A look at the changes to Michigan’s schedule

We’ve known for a month that Michigan and the Big Ten would be playing a conference-only schedule, but we didn’t know precisely what the schedule would look like. Until today.

Michigan’s schedule was released Wednesday morning, and there were some notable changes.

• Michigan will be playing Northwestern, who they weren’t originally scheduled to play: The move makes too much sense. Just a 4-hour and 9-minute drive from Ann Arbor to Evanston on practically one highway the entire way, it would have been foolish not to play Northwestern in the type of climate we’re in.
• New locations for two games: Michigan was originally scheduled to play Michigan State in East Lansing and Indiana in Ann Arbor, but now MSU is a home game and Indiana is a road game.
• The Game will not be the last game of the season: Those who are used to watching Michigan play Ohio State at noon on the Saturday following Thanksgiving will have to make other plans. The Game has been moved up to October 24, which will be Michigan’s sixth game of the season.
• Bye-week changes: Michigan originally had a bye week on October 31. Now they have two during the season, on October 10 and November 14. There’s also a uniform bye week on November 28.

It’s important to note that A. there might not be football B. the start date of the season could be pushed back. Per the Big Ten press release, they’re starting the season as early as September 5 so it will allow the ability to move the start of the season back to Sept. 12, 19, or 26 “through strategic sequencing that allows games to be moved to a latter part of the schedule”.

What do you think of the changes to Michigan’s schedule? Drop a comment and tell us how you’re feeling.