Brady Hoke says Notre Dame is 'chickening out' of rivalry game with Michigan

The Notre Dame-Michigan football game is a storied rivalry. From Harry Oliver's 51-yarder to Desmond Howard's diving grab, the game has had plenty of epic memories. The Fighting Irish are one of Michigan's main rivals along with Michigan State and Ohio State. Too bad the rivalry will be put on hold from 2015-2017.

There was already a two year break scheduled for 2018-2019, so there will be at least a five year break in between games.

The reason, Notre Dame will be scheduling ACC teams in the future since their other sports teams will be a member of the conference.

Michigan coach Brady Hoke doesn't like the fact that the Irish won't be playing the Wolverines and went as far to say that the Irish are "chickening out" of their game with Michigan.

 "The Notre Dame game, that rivalry, which they're chickening out of," Hoke said Monday during the West Michigan Sports Commission Annual Luncheon at the J.W. Marriott in Grand Rapids.

The remark drew thunderous applause from the crowd.

"They're still gonna play Michigan State, they're gonna play Purdue, but they don't want to play Michigan," Hoke continued. "I don't know how they made that decision ... I really do ... But anyway, that's a great national rivalry game. It's a great game."  

I don't really care for Notre Dame but with conference realignment it just made the game more difficult to play. With a beefed up Big Ten schedule I would think Hoke might want to play a lesser team so his team can remain in the college football playoff chase.

The teams had been operating under a three-year rolling contract -- meaning, either program could cancel the series with three games' notice. Notre Dame served Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon with that notice in the moments leading up to kickoff of last year's game at Notre Dame Stadium.

Anyone that follows college sports knows Notre Dame is all about the money. That's why they have all their teams except football in the ACC so they can remain independent and keep all their television and bowl money to themselves. So now they can schedule the Dukes and the Wake Forests of the world and cancel out on Michigan. Michigan brings in more money than Purdue or Michigan State, but in my eyes I feel the Irish view those as more winnable games.