Bill Martin on Scheduling Appalachian State

Now that I've had some time to cool off from hearing that Appalachian State would be coming to the Big House next September, I do understand what some of the problems were that led to ASU being scheduled. I do not see why Bill Martin waited so long to fill the void, but I will give him that he was in a bind. Either way, Martin comments on the situation:

"It wasn't because of the money, I can tell you that," Martin said Saturday. "People clearly want us to come there, and we can't always do that."

The biggest problem is the money involved. Martin wants Michigan to have the maximum amount of home games every year to have the maximum profit. But other schools want the same thing, causing scheduling conflicts. Other schools want Michigan to make the trip to their stadium, but the Wolverines aren't that willing to do it anymore. Any time that the Notre Dame game is on the road, Michigan won't schedule another away game in the non-conference schedule, so you can toss that out every other year until 2011 when the contract is over. That brings me to my next point.

I really believe that Michigan should drop Notre Dame from the schedule for a few years and play them on a less frequent basis. With the way things are changing in college football, with teams scheduling high-profile match-ups, Michigan won't ever be able to do that since they already have a game of that type against the Irish every year. My hope is that after 2011, Michigan plays Notre Dame once every couple of years or at worst every other year so the rivalry isn't completely gone. That would open up the door for high-profile games like what Ohio State and Texas did. You could have the home and home come over a three year span with the Notre Dame game in the middle. It could work a number of ways, but I really am tired of playing two or three lower level non-conference teams since the other is against Notre Dame.

We'll just have to see what the future holds for scheduling as it will likely change in some form again in the next 5 or so years. I just wish that Michigan would be able to open it up to play a team like Georgia or Texas in a home and home series. How great would it be to watch the Wolverines play games like that come September?