3 locked rivals schedule

[WAGopher]

Michigan​

Top vote totals: Ohio State 1,674; Michigan State 1,504; Penn State 505; Minnesota 417

Choice 1: Ohio State 1,438; Michigan State 210; Illinois 20

Choice 2: Michigan State 1,184; Ohio State 208; Penn State 115; Minnesota 53

Choice 3: Penn State 390; Minnesota 364; USC 318; UCLA 165

The top two spots broke down exactly as you might expect for Michigan: Ohio State No. 1, Michigan State No. 2, with a decent gap in between. Meanwhile, Michigan was far and away the No. 1 choice for Michigan State, a result that speaks to the uneven dynamic of that rivalry.

The 2022 Michigan-Ohio State game reached 17 million viewers on Fox, making it the highest-rated regular season college football game in 11 years. The Michigan-Michigan State game doesn’t draw the same audience, but it’s still one of the Big Ten’s longest-running annual rivalries. That game needs to stay on the schedule, even if there’s an argument for a cooling-off period after last year’s tunnel incident.

The third spot gets interesting for Michigan. Penn State is the most popular choice, with Minnesota not far behind. From an audience perspective, there’s also a case for playing Michigan-USC or Michigan-UCLA on an annual basis. Since there’s no clear consensus, maybe the right move is to give Michigan two protected rivals and rotate the rest. — Meek


Their fans still care about us. But assigning Michigan to play OSU, MSU, and PSU yearly would be a tough load and so that's why I guess that the Athletic staff gave them a reprieve with Rutgers in the third spot.


As has been noted, if you don't get your favorite team as a yearly matchup .... well, now you'll see them every two years worst case.

Thank you for posting the Michigan info. I was baffled thinking that Michigan fans chose Rutgers as their third rivalry. Now it makes sense that The Atlantic chose Rutgers for them.

Having that many Michigan fans still voting to have Minnesota as their third locked in game, shows the importance the Little Brown Jug game once held.

 

[MaxyJR1]

 

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

My scheduling suggestion:

2 permanent rivals
1 four-year period annual game (much like Maryland was)
Rotate the other 12 teams so you play them all home and home during a four-year period

Then replace that non-rival annual game with another team.

 

[Gophers_4life]

My scheduling suggestion:

2 permanent rivals
1 four-year period annual game (much like Maryland was)
Rotate the other 12 teams so you play them all home and home during a four-year period

Then replace that non-rival annual game with another team.

They'll work out something like that, probably for everyone. I don't think there is a single team in the conference, even including the U, where you can reasonably argue that all three games deserve to be permanent annual fixture of the schedule.

Michigan is too far gone for us.