All Things SkunkBear

[ThePiombino]

Not a fan here either. Oh well, guess we'll have to put our big boy pants on. At least we SHOULD have the horses on both sides of the line by then.

 

[phork]

So this is what we've become? Afraid of some competition? Fuck Harbaugh and Fuck Michigan I can't wait until we beat them like a god damn drum. Suck it up Sally's. Its good for college football and great for everyone involved.

 

[dublinirish]

really surprized folks on here ain't happy with SCUM being back on the slate. I can't wait to be honest.

 

[Meatloaf]

Funny, I ventured over to Mgoblog and they have a lot of the exact opinions I've seen on here. They think it helps ND more than um and it makes their schedule more difficult than it needs to be. They also apparently have to eat a $2mm loss to cancel the scheduled game vs Arkansas to get us back on the schedule. I will say though, 2018 is looking pretty damn difficult right now with scUM, FSU, Stanford and USC on the schedule. Can't see the playoffs being a realistic option that year.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Funny, I ventured over to Mgoblog and they have a lot of the exact opinions I've seen on here. They think it helps ND more than um and it makes their schedule more difficult than it needs to be. They also apparently have to eat a $2mm loss to cancel the scheduled game vs Arkansas to get us back on the schedule. I will say though, 2018 is looking pretty damn difficult right now with scUM, FSU, Stanford and USC on the schedule. Can't see the playoffs being a realistic option that year.

Don't forget at VA Tech, and frigging Pitt too. Why in the world would anybody want to add to that schedule...

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[woolybug25]

So this is what we've become? Afraid of some competition? Fuck Harbaugh and Fuck Michigan I can't wait until we beat them like a god damn drum. Suck it up Sally's. Its good for college football and great for everyone involved.

How is this great for us? We don't need another premier game on our schedule, especially against a team that has traditionally been a toss up game. We already have Stanford, FSU and USC on the '18 slate. We don't need another tier 1 opponent.

It doesn't help us in recruiting. It doesn't help our schedule. It isn't necessary. Why should we play them? Because "we like it"? That's not a real reason. That's a justification for making bullshit schedules that leave us with 2-4 losses every year.

 

[IrishLion]

BK gonna own Harbaugh just like he owns Dantonio.

 

[Meatloaf]

Don't forget at VA Tech, and frigging Pitt too. Why in the world would anybody want to add to that schedule...

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Because ND cares more about making money off of its "brand" than actually winning.

 

[gkIrish]

So stupid.

We beat them like red-headed stepchildren in the last game and there is absolutely no advantage to playing them except for pleasing some fans that don't see the big picture.

 

[ScooterIrish]

BK gonna own Harbaugh just like he owns Dantonio.

Hopefully Harbaugh doesn't outclass Kelly like he did in 2010.

 

[IrishLion]

Hopefully Harbaugh doesn't outclass Kelly like he did in 2010.

That was BK's first year at ND, and Harbaugh's best year at Stanford.

I think it would be unfair to label that being "outclassed" based on situation alone.

 

[rtrn2glory]

Love it.

Always got vamped up for the game

 

[dublinirish]

Love it.

Always got vamped up for the game

 

[GoldenToTheGrave]

Don't forget at VA Tech, and frigging Pitt too. Why in the world would anybody want to add to that schedule...

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I for one am a fan of hard fought football games, but then I'm a glutton for punishment.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

What?! It's our second biggest or maybe even biggest rivalry game. It adds so much to our national brand playing a big time game like that. If we hate playing good teams we shouldn't have scheduled Georgia or Ohio State. In the ever changing world of strength of schedule, adding one good team a year won't kill us. Jeez, this is great news. So glad the series is back on.

This. Better to play a marquee team during the season (like Clemson last year), than get trounced by one in a bowl game you maybe didn't deserve to be in.

 

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

How is this great for us? We don't need another premier game on our schedule, especially against a team that has traditionally been a toss up game. We already have Stanford, FSU and USC on the '18 slate. We don't need another tier 1 opponent.

It doesn't help us in recruiting. It doesn't help our schedule. It isn't necessary. Why should we play them? Because "we like it"? That's not a real reason. That's a justification for making bullshit schedules that leave us with 2-4 losses every year.

Yeah but Michigan is adding a premier opponent to this schedule:

Arkansas, SMU, (potentially ND), Nebraska, Northwestern, Maryland, Wisconsin, big brother, Penn State, Rutgers, IU, tOSU

Biggest games two years out appear to be: MSU, tOSU, Nebraska or Wisconsin? Potentially Arkansas?

We play:
Ball State, (potentially UM), Syracuse, Stanford, Va Tech, Pitt, Navy, Northwestern, Florida State, Wake Forest, USC

Biggest games for us: Stanford, Florida State, USC

I don't think it's terribly lopsided but it's hard to predict this far out.

 

[wizards8507]

How is this great for us? We don't need another premier game on our schedule, especially against a team that has traditionally been a toss up game. We already have Stanford, FSU and USC on the '18 slate. We don't need another tier 1 opponent.

Yes we do. A conference champion will typically have one marquee out of conference game, two marquee in-conference games, and the conference championship game.

 

[NDgradstudent]

Yeah but Michigan is adding a premier opponent to this schedule:

Arkansas, SMU, (potentially ND), Nebraska, Northwestern, Maryland, Wisconsin, big brother, Penn State, Rutgers, IU, tOSU

Biggest games two years out appear to be: MSU, tOSU, Nebraska or Wisconsin? Potentially Arkansas?

We play:
Ball State, (potentially UM), Syracuse, Stanford, Va Tech, Pitt, Navy, Northwestern, Florida State, Wake Forest, USC

Biggest games for us: Stanford, Florida State, USC

I don't think it's terribly lopsided but it's hard to predict this far out.

I thought Arkansas was off the 18 schedule to make room for ND? So they are playing three tough games (ND, MSU, OSU) and we are playing four (UM, Stanford, FSU, USC). And btw, USC recruits at an elite level every year, and MSU does not (principally because of location, 'brand,' etc., as far as I can tell. It certainly is not attributable to recent success). It is much more likely that MSU will be worse than USC than the other way around, imo.

 

[phork]

Arkansas series is being cancelled to make room for us.

 

[pkt77242]

Yes we do. A conference champion will typically have one marquee out of conference game, two marquee in-conference games, and the conference championship game.

Holy shit, I actually agree with Wiz.

 

[TomHaverford]

kinda sad to see so many on here hate it.

Personally, ND-MICH is easily one of my favorite games and always has been. There has been some amazing moments in that series. A lot of them have come right down to the wire and had miraculous finishes.

I'm glad it came back. To me the ND-MICH game is more important, bigger than the MSU-MICH game. If the CFB Gods forced Michigan to pick one rivalry- MSU or ND- I'd rather drop MSU and play ND every year to be honest. MICH-MSU just started to move the needle, and that's because we've been in the dumpster and MSU has ascended. MICH-ND always moved the needle though. Even when both teams were struggling.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

I can understand that. Who else beside Ohio State do you have on your schedule. (Now that the MSU game has become uncompetitive. Oh wait, the OSU game hasn't had such good results lately either, has it?)

ND has Navy, SC, Stanford, and five ACC Games on its '18 schedule, what about UofM?

 

[IrishLax]

kinda sad to see so many on here hate it.

Personally, ND-MICH is easily one of my favorite games and always has been. There has been some amazing moments in that series. A lot of them have come right down to the wire and had miraculous finishes.

I'm glad it came back. To me the ND-MICH game is more important, bigger than the MSU-MICH game. If the CFB Gods forced Michigan to pick one rivalry- MSU or ND- I'd rather drop MSU and play ND every year to be honest. MICH-MSU just started to move the needle, and that's because we've been in the dumpster and MSU has ascended. MICH-ND always moved the needle though. Even when both teams were struggling.

It's not about the games, which have been some classics, for sure.

It's two-fold... one, as evidenced last year where we were about to get left out of the CFB in favor of Oklahoma despite our only loss being to #1 Clemson, Notre Dame basically has to run the table to get a sniff. So adding a tough game onto a slate that already features FSU/Stanford/USC/etc. isn't very pragmatic.

Two, and I have to be frank here, but the game isn't that much fun for many of our fans because your collective fan base is a bunch of assholes*. When we play one of our other rivals (see: USC, Stanford, etc.) you can attend the game without fearing for your safety. You can't do that in Ann Arbor, because you guys are assholes. When we play a "neutral" prime time matchup @Oklahoma or @Clemson we get all the atmosphere... with classy but passionate fans. There aren't massive hypocrite writing "Hi Lizzy Seeberg" on a Game Day sign and pontificating afterwards how a "Michigan Man" would never stand for such a thing (ironically while your university tries to make Gibbons and Lewan go away as quietly as possible, and lie about the reason for Gibbons absence). They don't have their head coaches calling us "chicken" (lolHoke) for having to scramble with scheduling arrangements due to changing conference affiliation. They don't employ gaping dickholes like Dave Brandon, so it's possible to have an adult conversation with their leadership. Most other schools don't worship a KKK sympathizer who was such an anti-Catholic bigot it's truly sickening... yet you name buildings after him and pretend it didn't happen... it's almost as bad as PedoState fans trying to white wash Paterno.

So yeah... most of us would rather play someone like Texas or Georgia or Florida than rehash a tired series with a school that has has asshole, belligerent fans with the alpha asshole head coach at the helm.

*You honestly seem like a perfectly fine dude and pretty much every Michigan engineer I've ever worked with is a fine dude... I really don't know where your unwashed masses come from that throw bottles at visiting fans and such. But your fans on game day are literally the worst I've ever experienced in person and that includes Ohio State.

 

[gkIrish]

It's not about the games, which have been some classics, for sure.

It's two-fold... one, as evidenced last year where we were about to get left out of the CFB in favor of Oklahoma despite our only loss being to #1 Clemson, Notre Dame basically has to run the table to get a sniff. So adding a tough game onto a slate that already features FSU/Stanford/USC/etc. isn't very pragmatic.

Two, and I have to be frank here, but the game isn't that much fun for many of our fans because your collective fan base is a bunch of assholes*. When we play one of our other rivals (see: USC, Stanford, etc.) you can attend the game without fearing for your safety. You can't do that in Ann Arbor, because you guys are assholes. When we play a "neutral" prime time matchup @Oklahoma or @Clemson we get all the atmosphere... with classy but passionate fans. There aren't massive hypocrite writing "Hi Lizzy Seeberg" on a Game Day sign and pontificating afterwards how a "Michigan Man" would never stand for such a thing (ironically while your university tries to make Gibbons and Lewan go away as quietly as possible, and lie about the reason for Gibbons absence). They don't have their head coaches calling us "chicken" (lolHoke) for having to scramble with scheduling arrangements due to changing conference affiliation. They don't employ gaping dickholes like Dave Brandon, so it's possible to have an adult conversation with their leadership. Most other schools don't worship a KKK sympathizer who was such an anti-Catholic bigot it's truly sickening... yet you name buildings after him and pretend it didn't happen... it's almost as bad as PedoState fans trying to white wash Paterno.

So yeah... most of us would rather play someone like Texas or Georgia or Florida than rehash a tired series with a school that has has asshole, belligerent fans with the alpha asshole head coach at the helm.

*You honestly seem like a perfectly fine dude and pretty much every Michigan engineer I've ever worked with is a fine dude... I really don't know where your unwashed masses come from that throw bottles at visiting fans and such. But your fans on game day are literally the worst I've ever experienced in person and that includes Ohio State.

All of this. If we MUST play a top tier program I'd rather play pretty much anyone else. I'd rather not add a Tier 1 at all though.

 

[ACamp1900]

It's not about the games, which have been some classics, for sure.

It's two-fold... one, as evidenced last year where we were about to get left out of the CFB in favor of Oklahoma despite our only loss being to #1 Clemson, Notre Dame basically has to run the table to get a sniff. So adding a tough game onto a slate that already features FSU/Stanford/USC/etc. isn't very pragmatic.

Two, and I have to be frank here, but the game isn't that much fun for many of our fans because your collective fan base is a bunch of assholes*. When we play one of our other rivals (see: USC, Stanford, etc.) you can attend the game without fearing for your safety. You can't do that in Ann Arbor, because you guys are assholes. When we play a "neutral" prime time matchup @Oklahoma or @Clemson we get all the atmosphere... with classy but passionate fans. There aren't massive hypocrite writing "Hi Lizzy Seeberg" on a Game Day sign and pontificating afterwards how a "Michigan Man" would never stand for such a thing (ironically while your university tries to make Gibbons and Lewan go away as quietly as possible, and lie about the reason for Gibbons absence). They don't have their head coaches calling us "chicken" (lolHoke) for having to scramble with scheduling arrangements due to changing conference affiliation. They don't employ gaping dickholes like Dave Brandon, so it's possible to have an adult conversation with their leadership. Most other schools don't worship a KKK sympathizer who was such an anti-Catholic bigot it's truly sickening... yet you name buildings after him and pretend it didn't happen... it's almost as bad as PedoState fans trying to white wash Paterno.

So yeah... most of us would rather play someone like Texas or Georgia or Florida than rehash a tired series with a school that has has asshole, belligerent fans with the alpha asshole head coach at the helm.

*You honestly seem like a perfectly fine dude and pretty much every Michigan engineer I've ever worked with is a fine dude... I really don't know where your unwashed masses come from that throw bottles at visiting fans and such. But your fans on game day are literally the worst I've ever experienced in person and that includes Ohio State.

reps... I would never have played them again... and I certainly wouldn't have gone out of our way to add ANY more headliner games... we have enough of those.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

*You honestly seem like a perfectly fine dude and pretty much every Michigan engineer I've ever worked with is a fine dude... I really don't know where your unwashed masses come from that throw bottles at visiting fans and such. But your fans on game day are literally the worst I've ever experienced in person and that includes Ohio State.

I've still got a scar from catching a beer bottle to the back of my head in Ann Arbor. I have no problem with TomHaverford, and have enjoyed many of his posts here. But the 2003 ND-Michigan game was by far the single worst experience I've ever had at a college football game; that, alongside the bitter history between our two programs, means I have a strong preference for just letting the series die.

ND has one friend (Navy), one rival (USC), and one enemy (Michigan). As I stated in the other thread, Michigan obviously gains a lot more from this series than ND does. Why give up something so valuable (a spot on our schedule) to the only program (out 128!) that we have legitimate reasons to hate?

 

[woolybug25]

*You honestly seem like a perfectly fine dude and pretty much every Michigan engineer I've ever worked with is a fine dude...

My step brother is an engineer from scUM. Both undergrad and grad school. He's ok.

Our childhood was like:

 

[IrishLion]

It's not about the games, which have been some classics, for sure.

It's two-fold... one, as evidenced last year where we were about to get left out of the CFB in favor of Oklahoma despite our only loss being to #1 Clemson, Notre Dame basically has to run the table to get a sniff. So adding a tough game onto a slate that already features FSU/Stanford/USC/etc. isn't very pragmatic.

Two, and I have to be frank here, but the game isn't that much fun for many of our fans because your collective fan base is a bunch of assholes*. When we play one of our other rivals (see: USC, Stanford, etc.) you can attend the game without fearing for your safety. You can't do that in Ann Arbor, because you guys are assholes. When we play a "neutral" prime time matchup @Oklahoma or @Clemson we get all the atmosphere... with classy but passionate fans. There aren't massive hypocrite writing "Hi Lizzy Seeberg" on a Game Day sign and pontificating afterwards how a "Michigan Man" would never stand for such a thing (ironically while your university tries to make Gibbons and Lewan go away as quietly as possible, and lie about the reason for Gibbons absence). They don't have their head coaches calling us "chicken" (lolHoke) for having to scramble with scheduling arrangements due to changing conference affiliation. They don't employ gaping dickholes like Dave Brandon, so it's possible to have an adult conversation with their leadership. Most other schools don't worship a KKK sympathizer who was such an anti-Catholic bigot it's truly sickening... yet you name buildings after him and pretend it didn't happen... it's almost as bad as PedoState fans trying to white wash Paterno.

So yeah... most of us would rather play someone like Texas or Georgia or Florida than rehash a tired series with a school that has has asshole, belligerent fans with the alpha asshole head coach at the helm.

*You honestly seem like a perfectly fine dude and pretty much every Michigan engineer I've ever worked with is a fine dude... I really don't know where your unwashed masses come from that throw bottles at visiting fans and such. But your fans on game day are literally the worst I've ever experienced in person and that includes Ohio State.

 

[Legacy]

It's not about the games, which have been some classics, for sure.

It's two-fold... one, as evidenced last year where we were about to get left out of the CFB in favor of Oklahoma despite our only loss being to #1 Clemson, Notre Dame basically has to run the table to get a sniff. So adding a tough game onto a slate that already features FSU/Stanford/USC/etc. isn't very pragmatic.

Two, and I have to be frank here, but the game isn't that much fun for many of our fans because your collective fan base is a bunch of assholes*. When we play one of our other rivals (see: USC, Stanford, etc.) you can attend the game without fearing for your safety. You can't do that in Ann Arbor, because you guys are assholes. When we play a "neutral" prime time matchup @Oklahoma or @Clemson we get all the atmosphere... with classy but passionate fans. There aren't massive hypocrite writing "Hi Lizzy Seeberg" on a Game Day sign and pontificating afterwards how a "Michigan Man" would never stand for such a thing (ironically while your university tries to make Gibbons and Lewan go away as quietly as possible, and lie about the reason for Gibbons absence). They don't have their head coaches calling us "chicken" (lolHoke) for having to scramble with scheduling arrangements due to changing conference affiliation. They don't employ gaping dickholes like Dave Brandon, so it's possible to have an adult conversation with their leadership. Most other schools don't worship a KKK sympathizer who was such an anti-Catholic bigot it's truly sickening... yet you name buildings after him and pretend it didn't happen... it's almost as bad as PedoState fans trying to white wash Paterno.

So yeah... most of us would rather play someone like Texas or Georgia or Florida than rehash a tired series with a school that has has asshole, belligerent fans with the alpha asshole head coach at the helm.

*You honestly seem like a perfectly fine dude and pretty much every Michigan engineer I've ever worked with is a fine dude... I really don't know where your unwashed masses come from that throw bottles at visiting fans and such. But your fans on game day are literally the worst I've ever experienced in person and that includes Ohio State.

Echoing this. Plus...

I thought we'd put a stake in the heart of this one, but they begged their way back. Swarbrick flew in the face of ninety per cent of Irish fans and against his unstated philosophy of scheduling teams whose fans respect us. Remember how Oklahoma treated us when we came there? Texas will similarly welcome us. Michigan?

The only way I can see the reasoning in this is if Swarbrick cancels the series so Michigan can get a $2 mill payday (or none!) back.

Our '18 "conference" schedule has our five ACC games (including FSU) and the three rivalry games (USC, Stanford, Navy). To our "OOC" we've added Michigan to NW and Ball State with another to be scheduled. NW respects us and puts a B10 team on our schedule after a home-and-home with MSU and before Purdue in '20.
-- FSU, @USC, Stanford, Michigan, @Va Tech, @NW plus Navy (at S.D.)....? WTF?

Our '19 "conference" schedule has our five ACC games and three rivalry games (USC, Stanford, Navy). To our "OOC", we added Michigan to Georgia and New Mexico with another school to be scheduled later.
-- @Georgia, USC, @Stanford, @Michigan, Va Tech, Navy (H)...?

The games to be added for '18 and '19 should be neutral site/Shamrock games.

Working on Alabama? Probably not in '18 since they have a neutral site game with L'ville to pair with Ark State and the Citadel with only one more opoening. For 2019 though, they have not scheduled any OOC games and our schedule is on the light side.

Michigan's non-conference schedule (three games) in '18 includes ND with SMU and in '19, ND with Army.
They couldn't keep Arkansas for their third non-conference game? Can't wait to see who that will be.

 

[ulukinatme]

My heart wants this, but my head says this is a stupid move. Should have looked to add a series with another Texas team for recruiting purposes. Would be funny if Harbaugh is gone by 2018, like going back to the NFL.