Michigan Football: Brutal Schedule Will Doom Wolverines' BCS Hopes

More hope surrounds the Michigan football team this year than at any time in recent memory, as the team enters the 2012 season fresh off of a Sugar Bowl victory with a top-10 preseason ranking and 13 returning starters, including star quarterback Denard Robinson.

However, the schedule makers certainly haven't made it any easier for the Wolverines to make a return trip to a BCS bowl game this year, and Michigan's brutal schedule seems more likely to leave it headed for a date in the Outback Bowl or another one of those games that no one really cares about.

The buzz saw doesn't take long to get rolling, as the Wolverines' first tilt of the season is against none other than the defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide. While they may call Cowboys Stadium a "neutral site," there will undoubtedly be a lot more red in the stands than blue.

If by some chance the Wolverines are able to knock off Alabama, the team then travels home to face an Air Force team that won seven games a season ago. Michigan should be able to handle the Falcons at home, but the Wolverines are apt to be a bit beaten up by their battle with Alabama, and contests with the service academies can be tricky.

After that, the Wolverines finally get some delicious cupcake action with a visit from the Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts, but after that, it's right back into the fire with a trip to South Bend to face the Fighting Irish.

Granted, Notre Dame is nowhere near the team it once was, but in rivalries that go back as far as this one does, nothing pleases the underdogs more than playing spoiler—and you can bet that the more national press the Wolverines receive, the more motivated the Golden Domers will be to rain on their parade.

Realistically speaking, Michigan will probably be 3-1 when Big Ten plays begins, which means that its national championship dreams will already be in trouble.

The Wolverines' conference title hopes would seem to be in much better shape, however, as most of Michigan's Big Ten games against upper-echelon opponents occur in the friendly confines of the Big House, except for an October trip to Lincoln to face Nebraska and that pesky last game of the regular season.

On November 24th, the Wolverines will travel south to face Ohio State in Columbus in what will be, for all intents and purposes, the Buckeyes' bowl game. Ohio State will have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by downing Michigan at the Horseshoe, and the storied history of "The Game" is littered with instances of one team spoiling the season of the other with an upset.

(As a Buckeyes fan, I know this all too well, and the 1995 and 1996 games are still sore spots.)

Even if the Wolverines emerge victorious in Columbus, there would still be the none-too-small matter of a Big Ten Championship Game standing between Michigan and a trip to a BCS bowl. That game would likely come against Wisconsin, who appears to clearly be the class of the Leaders Division this season, although a lot can happen between now and December.

It may be hard for Michigan supporters to believe this from an Ohio State fan, but I'm glad to see the Wolverines returning to their rightful spot among college football's elite. It's good for the Big Ten, it's good for the rivalry with Ohio State, and it's good for college football as a whole.

That said, I think Michigan fans are going to be disappointed by the results that the 2012 Wolverines generate, even if it's through no fault of the team itself, as a grueling schedule may have more to do with Michigan sitting on the outside of the BCS looking in at season's end than anything.