Obviously don’t love the Virginia Tech matchup, but Beilein vs. Buzz Williams should help provide clarity to some board arguments right?
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Other matchups:
– Michigan State at Duke
– Syracuse at Wisconsin
– Purdue at Virginia
– Indiana at North Carolina
– Ohio State at Louisville
– Georgia Tech at Penn State
– Wake Forest at Northwestern
– Rutgers at Miami
– Minnesota at Florida State
– Nebraska at Clemson
– Pittsburgh at Maryland
– North Carolina State at Illinois
– Iowa at Notre Dame
Not the “name” matchup everyone wants but Buzz will have a pretty solid team next year. He won 10 ACC games last year (previously 4 seasons VaTech won 12 total).
They return everyone from last year’s team so it’s probably fair to expect this to be a pretty decent team.
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This probably means they will need to find another decent non conference opponent. As of now this schedule probably doesn’t look very different from last year. Not a team like Xavier on their schedule, maybe not even as good as SMU. Cinci is probably the best team of the bunch, maybe UCLA if they have a good year.
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Last year Michigan played two HM road games (NCSU and SMU), two HM neutral games (Texas and UConn) and 1 HM home game (Xavier).
This year they’ve got two HM road games (Cinci, UCLA), two HM neutral games (Pitt/SMU/Marquette) and one HM home game (Va Tech).
I’d guess that Cinci and UCLA will both be better than NCSU – i.e. top 100 teams – so that’s a start and the games in New York should equal what Michigan ended up with in Atlantis.
The difference being that last year’s schedule was supposed to have 6 HMs instead of 5, but Charlotte in the Bahamas happened. Seems like it would be great if they can add another home game against a HM.
Becomes a bit dicey though because next year you have a 3 game exempt tourney, home games against UCLA/Cinci/AF, potentially Gavitt Games on the road and Big Ten-ACC on the road.
They pick opponents based on how they see the 2016/2017 teams, not how they finished in 2015/2016.
But VaTech vs Michigan makes sense in that aspect, too.
Posted this in the comments on the main site… but also have to look at the home/road rotation. Most upper-tier ACC teams are at home this year it appears. Syracuse one of the best teams on the road and Michigan just played them.
It sucks from the perspective that OSU gets Louisville. Didn’t OSU go to Louisville 2 years ago in the challenge? It’s a shame that one thing holding Michigan back from playing Louisville was the home/away. Of course if Michigan had been able to get the UCLA game at home this year I wouldn’t have minded a 2nd straight year on the road for the challenge.
I wonder why Minnesota gets FSU. Minnesota was garbage last year and will probably be garbage this year but FSU brings in 5-star Jonathan Isaac and likely returns guys like Bacon and Rathan-Mayes. I was kinda hoping we’d get FSU (if we didn’t get Notre Dame) – yes they finished lower than VT last year but they should have more talent. Oh well. I’d still like to see another high major on the non-conference … or at least some tough mid-majors at home to test our mettle.
Home/road splits. Florida State was at Iowa last year.
Good to know. I’ve always found the ACC match ups a bit mystifying. Hopefully the team can earn a nice marquee matchup for next season.
It’s not the big name opponent we were hoping for but aside from the “want to see a marquee home game” perspective I think it’s a great matchup.
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That’s not always the overarching factor as Duke will be playing back to back home games, and 4 out of the past 5 have been home for them IIRC.
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Rules don’t apply to Duke.
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Yeah, seems like the rules apply to everyone but Duke 
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Yep I agree.
Purdue actually facing Louisville and Ohio State gets Virginia.
Date Matchup
Mon, Nov 28 Minnesota at Florida State
Wake Forest at Northwestern
Tues, Nov 29 No. 17 Syracuse at No. 9 Wisconsin
No. 13 Michigan State at No. 1 Duke
Pittsburgh at No. 14 Maryland
Iowa at Notre Dame
Georgia Tech at Penn State
NC State at Illinois
Wed, Nov 30 No. 16 Purdue at No. 5 Louisville
No. 6 North Carolina at No. 8 Indiana
Ohio State at No. 7 Virginia
Virginia Tech at Michigan
Rutgers at Miami
Nebraska at Clemson
What are these rankings from?
ESPN press release which cites this link I believe:
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Not that I expected us to get too much preseason rankings love, but that seems super high for a yogi-less Indiana team. Am I missing something about their incoming class? Obviously these lists can be taken with a grain of salt