Five thoughts on Michigan football’s just-revealed 2024-25 schedules
Michigan football’s Big Ten opponents are set through the 2024 and 2025 seasons with the conference announcing its new scheduling matrix on Thursday. Divisions are gone, USC and UCLA are in starting next year and there are several other storylines to take away from the announcement.
Dates are at least months away from being revealed, and kick times are probably at least a year from that, too. We know the dates for Michigan’s non-conference games, but the rest will be sorted out at a later date.
Here are five takeaways from the announcement on Thursday from a Michigan perspective.
1. The Big Ten’s model mostly makes sense and gives them flexibility
In a nutshell, the East and West divisions are gone after the 2023 season. The top two teams in the conference by record will meet on the first weekend in December in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship. We will hit on how that point pertains to Michigan a little later on.
The new model scraps divisions and welcomes in USC and UCLA, bringing the team total to 16 starting with the 2024 season. Each team in the conference was given the option to choose up to three protected rivalry games that will be played each season. Anything less than three means you have to add a “two-play opponent” to your schedule.
For example, Michigan has chosen to protect its games against Michigan State and Ohio State (again, more on that choice later), meaning it needed one more opponent to be locked in for semi-protected status. That team will be Maryland over the next two years with someone else swapping in for the 2026-27 schedules, assuming Michigan does not choose a third protected rival.
Like it or not, college football is starting to take on more of a pro sports feel, especially with these mega television contracts. But the Big Ten did right by choosing to reveal schedules two seasons at a time. It serves as a solid window into the competitiveness of each program and ensures nobody gets locked into a lopsided or extended slate. Gone are the days of playing a crossover opponent seven seasons in a row.
Michigan fans will also need to come to grips with the fact that none of their conference slates will be layups. At best, some will be more manageable than others. But as one of the preeminent brands in college sports, Michigan is going to play in the biggest games in the biggest timeslots it can. When billions of dollars are thrown around in these TV deals, that is the logical conclusion.
The Wolverines put butts in seats and in front of flatscreens. We are all used to this by now.
2. Michigan’s 2024 slate
Non-conference: vs. Fresno State, vs. Texas, vs. Arkansas State
Home: Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, UCLA, Wisconsin
Away: Illinois, Ohio State, Rutgers, USC
Michigan has to make a trip out to Los Angeles to play USC and will welcome UCLA to the Big House in 2024. Add in a non-conference showdown with Texas, a home date with Luke Fickell-led Wisconsin and a road tilt at Ohio State, this is a tough draw. There is no denying that, especially given the number of new faces that will be in the starting lineup next season.
And yet in this setup, if you are going to play Texas, home is the place to do it. Maryland, Michigan State and Minnesota could be tough outs for different reasons, but road games at Illinois and Rutgers should be a piece of cake.
Michigan’s recent run of success is sustainable, but as the tough games stack up, it is going to be tough to go undefeated or lose once. The saving grace is that a 10-win Wolverine team that plays this schedule would have a convincing case for the 12-team playoff. It might all come down to who the quarterback winds up being and if J.J. McCarthy sticks around for his senior year. 2024 is also a double-bye season, so there are a few chances for Michigan to catch its breath.
3. A big question about the 2025 schedule as a whole
Non-conference: vs. New Mexico, at Oklahoma, vs. Central Michigan
Home: Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue
Away: Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska
It is impossible to know what Michigan could look like when the 2025 season rolls around, but there should still be a good nucleus of talent to keep its window of contention alive. Nobody will sweat about non-conference games against New Mexico and Central Michigan at home. Northwestern and Purdue should still be relatively solid chances at a win. An Ohio State/Penn State home draw is difficult, but the Wolverines have played in the Big Ten East with them for years.
Road games at Iowa and Nebraska will be difficult, and weird things have happened historically in matchups with Indiana and Michigan State. The road slate is still pretty manageable here.
The biggest question is whether or not Michigan will actually play six road games. The Wolverines have bought out of recent home-and-home series with Arkansas and UCLA to secure extra home dates, so the elephant in the room is what happens with the Oklahoma series. At this point, it would not be stunning to see them pull out of it.
Michigan would get roasted for it nationally by the same people who have criticized the non-conference schedules the last few years, but it would be tough to fault them. There is not much incentive to willingly put a coin-flip game on the schedule, especially if you can buy out of it and reap the rewards of gate revenue, concessions, etc. from the Big House.
4. Protected rivals
Michigan’s games against the MSU Spartans and OSU Buckeyes are protected, and that feels right. The Buckeyes were a shoo-in for that. There was never any doubt.
But some want the MSU rivalry to take a few years off due to an escalation of hatred. A better fix for that would be leaders leading, and adults acting their age. College sports hatred can be healthy inside the painted lines and the banter among fans and in the media is part of it. Regardless of how the other side feels about each other, it is still a fantastic showcase for the state as a whole and is a rivalry that has playfully divided families and friends over the years.
Michigan and Michigan State should play. And anyone who wants to make it about anything other than football needs to grow up. Who is going to step up and turn the temperature down?
Probably nobody. But when the two teams meet on the field, it is often chaotic. College football needs more of it, assuming the hard hits stay on the field and not in the tunnel. It has a chance to be a great tradition again someday.
5. Considering a blasphemous change to Michigan tradition
There is no sugarcoating the final takeaway. The idea that Michigan and Ohio State could play two weeks in a row is a letdown. The Game has always been earmarked for the last week of the season, but should it be moving forward?
It is not that it would devalue one game or the other, but it just would not be as interesting from a stakes and entertainment perspective.
The Big Ten is emphasizing competitive balance and is willing to adapt to enhance the overall product. If that is the case, there would be much more juice around a Big Ten title game with Michigan and Ohio State if the first matchup came earlier in the season. Play it sometime in October, then give the two teams the chance to build back up for a revenge game in Indianapolis. The flip side of playing two weeks in a row is the chance at immediate redemption instead of a few-week malaise that has historically followed for the losing team.
Truthfully, conference title games are now a TV event as opposed to something tangible. OSU missed out on a chance to play for the Big Ten crown last year but was still rewarded with a playoff spot by letting the rest of the country trip over itself on the way to the finish line.
Saying college sports need to embrace its traditions in one section and then saying it should change one of its biggest is admittedly a contradiction. But from a storyline and stakes perspective, there does not seem like there would be a whole lot wrong with playing The Game earlier like Florida/Georgia and Texas/Oklahoma have.
With massive changes here for good in college football, there might not be an ideal situation for anyone but the people who write the checks. It is also presumptuous that two Michigan/Ohio State games would happen every year. That said, some of what made the atmospheres of the last two games so memorable was a palpable sense of excitement – and dread if things did not go your way.
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