Coming soon to a Big House near you? (Photo courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library)

Ryan Kartje of the Michigan Daily, writing on the Daily’s The Game blog, digs up an intriguing rumor about a possible Michigan-Georgia home-and-home series in 2010 and 2011. His sources are saying that the athletic department is looking into hosting Georgia for the 2010 opener, which would be the first game in completely-renovated Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines would then travel to Athens in 2011 for the second part of the home-and-home.

I cannot possibly express how awesome this would be. Scheduling a marquee SEC opponent brings a ton of positive attention to a program that needs some good press, and I’m sick of seeing us schedule Notre Dame and three patsies for every non-conference slate. Playing Georgia would also provide a great measuring stick as to how far the program has progressed under Rich Rodriguez — a victory over the Bulldogs would signal to the college football world that Michigan is back.

Bill Martin, please make this happen. I’ll make sure I take an extra semester at Michigan just so I can get tickets to this game. Prove to your school that you are willing to bring in top-flight opponents. Give the program good national exposure. Just do it.

And now, because Georgia will, until this rumor has passed, be on my mind:

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For the historically inclined: Michigan has played Georgia twice, beating them 26-0 in 1957 and losing 15-7 in the disastrous 1965 season (preseason #4 U-M finished 4-6, 2-5 Big Ten).

EDIT: Brian over at MGoBlog takes this rumor apart, noting that Georgia has no open date in 2011, has Louisiana-Lafayette scheduled for the opener in 2010, and would have to move that game and be willing to play three tough nonconference road games (@Colorado, @Georgia Tech) and cancel a 2011 game to make this work. In other words, this isn’t happening. Damn.