Michigan Football: Postponing Notre Dame and More Highlights of Future Schedule

Michigan released plenty of offseason scheduling information today, and with that, we'd like everyone who's going to be on every one of Michigan's non-conference schedules to step forward.

Whoa whoa whoa, not so fast, Notre Dame.

According to Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com, Michigan plans to postpone the Notre Dame rivalry for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, marking the first time since 2001 that the two teams won't meet in the regular season.

It should be pointed out that for all the wonderful history the two programs have built between each other, it's all remarkably recent; before 1978, Michigan and Notre Dame had met on the gridiron only eight times, and the only two times between 1977 and 1909 that the teams played each other were during World War II, when scheduling was all wonky for everyone.

So yes: This rivalry may feel old, but as a full-time rivalry, it's really pretty young, as college football goes.

Michigan announced plenty more games, too, per Rothstein, and there is a considerable Pac-12 influence to the slate as the Big Ten and Pac-12 ramp up to their official conference partnership in 2017:

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Michigan also announced that it would play three Pac-12 opponents from 2014-16: Utah, Colorado and Oregon State. The Utes will come to Ann Arbor in 2014 and host Michigan in 2015, while Colorado visits the Big House in 2016. The Wolverines will also host Oregon State in 2015.

Other future nonconference games include Appalachian State (2014), Miami of Ohio (2014) and UNLV (2015).

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As Ted Miller of ESPN.com notes, the 2015 Utah game will be on Thursday, September 3, 2015, marking the first time Michigan has ever played a regular-season game on a Thursday.

Looking at the entire non-conference slates, if a lot of those names look a little familiar, they should. The Just Cover Blog Twitter feed figured out something a little interesting about an undercurrent through the list of teams:

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Brandon creating revenge tour with Appy St, Utah & now CU on 20th ann of Hail Mary. We'll schedule USC, but only if Charles White plays

— jamie mac (@justcoverblog) June 27, 2012"

Now, if that's Dave Brandon's actual intention, it's brilliant, but he'd better hope that Michigan actually wins all those games, because there's nothing worse than seeking revenge for a heartbreaking loss than going out there and coming home empty-handed and doubly embarrassed.

That embarrassment's probably not happening at Appalachian State's hands, and the loss to Utah isn't exactly something that keeps Michigan fans up at night, especially since Utah finished 13-0 that year while Michigan went 3-9 with David Cone and Steven Threet bumbling their way through a Rich Rodriguez offense. If anything, losing by two was its own miracle.

But this?

This, Michigan will need a matter of revenge for. Also, Michigan fans, you should not have clicked on that. Sorry for the after-spoiler.