Michigan announces date changes to home-and-home series vs. Texas as part of SEC admittance deal

Michigan Football just announced some new home games to their future schedules. In a tweet on Tuesday morning, the team account announced four games across the 2024, 2026, and 2029 seasons, the highlight of which being a game against newly-minted SEC powerhouse Texas.

Here’s the info for the Texas game along with a few other non-conference home matchups that have been announced:

Sept. 7, 2024: Texas

Sept. 5, 2026: Western Michigan

Sept. 19, 2026: UTEP

Sept. 1, 2029: Western Michigan

So, a pair of battles against in-state foe Western Michigan and a visit from UTEP. Also, the Texas game is now in Ann Arbor in 2024 due to circumstances surrounding the Longhorns’ migration to the SEC. The teams were originally supposed to meet in Austin, but now it has been flipped: Michigan will host the first game of the home-and-home series in 2024, with Texas set to get a return game in 2027 now.

This isn’t the first time a big-time series has been messed with due to the Texas and Oklahoma moves to the SEC. The Sooners have had to cancel three different series in connection with their move. It’s a different situation for OU, though, because they had to call off games against LSU, Georgia and Tennessee — all of which are SEC schools the Sooners are set to face over the next few season regardless after they change conferences. But still, it means holes in their non-conference resume.

Both Oklahoma and Texas will have out-of-conference schedules the next few years that may be a bit wonky, since they’ve had to overhaul the way they schedule in general. Texas just had its series with Michigan switched up and Oklahoma has had three series cancelled. That’s just life in the age of conference realignment.

As for the other opponents, UTEP is one of the weaker Division I programs in the entire country. The Miners are 17-40 with just one bowl appearance under head coach Dana Dimel — and with results like that, it’s likely his time in El Paso comes to a close before the team ever makes the trip north.

The other opponent, Western Michigan, is a far more familiar foe, being much closer to Michigan while also having played the Wolverines a bit more often than UTEP. The Broncos are an above average smaller conference program who’ve consistently appeared in forgettable bowl games under head coach Tim Lester. Surely, fans who root for both schools will love to see them face off once again.