M vs. UMass

I read that Michigan will play UMass to open the 2010 Football season. WTKA is blaming this on the 20 year ND contract. Well, USC also plays ND every year and they don't play a 1-AA school. MSU plays ND every year and to my knowledge they don't play a 1-AA school. I completely understand that the football program pays for the majority of the athletic department, and I'm aware that there are no gimme games anymore, but I would hope M can schedule better.

I would guess part of the "problem" is other teams are in the same boat - they don't want to play M in a home-and-home none the less a 2 for 1. They want to play a cupcake too. I would really like the NCAA to outlaw 1-AA games or come up with some sort of punishment that makes it essentially prohibitive (counts as a loss in the BCS standings etc.).

I would think M recruiting could benefit from away games to areas of interest. Playing as home and home or 2-1 with South Florida, UCF or any of those "directional" Florida schools could help that pipeline. How about something with Baylor, UTEP, Houston SMU etc.

I miss the Pac Ten match ups that we used to get with Washington or UCLA. I would love the Big1T1en to have something like they have in basketball with the Big Ten - ACC challenge.

BigTen - SEC challenge: using last year as an example we'd have:

PSU @ Florida
Alabama @ OSU
MSU @ Georgia
Ole Miss @ Iowa
Northwestern @ Vandy
So Carolina @ Minnesota
Wisconsin @ LSU
Tennessee @ Illinois
Purdue @ Kentucky
Auburn @ Michigan
Indiana @ Arkansas