Two years ago, the Texas Longhorns traveled to Ann Arbor and beat Michigan 31-12 in the first game of a home-and-home series. The back half of the series is scheduled for next season when Wolverines to travel to Austin on Sept. 11, 2027. But now, Michigan has scheduled another team on that date. What is going on?
Michigan and Eastern Michigan are also scheduled to meet on Sept. 18, 2027 at Michigan Stadium. But the two schools have agreed to move that game up a week to Sept. 11, the same day the Wolverines are scheduled to play Texas.
As part of the revised agreement, Michigan will pay Eastern Michigan an additional $50,000, increasing the total guarantee to $1.55 million. If Big Blue cancels the Texas game, the contract carries a $2 million cancellation
fee unless both schools agree to void the game.
According to Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, the two schools are still planning to fulfill the home-and-home.
"I think the date might be changed," Sarkisian said. "I know we're playing Michigan. I just don't know exactly when."
Last weekend, there were a handful of college football games played in what is known as "Week 0." The weekend is open to anyone playing an international game, like TCU vs. North Carolina in Ireland, and anyone playing an away game at Hawaii. The NCAA can also provide a waiver for games, like it did this year for NC State vs. Virginia.
This year's Week 0 featured eight games. But that is going away.
"I think what you all need to understand is they changed our calendar for next year so everybody's playing Week 0 so some of the dates of those games are getting moved around," Sark said this week.
The FBS Oversight Committee approved legislation last Friday that will move the calendar up one week so that all teams begin during the week that has previously served as Week 0. The move gives college football an extra full week in the spotlight before the NFL regular season begins.
The handful of games played during this year's Week 0 generated strong ratings for the networks that carried the matchups. With all teams playing on that weekend next year, the networks will want to make sure there are a few marquee matchups to gain, what could be, record audiences.
And that is probably why the Wolverines made the scheduling switch. It is a good bet Michigan will travel to Austin the first week of the season, on what used to be Week 0. ESPN will have the rights to the game and may have influence the switch for both blue blood programs.
Stay tuned, there could be more changes to the 2027 Texas schedule as a result of this college football wide switch.
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This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Michigan schedules game that conflicts 2027 visit to Longhorns, why?
