The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/382426
"They have perspective in this, too. We all lay out our demands — and believe me, I had more — and put them in a priority order. The Big Ten Conference has to go somewhere in a room and figure it all out and start jamming all this data into a computer to find out what's possible. "There are other scheduling rules we've agreed upon. You can't play more than two conference games in a row without going on the road. You can't be on the road for more than two games without being at home. There are certain blackout dates for a lot of stadiums, where they can't host a game, so you have to work around that. "We have rules about when the bye dates fall. You have two bye dates, and you might want one in the first half and one in the second half, so you don't have two in a row. We have to play every team in our division, then we have to have our cross-over game. You have to run the algorithms that figure out how all that happens. "They load all that into a computer, and at some point in time they have to produce a schedule. It's easy for me to show how upset I am that we have to go to Michigan State two years in a row, or that we're now scheduled in such a way that Ohio State and Michi- gan State are in the same rhythm, in terms of home and away. "But I can tell you, as you go around the table, each one of those athletic directors have similar issues about when and how they play their rivals, if they're playing their rivals, how many times they have to go years in a row to play somebody. Minnesota is coming here two years in a row, and I don't think they love that. Indiana is coming here two years in a row, and I don't think they love that. "Everybody is sitting around the ta- ble and has to make a certain amount of concessions out of respect for the fact that at some point in time, you've got to come up with a schedule. "We're a part of a conference, and there are 13 other institutions, and they also have a voice." The Wolverine: Is men's basketball all you hoped it would be when you were defending Beilein so staunchly? Brandon: "John was building a pro- gram. It was very obvious the way he was approaching it. We had to get the facilities right. We had to get his coaching staff where he wanted it to be. We had to get a pipeline of VALUE $104,000,000 The value of the Michigan football program in 2013 according to Forbes magazine. U-M ranked fifth nation- ally. $14,200,000 The value of the Michigan men's basketball program in 2014 accord- ing to Forbes magazine. U-M ranked 14th nationally. $685,500,000 The value of the Michigan football program in 2013 according to the Wall Street Journal. U-M ranked third nationally.