The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS loved going to Notre Dame last year. They're going to love going to Ann Arbor — a lot of football has been played there and people have a lot of respect for Michigan as a program. "OU has had series with Alabama over the years, went to the Rose Bowl and played UCLA, and that has al- ways been part of Bob Stoops' phi- losophy — to have a marquee series every year. "They have Ohio State coming up, they go to Tennessee next year. I think OU fans just look at it as an oppor- tunity to enjoy a career road map of all these great places to watch games that you have been hearing about all your life." Michigan previously announced two-game series with Arkansas (2018- 19), Virginia Tech (2020-21) and UCLA (2022-23), playing the Razorbacks, Hokies and Bruins at home during the even-numbered years and return- ing the trip to their stadiums in the odd-numbered years. The Maize and Blue will travel to Norman, Okla., in 2025 while welcoming OU in 2026; there has been no announcement for a big-name opponent in 2024. Michigan's current structure of non- conference opponents will offset Big Ten campaigns in which the Wolver- ines will travel to Michigan State and Ohio State in the even-numbered sea- sons and will then host both rivals in odd-numbered years. With the Oklahoma series so far off in the distance, it's certainly pos- sible with the changing landscape of college football that OU could be a Pac-12 or SEC, or even Big Ten, foe by then. "People are joking about it, but who knows when the next expansion movement is going to happen, and if Oklahoma has the guts to separate themselves from Texas, and from Oklahoma State to some extent, the Big 12 folds then Oklahoma is maybe a part of the Big Ten or Pac-12 because ultimately [school president] David Boren would rather be aligned with a Stanford, a Cal, a Michigan," Murdock said. "He would rather be aligned with other universities based on aca- demics than athletics like the SEC." ANNOUNCED NON-CONFERENCE GAMES FOR 2015-26 Year Opponent 2015 at Utah Oregon State UNLV BYU 2016* Hawaii Central Florida Colorado 2017 vs. Florida (Arlington, Texas) Cincinnati Air Force 2018 Arkansas SMU 2019 at Arkansas 2020 Virginia Tech 2021 at Virginia Tech 2022 UCLA 2023 at UCLA 2025 at Oklahoma 2026 Oklahoma * The Big Ten will begin nine conference games with three non-conference contests.