the strength of playing good games/winning dramatically vs. Notre Dame. Because of Notre Dame's deal with NBC, it's a game that's guaranteed to be nationally televised. It's the two winningest programs in history - two powerhouses from the same region - playing each other every year. This game has way more cachet than pretty much any game we could replace it with. And keep in mind, Notre Dame still and probably will always recruit on a high level...as soon as they can figure out their coaching situation, they're gonna be a perennial top-15 type team again. People who would be "fine" with losing it are being pretty short-sighted, imo.

Isn't it ironic that Nebraska left the Big12 to join the B1G, when ND had all the opportunities in the world to join the B1G in the first place?

I like Northwestern. ND can go to the Big 12 if that means we have to lose Northwestern.

When I was in AA, ND was a slightly bigger rivalry because they were the more prestigious program. They still are the more "prestigious" program. It was also a more enjoyable game because of their more educated and respectable fans. They will come back with the right coach just like USC, Bama, and Michigan have after years of mediocrity. ND is one of the 4-5 storied programs in the country.

Could you please explain to me how it is that the B1G has kept us on life support? Do you really believe we couldn't have scheduled other quality teams to take the place of those B1G teams we play?

Who's saying this is a real possibility?

Any links? Kinda curious to read on it a bit.