So … what’re you doing in 7 years?
If you think that sounds preposterous to have to answer, you’re probably in the camp that finds it preposterous when “news breaks” about college football titans scheduling games years in advance.
The ensuing five minutes of buzz wears off when you realize that you’ll be gray with bad knees by the time Oklahoma and Tennessee (just examples). Back when the games were scheduled, tilts like Ohio State and Virginia Tech or Miami and Nebraska were jaw droppers.
Then, as things tend to do over 5 to 10 years, stuff changed. And since things change, there’s risk and reward in setting these things up a presidential cycle or two in advance of when they’ll happen.
Michigan got the horns today from a public relations perspective, snagging back its rivalry with Notre Dame where we can all carry on about the two most successful programs in college football history (if, you know, you consider “winning” to be successful) playing one another after a brief hiatus.
The runoff of that was having to snip a series with Arkansas to the tune of having to pay $2 million just to get out of the damn thing. That’s like your date giving you $50 bucks and saying “go out wherever you want, on me, just don’t make me be there.”
Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long (who also is the first chairman of the CFB Playoff committee … so don’t be on the brink, Michigan) was ticked off, seeing as he found out about it the night before it was to be killed off.
Bret Bielema dug as only Bret Bielema can, joking that maybe they can host a satellite camp in Cabo with the extra loot. Or pay more recruits. Just kidding.
At any rate, the optics of it are terrible when you schedule games several years in advance and then have to back out, not only on the pocket book but because of a public willing to brand every game backed out of as “scared to play so and so.” Doesn’t matter if it’s Texas scheduling Vermont. If Texas ditches it, they’re terrified of Vermont.
Michigan-Notre Dame is one of the best rivalries in sports, and yeah, it looks a bit shifty considering Michigan still has an open slot on their 2018 and plenty in 2019 and this probably could have been worked on in some way where all were satiated, but such is the nature of college football where scheduling a certain way leads you to a better shot at a post season berth.
To be frank, Michigan has just about always taken the path of, “one power conference team you could genuinely lose to or boost your profile, one-two games you should win easily, and if applicable, one game where you schedule it expecting to win but feasibly could lose.”
The downside of waiting to schedule games is that you might get squeezed out of a decent out of conference game, and that’s like walking into a frat party with 7UP and a few board games these days. You’re not getting anyone batting their eyes at you come CFB Playoff time because “your OOC was weak.”
The ideal world is the NCAA having some sort of governing body over college football that regulates that you can’t get out of a game within a certain time frame of playing against them, or maybe a set amount of time in advance you can schedule games.
Or maybe the right answer is nothing, because in the end, it’s all optics and people are going to make their own haunted house out of the Arkansas of the world just because it’s cliche, and when the coin flips, it really doesn’t matter, anyway. For the most part, it all comes out in the wash.
No one’s scared to play anyone. Unless they are in your own mind. So, what’s Oklahoma doing in 2025?
