Will the Notre Dame vs Michigan Rivalry Be Missed?

    The Notre Dame-Michigan rivalry is a perfect example of what money and short term memory do to sports. If you think about when Notre Dame and Michigan have played, you automatically think that the rivalry is one of those that has been played every year since, forever, and has always featured close, competitive games.  I mean, Michigan has the most wins of any other program, and Notre Dame is No. 4 on that same list. This should be one of the all time greatest rivalries. But the thing is, it isn't. Here's the shortened version of the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry:
1887-1909: Michigan and Notre Dame play 9 times, Michigan wins 8 games.
1942-43: They play both of these, each team winning once.
     This takes us to 1977.  At this time in history, Michigan and Notre Dame have played 11 times, and only twice in the last 50 years.  This is not the picture of a rivalry, but instead of two teams in the same basic geographic region that decide to play each other occasionally.  Nothing to see here.
But that would not be the case for long.  In the late '70s, Michigan athletic director Don Canham wanted to sell more season tickets, so he decided to add a premier opponent to the non-conference schedule.  The idea of Michigan playing Notre Dame though was very far-fetched.  When asked about the possibility of playing the Fighting Irish, Canham said "Our Catholic students will be sitting in Michigan Stadium cheering for the Irish, and I do not want that to happen".  Even though the teams played back in the days of legendary coaches like Fielding Yost and Knute Rockne, Canham went first to Alabama and Bear Bryant to see if he could start a series with them, but Bryant didn't want his team to travel that far north.  Next, Canham talked to (then independent) Penn State about a series.  After that backfired, Notre Dame posed the possibility of a series to Canham, who agreed under some set circumstances: each team would get to keep 100% of the ticket money for the series.  Both sides agreed, and this set a precedent for non-conference scheduling: pay for a team to come play you, and you keep all of the ticket money.  Michigan started to bring in over $2 Million in ticket money, just from the Notre Dame game.  This series changed the scheduling in college football. The teams played 25 times in a 37 year period, which is not bad at all.  A bit of a rivalry began to build.

      Neither team will ever have the other as their main rival, which slightly diminishes the importance of the game: Michigan has Ohio State and Michigan State, and Notre Dame has USC, and in the '80s and '90s had Miami.  And this takes us to 2008.  Over the 37 years previous, the game had always had an edge, maybe some mistrust, but it never really was a rivalry. Here is what has happened the last 5 times these teams have played:
2008: Enter: Rich Rodriguez, new coach, Michigan. Notre Dame forces 6 turnovers in a taunting victory over Michigan.
2009: Michigan engineers a last second drive to beat Notre Dame by 4.  This is starting to heat up.
2010: Enter: Brian Kelly, new coach, Notre Dame.  Michigan once again scores a touchdown in the last minute to beat the Irish by 4.
2011: Enter: Brady Hoke, new coach, Michigan.  First night game in Michigan Stadium history, College Gameday, ESPN, special uniforms, and a 21 point comeback by Michigan, topped off by the game winning touchdown with 8 seconds left.
2012: Notre Dame wins by 7 by scoring a go-ahead touchdown with just minutes to play.

     Now, THAT is a rivalry, folks.  A classic rivalry, no. But this sure does make it seem like it.  Those are 5 of the best games you will ever see, and we are hoping for more of the same this weekend, which takes us to today.  At the game last year, a letter was slipped to the Michigan AD on the sideline that said Notre Dame was ending the series with Michigan. The 2014 game next year will be the last of the series for as far as we know.  Here is what Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly had to say on the matter: "I don't see the game as one of those historic Notre Dame rivalries".
     And he is 100% correct.  It is more recent than the other teams it has history with.  But the question is, will this rivalry be missed more than others would have been? My answer is yes.  The Michigan-Notre Dame game had begun to turn heads throughout the nation to this game.  I live in "SEC Country" and even people down here talk about this game.  It's gotten to be a BIG DEAL! All the alternate jerseys, night games, and trick plays are brought out for this game. It will truly be missed.  But don't take it from me, take it from the Notre Dame fan-base themselves!
I polled about 20 people I know that call themselves Notre Dame fans, and asked them the following question: "If you were to take the following list of teams, and rank them, #1 being the biggest rival Notre Dame has, and #7 being the weakest rival, what would your ranking of these teams be: USC, Indiana, Michigan State, Stanford, Navy, Michigan, and Purdue."
I have made a table where I averaged the scores that everyone gave for those teams (with lowest being the best):

Rank	School	Score
1	USC	1.25
2	Michigan	2.13
3	MSU	3.75
4	Stanford	4
5	Navy	4.75
6	Purdue	5.13
7	Indiana	7

     As you can see, USC and Michigan are the clear 1 and 2 rivalries.  Michigan State and Stanford are about tied at 3-4, and Navy and Purdue at 5-6. No love for Indiana, at all.  Maybe these results would have been different 5 years ago, but now, this is the second most important rivalry that Notre Dame has, by a long shot. And as for Michigan, Ohio State will always be number 1, but as former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson said "Notre Dame is our number 2, while Michigan State is our number 3".  So there you have it, both sides of the rivalry, and both sides think that this is an important enough to become the second-most important game, which, with these teams and their schedules, is pretty impressive.
     But it's what Notre Dame has done with the rest of the schedule that has many fans upset.  They have entered a contract with the ACC where they play 5 games a year against ACC teams.  They decided to retain the USC rivalry along with... Michigan State, Purdue, and Navy. Um, what? I can tell you that both fan bases would much rather see Michigan on that schedule. Michigan head coach Brady Hoke had a similar reaction to this, and even said Notre Dame was "chickening out of the rivalry".
      Whatever your opinion, I just want you to know that I, and much of the college football world, want this rivalry to happen.  Though it might not be the most traditional or historical for either team, it has become an annual game that is marked on the calender, prepared for months in advance, and talked about for weeks.  So just keep in mind when you watch Michigan and Notre Dame kick it off this weekend: this is one of the last times you will see a game played between these two great traditional football powers. The college game has lost one of its best rivalries, so enjoy it while you can. 'Til next time.

Should Michigan and Notre Dame Continue Their Rivalry?