Michigan, by the way, is notorious (at least in my biased mind) for having an incredibly weak OOC schedule.
Their last decade: they played Bowling Green, Rice, Miami of Ohio (3), Western Michigan (3), Washington (2, they were ranked both times which warrants consideration), Utah (13-0 in 2008), Central Michigan (2), Houston, Oregon (2), UCLA, San Diego State, Northern Illinois, Eastern Michigan (3), Vanderbilt, Ball State, Appalachian State (loss), Toledo (loss), and Delaware State.
Out of those teams, only Washington, UCLA, Oregon and Utah (who did not rise to prominence until 2003 under Urban Meyer) have any reputation at all. Out of the other schools, eight of them are MAC schools, and out of those schools, all but two of them were played multiple times. Vanderbilt is annually the worst school in the SEC. Rice and Houston play in Conference USA, one of the worst conferences in the country. And San Diego State plays in the Mountain West. Two of the schools (Appalachian State and Delaware State) are Division II programs, one of them (DSU) was 2-4 when they played Michigan in mid-OCTOBER.
Michigan has played Notre Dame every year from 2002-2009, another reputable opponent. However, Notre Dame has had the consistency and record of a mid-major in that time period. 10-3 (on a team that should have been much worse), 5-7, 6-7, 9-3, 10-3, 3-9, 7-6, and 6-6.
This year, Michigan has Connecticut (usually a lower-tier program in the Big East, easily the weakest of the BCS conferences), Notre Dame, Bowling Green, and Massachusetts.
It's good to see them finally scheduling somebody with an actual reputation if this deal goes through.
