Non conference schedule question

It seems like something is wrong with our non conference schedule. How come we only have 12 games? Every other big ten school has 13 except for Nebraska. If this is on purpose because of some unknown rule, why is one of these 12 games against D2 Hillsdale, therefore not counting in the eyes of the NCAA committee?! We basically ended non conference 6-5 instead of possibly 8-5. With our weakest, least-experienced team in the past 4 years or so, this seems like a major shot in the foot schedule-wise as far as possible post season options go. Am I missing something?

Good question. I don’t know the exact rule, I assume it has something to do with exempt games. There are good and bad sides of playing a team like Hillsdale. The good side is that it doesn’t actually hurt the RPI (as a win over a 300+ type team does), but the bad side is that it doesn’t move the needle on your overall record officially.

Michigan played 12 non-conf games last year, 13 in 2013 and 12 in 2012. Not sure what to make of it.

Thanks for the response. I kind of figure (hope) some rule is the reason we’d pass up a 13th game if we were permitted. I guess at this point I wondered why on earth if that’s the case we would then ALSO schedule Hillsdale in the same season. For a team that looks to be grasping for every last win if they can go on a run in big ten season, it seems we’ve screwed up on something in our control in this particular case. Maybe with recent success no one was thinking this closely?