Urban Meyer critical of Michigan, Georgia scheduling, fears it will become the norm

It is less than a five-hour drive to travel between Notre Dame and Ohio State. But during his tenure coaching the Buckeyes, Urban Meyer only played the Fighting Irish once.

That was the 2016 Fiesta Bowl.

The teams are facing off in the regular season this weekend for the second time in two seasons. But it will be only the sixth time the two teams have ever faced off in the regular season.

When asked by Tim May on Wednesday’s episode of Urban’s Take with Tim May if it’s shame they haven’t scheduled each other more often, Meyer said it was.

“I think it is,” Meyer said. “When I was at Notre Dame, I remember — because our schedule was brutal — and I remember asking…’how do you decide who to play?’ And they say, ok, historically, you play the best teams from out west. You play the down south, southwest, east and the Midwest. So you look historically who they played — I remember, one time and they were talking about playing a Mid-America school and the administration and alumni said there’s no way we’ll do that. We’re never gonna play a lesser opponent. We’re Notre Dame. Now, you look at their schedule and you’re like, wait a minute, they’re playing all kinds of teams. They’re playing Tennessee State the other day. That would have never, ever happened.”

Notre Dame and Ohio State previously played two home-and-home series prior to last year. The first series saw Ohio State host in 1935 and Notre Dame host in 1936. The second series saw the same pattern in 1995 and 1996.

But Meyer is nervous that game’s of this magnitude might be going away in the future. Meyer pointed to two programs in Georgia and Michigan that have elected to construct easy non-conference schedules.

“Then the other thing is now you’re in a 12-game playoff starting next year and I think these games are going to go away and I’m scared about that,” Meyer said. “Look at the team up in Ann Arbor. You shouldn’t be allowed to play that schedule. Georgia is playing a schedule that, at the end of the day, you’re supposed to be penalized for that, and they’re not. So why would Ohio State play this game? Well, because it’s the right thing to do, it’s for the fans, it’s for the good of the game. It’s for everybody.”

It should be noted that the Bulldogs do play Georgia Tech every season, and was scheduled to play Oklahoma this year but that game was canceled due to the impending move of the Sooners to the SEC.

Meyer’s point on schedules is still a valid one. With so much emphasis on the playoff in modern college football, non-conference matchups between bluebloods might be going to the wayside.

“But what if they lose?,” Meyer said. “They might be out of the playoff because they made that decision. You saw Oregon do that a couple of years ago. Oregon lost, I think one or two games they lost. They played Auburn in the South somewhere and I remember discussing that on Big Noon and they got left out of the playoff and then you had other teams playing three much lesser opponents that made the playoff. I’m really disappointed. You’re talking about the Wolverines used to play Notre Dame all the time. They’re not. And you know why — you can say whatever you want — because they don’t want the potential of that loss to hurt them for a playoff.”