BYU and Michigan announce 2015 game

The Brigham Young Cougars and the Michigan Wolverines have scheduled a game in Ann Arbor for September 26, 2015.


The complete press release from BYU can be read here. 

This will be just the second meeting between the two schools. The first meeting was in the 1984 Holiday Bowl. BYU was undefeated and ranked number one in the nation. With the National Championship on the line, BYU beat Michigan, 24-17.

That means, this will be the first time BYU has played in The Big House—Michigan’s 109,901 seat stadium. BYU has only played in front of 100,000 fans one other time: at Texas, September 10, 2011. The attendance that day was 100,995.

While BYU has not played Michigan recently, the Cougars did play against San Diego State both years that Michigan head coach Brady Hoke was the Aztecs head coach. BYU won both games: 38-28 in 2009, and 24-21 in 2010.

Michigan has made several scheduling headlines during 2012. In late June, the Wolverines announced a two game series with Utah, which has been labeled the reason Utah would not schedule BYU in 2014 and 2015. More recently, Michigan was on the other side of a severed rivalry when Notre Dame announced it would not play Michigan in order to accommodate its new scheduling agreement with the ACC to play five teams from that conference every year.

Michigan started playing football more than 40 years before BYU did. However, the two schools have had players win some prestigious awards around the same time. Ty Detmer won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 playing for BYU. The next year Desmond Howard won the award while playing for Michigan. Luke Staley won the Doak Walker Award as a Cougar in 2001, while Chris Perry won the same award just two years later as a Wolverine.

In 2010, some rumors were swirling that BYU and Michigan were in talks to schedule a game. Rich Rodriguez was Michigan's head coach at the time. He denied those rumors in one of his weekly press conferences.

The Editor appreciates all feedback. He can be reached via email at bluecougarfootball@gmail.com

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