Football:

• Miller is moving to Michigan this week — The Wolverine — Miller, who had originally planned to attend Ann Arbor Huron, will come play for the good guys at Ann Arbor Pioneer (I’m biased here, as a proud Pioneer alum). This sets up a very interesting matchup in week one between Miller’s Pioneers and Devin Gardner’s Inkster squad.
• U-M’s Stevie Brown out to prove himself — whatever the position — Detroit News — For the first time in his career, there isn’t a ton of hype around Brown coming out of Spring ball. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles playing the safety/linebacker hybrid spot.
• Hard to get excited about UConn for University of Michigan’s 2010 season opener — AnnArbor.com — I haven’t thrown my two cents in on this, so here goes: I have no idea why it took the athletic department this long to get around to scheduling an opponent, and given the lack of options (almost every BCS team had their schedule set) it’s tough to complain about playing UConn. No, I’m not really excited about it, but you play the hand you’re dealt, and Michigan didn’t have a lot of choices at the time they tried to schedule the game.
• Big Ten Media Days, The Take Away on Michigan Football: Part V — Rich Rodriguez — Maize n Brew — No wonder it took so long for Dave to put this one together — he churns out a TON of content from RichRod’s appearance at the Big Ten Media Days. I can’t even begin to summarize, so just head over and enjoy.

Basketball:

• Michigan basketball to play Creighton in first round of Old Spice Classic — AnnArbor.com — Again with the headlines. Further details: Michigan will play the winner/loser of the Xavier-Marquette game. Creighton should be a tough matchup, with the Jays returning seven of their top eight scorers from a team that went 27-8 in 2008-09.
• Dick Vitale: Preseason Top 40 — ESPN.com — Dickie V has Michigan at No. 11 in his preseason rankings. I’m getting a little worried about all the hype … Michigan basketball has trained me to prepare myself for a letdown far in advance. However, I trust John Beilein to both handle the hype and live up to it.

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• Michigan Basketball: Bump in the Road, or Nosedive?

No, not that we're making a good bowl yet.

Big Ten Media Day is on in full force, and Ruth Lincoln over at the Michigan Daily is reporting some good news. Rich Rodriguez stated in his press conference that Michigan will open the 2010 season against a BCS team, the first of a home-and-home series:

The 2010 home opener will be a “BCS home and home” Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez confirmed today at Big Ten Football Media Day. Rodriguez said contracts are still in the works, but there should be an announcement in the coming weeks.

The game will be a bold move by an Athletic Department which has received significant criticism in recent years for padding nonconference schedules with non-BCS opponents.

The Detroit News reported in April that Massachusetts (a Division-1AA school) was an option for the 2010 home opener. Massachusetts was later announced as a 2010 opponent, but not the opener.

As a fan and student who has complained about paying for matchups against Delaware State, Eastern Michigan, and the like, this is tremendous news. Bill Martin sacrificed some cash (in all likelihood locking Michigan into seven home games for both 2010 and 2011) to ensure that Michigan would open up the renovated Michigan Stadium with a good game. My early guess for the opponent is Virginia (with Pitt, Duke, and Oregon State all possibilities, as Adam Rittenberg’s article suggests).

In other media day news, Ohio State was picked by the media to finish first in the conference, followed by Penn State and Michigan State. Terrelle Pryor is your preseason offensive player of the year, with MSU linebacker Greg Jones tabbed on the defensive side of the ball. Personally, I would have gone with Penn State’s Darryl Clark and our own Brandon Graham, but my Michigan bias and Ohio State hatred really are hard to stifle.

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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:

[mp3_embed blog_plyrs="2"]

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.