Urban Meyer Rips Michigan's Soft Schedule
What a non-conference meatgrinder it was for the Michigan Wolverines to open the 2023 season.
There was that game everyone will forget where the Wolverines battled it out with East Carolina. Then came that game journalists will be writing about 20 years from now against UNLV. And who can possibly forget that game where Heisman candidate quarterback J.J. McCarthy threw three interceptions against Bowling Green and remained high on the Heisman list?
Former Ohio State head coach and Fox Sports analyst Urban Meyer took notice of that who's who of non-conference opponents and decided this week was a good time to speak out about the state of college football scheduling and Michigan's clear plan to cupcake its way through the non-conference schedule to give the Wolverines the best chance possible to make the college football playoffs.
Speaking on Wednesday's episode of "Urban's Take with Tim May," Meyer addressed the state of scheduling, including Ohio State and Notre Dame being willing to do a home-and-home while Michigan has gone the opposite direction.
“When I was at Notre Dame, I remember — because our schedule was brutal — and I remember asking…’how do you decide who to play?’ And they say, ok, historically, you play the best teams from out west," Meyer told May.
"You play the down south, southwest, east and the Midwest. So you look historically who they played — I remember, one time and they were talking about playing a Mid-America school and the administration and alumni said there’s no way we’ll do that. We’re never gonna play a lesser opponent. We’re Notre Dame. Now, you look at their schedule and you’re like, wait a minute, they’re playing all kinds of teams. They’re playing Tennessee State the other day. That would have never, ever happened.”
But now, with all emphasis on making the college football playoffs, teams have figured out that they can still make a bunch of TV money and construct a cupcake schedule that won't penalize the school financially. The fans ultimately pay the price with games that aren't worth their time.
“Then the other thing is now you’re in a 12-game playoff starting next year and I think these games are going to go away and I’m scared about that,” Meyer continued.
“Look at the team up in Ann Arbor. You shouldn’t be allowed to play that schedule. Georgia is playing a schedule that, at the end of the day, you’re supposed to be penalized for that, and they’re not.
"So why would Ohio State play this game? Well, because it’s the right thing to do, it’s for the fans, it’s for the good of the game. It’s for everybody.”
“But what if they lose?,” Meyer asked. “They might be out of the playoff because they made that decision. You saw Oregon do that a couple of years ago.
"Oregon lost, I think one or two games they lost. They played Auburn in the South somewhere and I remember discussing that on Big Noon and they got left out of the playoff and then you had other teams playing three much lesser opponents that made the playoff. I’m really disappointed.
"You’re talking about the Wolverines used to play Notre Dame all the time. They’re not. And you know why — you can say whatever you want — because they don’t want the potential of that loss to hurt them for a playoff.”
Michigan's non-conference schedule:
2022 -- Colorado State, Hawaii, UConn
2021 -- Western Michigan, Washington, Northern Illinois
2020 -- Washington, Ball State, Arkansas State (before COVID)
2019 -- Middle Tennessee State, Army, Notre Dame
Michigan's future schedule:
2024: Fresno State, Texas, Arkansas State
Michigan hasn't played a ranked non-conference regular-season road game since September 2018 when it lost to Notre Dame 24-17. The last time Michigan won a road game against a ranked non-conference opponent came back on September 2, 2017 when it beat Florida at AT&T Stadium.