Michigan paying Virginia Tech $375,000 to back out of home-and-home series

per CBS:

When I was very young, there was a song called "Money for Nothing" by a band called Dire Straits. I remember this because my dad liked the song and because the music video for the song was probably the most 1980s thing that ever existed.

Seriously, if you don't believe me, check it out for yourself.

Anyway, I couldn't help but think of that song and the video when I saw the news that Michigan had to pay Virginia Tech $375,000 to get out of a home-and-home series the school's had scheduled in 2020 and 2021. The series was announced in May 2013, and it would have been the first time the two schools had ever played during the regular season.

Now that historic meeting will have to wait a bit longer.

Michigan is replacing Virginia Tech on its 2020 schedule with Arkansas State, which will no doubt lead to some "they're scared of playing Virginia Tech" responses. If that's the direction you want to go with this, by all means, live your life. It should be noted, however, that Michigan currently has games scheduled against Washington in both 2020 and 2021. So if it had kept the Virginia Tech games, the Wolverines would have likely had one of the tougher non-conference schedules in the country.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...h-375000-to-back-out-of-home-and-home-series/

Go Gophers!!

BleedGopher said:

per CBS:

When I was very young, there was a song called "Money for Nothing" by a band called Dire Straits. I remember this because my dad liked the song and because the music video for the song was probably the most 1980s thing that ever existed.

Seriously, if you don't believe me, check it out for yourself.

Anyway, I couldn't help but think of that song and the video when I saw the news that Michigan had to pay Virginia Tech $375,000 to get out of a home-and-home series the school's had scheduled in 2020 and 2021. The series was announced in May 2013, and it would have been the first time the two schools had ever played during the regular season.

Now that historic meeting will have to wait a bit longer.

Michigan is replacing Virginia Tech on its 2020 schedule with Arkansas State, which will no doubt lead to some "they're scared of playing Virginia Tech" responses. If that's the direction you want to go with this, by all means, live your life. It should be noted, however, that Michigan currently has games scheduled against Washington in both 2020 and 2021. So if it had kept the Virginia Tech games, the Wolverines would have likely had one of the tougher non-conference schedules in the country.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...h-375000-to-back-out-of-home-and-home-series/

Go Gophers!!

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And? Like I get the worry that you could drop both games, and be in a really tough position in terms of a Championship bid, but if you win both that gets you 2 really good wins for your strength of schedule. If I was a Michigan fan I would be disappointed.

Virginia Tech >>> North Carolina


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AtTheLibrary said:

Virginia Tech >>> North Carolina


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Wow!! First Minnesota and now Michigan. Becky will be next buying their way out of playing South Florida.

The Gophers paid North Carolina $800,000 to get out that series. This is a bargain for Michigan.

I don't buy the suggestion that we can't rip them for cowardly running away from a major conference opponent just because their out of conference schedule had *gasp* two real teams on it. I railed on us for north Carolina, and michigan deserves the same contempt for this.

Word said:

The Gophers paid North Carolina $800,000 to get out that series. This is a bargain for Michigan.

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We backed out much closer to the game didn’t we? Like less than 14 months from the game. That is the price difference.

We replaced UNC with TCU, and IIRC, we had a net profit on the switch. Why the UNC buyout is even still discussed is mind boggling.


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Taji34 said:

And? Like I get the worry that you could drop both games, and be in a really tough position in terms of a Championship bid, but if you win both that gets you 2 really good wins for your strength of schedule. If I was a Michigan fan I would be disappointed.

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I don't think strength of schedule matters a great deal for a power 5 team trying to make the playoff, with the possible exception of the Big XII, where having no conference championship game means that their champion has one fewer win on their resume when the selection is made. (Never mind, apparently the Big XII does have a championship game now.) If Michigan goes 13-0 (undefeated regular season plus a conference championship win), they are going to make the playoff regardless of whether they played Virginia Tech or Arkansas State. I think they would still make it if they went 12-1, provided that the one loss is not in the conference championship game, again regardless of whether they played Virginia Tech or Arkansas State. So if we assume Michigan automatically makes the playoff in the scenarios where they win 12 or 13 games, scheduling Virginia Tech just makes it harder to get there, and beating Virginia Tech is probably only going to help them marginally, maybe a difference of a single seed. Add on to that the fact that there's effectively no difference between getting the 2 or the 3 seed, and it seems to me like Michigan has a lot more to lose than to gain by playing VT. I'd guess that a 12-1 Michigan with a win over Arkansas State has a better shot at the playoff than an 11-2 Michigan with a loss to Virginia Tech.

From what I can tell so far, every college football playoff team has either won their conference championship game or not played in their conference championship game. Iowa and Wisconsin fell short at 12-1 after losing the Big Ten Championship game in 2015 and 2017 respectively. So I think the only scenario in which playing Virginia Tech is worth it is if Michigan goes 11-1, beating both Washington and Virginia Tech, but then losing a game to the likely Big Ten East Champion. When Ohio State made the playoff in the 2016 season, their non-conference schedule was @Oklahoma, Tulsa, and Bowling Green. That single high quality non-conference win was enough to get them in despite not winning their division.

Then there's also the increase in ticket revenue that Michigan will get from presumably playing 2 home games in place of the Virginia Tech series, and this decision seems to make a lot of sense for Michigan, even though they will likely be ridiculed on the internet for being cowards.

Spoofin said:

We replaced UNC with TCU, and IIRC, we had a net profit on the switch. Why the UNC buyout is even still discussed is mind boggling.


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The Gophers were pretty lucky to find TCU and get them to pay like they did. There were no guarantees at the time of canceling the UNC series. It ended up working out just fine though. For perspective TCU ended up paying us $900,000 ($400,000 used to cancel contract with South Dakota). There was no intent at the time of canceling the UNC series to reschedule with another big time opponent. Teague told me that in person. He said Kill didn't want to play a tough opponent like that yet. What made him change course, I don't know (maybe he decided they were ready, maybe he was getting pressure about the UNC buyout).

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What's the feeling that Harbaugh will be at Michigan in 2020? I think he'll be gone.....

Cayman said:

I don't think strength of schedule matters a great deal for a power 5 team trying to make the playoff, with the possible exception of the Big XII, where having no conference championship game means that their champion has one fewer win on their resume when the selection is made. (Never mind, apparently the Big XII does have a championship game now.) If Michigan goes 13-0 (undefeated regular season plus a conference championship win), they are going to make the playoff regardless of whether they played Virginia Tech or Arkansas State.

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It gives callers into finebaum something to complain about for 5 hours everyday.. “but pawl, then northern teams ain’t play nobody like our SEC boys!”

So yeah, it probably doesn’t make a difference.

BroncoRedux said:

What's the feeling that Harbaugh will be at Michigan in 2020? I think he'll be gone.....

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I think it depends on how successful he is. If he feels he is on the cusp of something, he sticks around.

Spoofin said:

We replaced UNC with TCU, and IIRC, we had a net profit on the switch. Why the UNC buyout is even still discussed is mind boggling.


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They replaced UNC with New Mexico State. They tried to sell it that UMN broke even because they paid UNC $800k, but NMSU paid the U $800k to play there that year. But then UMN paid them $800k to come here the following year, so they were still down the original $800k.

TCU came a year later. TCU was a net zero since it was home and home (both teams payed the other $1.2 million to travel or something like that).

The UNC buyout is still one of the most chicken S things this program has ever done. If it came about because of the change to a 9 game schedule or some other opportunity it would have been fine, but when it came because the U was scared to play a team on big time sanctions, it was pretty disgusting. Especially when it was the same time they were publicizing the mandatory donations.

Lakeville Goldy said:

They replaced UNC with New Mexico State. They tried to sell it that UMN broke even because they paid UNC $800k, but NMSU paid the U $800k to play there that year. But then UMN paid them $800k to come here the following year, so they were still down the original $800k.

TCU came a year later. TCU was a net zero since it was home and home (both teams payed the other $1.2 million to travel or something like that).

The UNC buyout is still one of the most chicken S things this program has ever done. If it came about because of the change to a 9 game schedule or some other opportunity it would have been fine, but when it came because the U was scared to play a team on big time sanctions, it was pretty disgusting. Especially when it was the same time they were publicizing the mandatory donations.

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Sorry but I agree with JK when he said there was absolutely nothing to be gained by playing UNC. Maybe his thinking was since they cheat in MBB, they also cheat football.

Spoofin said:

We replaced UNC with TCU, and IIRC, we had a net profit on the switch. Why the UNC buyout is even still discussed is mind boggling.


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It's this or anger over Target Field not having a roof! Take your pick. We need something to be angry about.

Pete smith said:

Sorry but I agree with JK when he said there was absolutely nothing to be gained by playing UNC. Maybe his thinking was since they cheat in MBB, they also cheat football.

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They did cheat in football and were on probation. That's why I really didn't get it. UNC was not going to be as good as they had been (they ended up 8-4 and 7-6 those years).

I think they might have gotten coverage on a real network for the road game instead of AggieVision.

I don't see how they had much to lose when they laid an egg vs. NMSU at the Bank anyway. The only way the move made sense is if they won both... the Gophers would have had a decent shot of beating UNC in 2013.

howeda7 said:

It's this or anger over Target Field not having a roof! Take your pick. We need something to be angry about.

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