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Michigan vs. Ohio State After Thanksgiving?
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4 CommentsSince last season, there has been a lot of criticism directed towards the Big Ten since they finish playing college football two weeks before the season actually ends. The reason for that is because the Big Ten likes to keep things traditional by playing all of its games before Thanksgiving, and usually that always is the case. With the need for a bye week with a 12-game schedule and to play later in the season, the Big Ten recently changed its policy to be flexible on the issue.
The Big Ten will move to a 13-week schedule beginning in 2009, pushing the rivalry game [Michigan vs. Ohio State] and the rest of the conference’s schedule to the Saturday after Thanksgiving.Big Ten school presidents voted to support a 13-week schedule on Dec. 2, spokesman Scott Chipman said. That will allow teams one week off during the 12-game regular season.
Something that I don’t understand is the fact that Michigan already has a bye week in 2008, and their future schedule lists one for 2009 and 2010 as well. I know that ’09 and ’10 could change since that is so far in the future, but next season’s schedule is set, and the Wolverines will have a week off after the Notre Dame game before starting the Big Ten portion of the schedule (they still have to play Toledo on October 11th as well).
Since Michigan has a bye already and from what I’ve seen most or all of the other Big Ten teams do as well, I don’t see these changes being made specifically to give teams the chance to have a bye. With the way the calendar works out in the next few years, there will be only one weekend of college football played after Thanksgiving, meaning there would already be 13 weeks of play for the Big Ten. The only thing different I take from this change is that in the future when the calendar doesn’t work out like it does in the next few years (when 2 weekends of football are played after Thanksgiving), then the Big Ten can play after Turkey Day. At the same time, this change would actually give teams the chance to have two bye weeks during the season if I’m looking at this correctly, meaning they could have one early on and one as the season comes to a close.
The AP article I got the quote from says that the Michigan-Ohio State game will get pushed Thanksgiving, but I don’t see that happening to tell you the truth. In the future that could be an option, but with a bye week in place already for the next few years, there’s no need to make the move, unless of course money comes into the picture. The argument last year was that Big Ten teams were at a disadvantage in the BCS since they don’t get a chance to win to move up in the standings in the final two weeks of the season, but it worked out fine for Ohio State this year. Also, I believe there is only one extra week of football after the Big Ten is scheduled to get done in 2008, so again, that really shouldn’t be a huge issue.
I like the move simply because it allows for more flexibility in the future, but I really don’t see it as a huge deal to Michigan specifically right now.
Funny thing is, UM/OSU was played the Saturday after Thanksgiving my freshman year in 1995. Here’s the Daily’s post-game wrap-up: http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/umosu/rivalrep/1995osu.htm
I remember the 95 game…my sophomore year…I was home for T-Giving (in Cleveland) and had all my Ohio State loving friends over….OSU was #1, and they were sure they were going to win the MNC…that was the first of 3 straight SWEET wins in a row when one of the two was #1 going into the game.
This is the problem however with playing on T-Giving weekend, a HUGE portion of the students are gone, I suppose alot of the semi-locals can get back for the game, but I think it could really hurt the student section and we all know that’s the only part of the crowd that produces any noise in the Big House.
The 1995 UM at MSU game was also pretty sweet!! Brian Griese had the best two minute drill ever!! Tony Banks and 1st year HC Nick Saban led MSU to a 28-25 win!!
I do remember your game against osu. Didn’t Biakabatuka (sp?) run for over 300 yards in that game?
The Game was played the Sat after Thanksgiving in 2001, and I think it cost us. I made the drive back up with some friends from southern Ohio, but there was an even higher proportion of OSU fans than at this year’s game because a HUGE percentage of the students sold their tickets off, and they ended up in OSU fans’ hands.
Having The Game post-Thanksgiving costs us what little advantage our stadium gives us – the student section. UNLESS we play on the Saturday 10 days after T-giving, when all students are back (this would be amazing due to classic cold weather opportunities as well), I wholeheartedly disagree with this decision.