Monday, October 21, 2019

Michigan Monday: Wonders If Michigan Should Explore Other Conferences?

Before we get started, for those fools that are tweeting or emailing Ronnie Bell with threats or telling him to leave the team/school, just stop.  He is a kid with a family and nobody feels worse then him.   Contacting him directly through social media makes you and the Michigan fan base look like A-Holes. 

With the independent ND coming to Ann Arbor this weekend and Michigan's struggles in the Big Ten.  I started to wonder what type of pressure Michigan could put on the Big Ten if they started to look at other opportunities.   My initial thought was just moving football out but I assume the Big Ten probably has a rule about being all in or all out.

Why should Michigan consider this at all?

  • Scheduling - The Big Ten divisions are not even and the East continues to be much stronger then the West.  The Big Ten has basically ignored a historic trophy game with Minnesota.
  • Kick-off times - I know this is driven by TV, but could Michigan have more control when they play if they were in a different conference or independent?
  • Officials - I don't know if officials are ranked against other conferences  but from my eyes the Big Ten officials are very poor against their counterparts.   (another solution is to stop having conference officials, just have a big bucket of money/officials organization where the top 5 leagues have the best officials and they rotate different conferences each week - that would help any bias the current conference officials have, you also could have the top officials on the countries top games.)
  • Lack of Big Ten Championships lately - Michigan Football hasn't won a Big Ten Championship since 2004 and has never played in the Championship game in Indy.  
  • Doesn't have to mean the loss of rivalry games - Florida and FSU are in separate leagues and still play the last game of the year.  Michigan could keep MSU and OSU on the schedule. 
  • The Big Ten has expanded too much.  Maryland and Rutgers has not been a success and was only brought in for potential new TV viewers in DC and NYC
  • Lack of Big Ten Bowl Game tie-ins - Bowl Games are dying and have become a glorified scrimmage.  Michigan also has a big enough brand to make a bowl game with out a conference tie-in (if they decided to go independent).
  • Games against new teams and new rivals. 
  • Big Ten has huge team payouts!  Yes, but every conference has a TV deal now and could make Michigan a huge offer. 
Moving from the Big Ten would of course hurt the other sports and be much more expensive for travel across the board.  It's probably not a viable option, but I think it should be "floated" to put some pressure on the Big Ten to improve in a number of areas.  I see the current Big Ten offices as a black hole of information and a fat and happy "old boys" network.

Michigan will probably never do this, but I think its time for some major changes, so the narrative of this football program changes.  Football is changing and this isn't the conference of Bo and Woody any longer. 

11 comments:

Coach Anderson said...

The PSU game was like watching the 2016 osu game. The officiating was terrible. We have to be twice as good as the other teams to win.

Still Blue in Tn said...

With the record of recent negotiations in mine i could see: Michigan, you will play all games at night. You will play all games on the road, and have to pay money to another conference in order to join them.
Also, you will have to keep wearing the ugly ass white pants for every game now.
I am somewhat a disgruntled fan. I hate when michigan shows up unprepared for a game, or only a half of a game or less. I hate the losing, and I hate the ice cream man pants they wear on the road. Why don't they wear the gold pants like Michigan used to wear and maybe they will start winning like Michigan is used to.

Dvzk said...

I hate night games, and not because Michigan's recent record of sucking in them. I'd rather a noon kickoff and be free for the day at 330 pm. I can tell you I work till 5 am every Saturday so a noon kickoff isn't in my best interest but I'd rather sacrifice sleep for not having my Saturday night bogged down. That being said, I'm checking out of this season. I can't stand Shea Patterson, I won't waist my time watching this midget qb who can't see over the line to make a decent screen pass throw to a Michigan player. If somehow a miracle happens and Harbaugh's head pops out his butt and McCaffrey becomes the starter I'll tune in again.

SecondChance said...

Why did UM have to call time out before the fist snap of the game ? My season prediction was 8-4, but I think 7-5 is more likely than 9-3 at this point.

szanreno said...

I heard that Ronnie Bell had been getting a lot of nasty emails and tweets today. If you would ask me in the huddle before that 4th down play who I wanted the ball to go to, Ronnie Bell would have been my choice. anyone who thinks he hasn't been valuable to this team this year has it been watching.

MichiganMan said...

I'm With You Second Chance..... too other little boys talking about night game and this game and that game it doesn't matter good team always find ways to win.... dumbass Don Brown cost two touchdowns by putting two of the slowest safeties on fastest player..... bad guy in our boy Jimmy are stealing money from University both should be fired

Goblu said...

At least we aren’t cheaters like the buck-nuts.

Dvzk said...

Michiganman didn't come here to be a fan, he came here to play a troll.

szanreno said...

A troll is no longer a troll once he is called out.

dude1984 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dude1984 said...

I think they should redo the divisions...using I-80 as the dividing line.

North: Nebraska*, Iowa*, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Michigan State, and Michigan.
*technically they're just south of I-80, but close enough...

South: Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Maryland, and Rutgers.

There could be an inter-conference game that is played every year:
Michigan-Ohio State;
Michigan State-Penn State;
Wisconsin-Illinois;
Northwestern-Rutgers;
Minnesota-Indiana;
Iowa-Purdue;
Nebraska-Maryland;