It's official! Michigan in 2010

Before we talk about the Wolverines, FYI this is the 2,500th post here at the UMass football blog.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The UMass Athletic Dept story here .

The Michigan Athletic Dept notice here.

Springfield Republican here .

Nearly all the various newspaper articles just copy the schools press releases, except of course for Matty Vautour, who has a number of details.

According to Matty's story, future UMass I-A opponents look like this:

• 2010 Michigan
• 2011 Boston College
  
• 2012 UConn (in negotiation stage)
• 2013 Syracuse (in negotiation stage)

Returning to Michigan, this article explains the Wolverines scheduling dilemma. Relevant quote:

"The opportunity to have both schools play for a one-year guarantee with no return trip makes it appealing for Michigan, which has been reluctant to schedule home-and-home series because that would mean a one less revenue-producing game in Ann Arbor in the road year of a contract. That is also a reason U-M has hesitated on scheduling neutral-site games."

Michigan makes so much money on home games they would play all 11 games in Michigan Stadium if they could. Nearly all I-A teams want a home-and-home contract. That's not a good deal for Michigan as they have to pay a higher guarantee to a FBS team and loose a highly lucrative home date to boot. Playing FCS/I-AA teams counts towards bowl eligibility, so playing UMass is both a financial and on-the-field win for the Wolverines in 2010.

UMass could do alright on the game also. The Minutemen get a $550,000 guarantee and 5,000 tickets. I paid $40/seat in Texas Tech. If UMass could sell a couple thousand of those seats at Michigan prices to current fans and Mid-west alums, it should push UMass' take past the $600,000 mark.