Michigan Wolverines Football: Kickoff Times Set with Alabama and Ohio State

Michigan's football schedule continues to come into clearer focus as the 2012 season creeps closer and closer, and today the school announced the kickoff times for its first game of the season against Alabama and the regular-season finale against Ohio State.

As per usual, Michigan-Ohio State will kick off at noon Eastern Time on November 24. The annual rivalry typically takes up the early slot on a Thanksgiving Saturday that's usually filled with marquee games, and in keeping with tradition (as well as common sense), the game will be on ABC. No surprises there, but it's official now.

Similarly, in the season opener September 1 at Cowboy Stadium, Michigan and Alabama will face off at 8:00 p.m. Eastern (7:00 p.m. local time in Dallas). The annual games at Cowboy Stadium have all been on prime time, so while the kickoff hadn't been announced until today, the general thinking was that it, too, would come late. And so it does.

This makes three night games for the Wolverines, and wideout Roy Roundtree noticed a pattern in all three today:

He'd better be right about the fun part; as it stands right now, 'Bama's favored by about two touchdowns, and that is usually not a fun time.

This makes six Michigan games with listed kickoff times now, and as Roundtree mentioned, three are at night—the Alabama game and trips to Nebraska and Notre Dame. Michigan also has a 3:30 p.m. game at Purdue on October 6, followed by a 4:00 p.m. kickoff against Illinois at home October 13.