Michigan hosts Western Michigan at Michigan Stadium.
A short trip east from Kalamazoo, and the kind of September opener that fills the Big House without troubling it. Western Michigan is a MAC programme with real moments in its past — an unbeaten regular season in 2016 among them — and in-state games like this are how a Michigan year warms up.
1201 S Main St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 · Open in Google Maps
Getting there. The lots ringing the stadium are permit-only on game days. What is left for everybody else — the golf course, the lots across Main Street, and driveways sold for cash along the residential streets — opens a few hours before kickoff and fills early. Park farther out than feels necessary: a mile on foot beats forty minutes in the exit queue, and everyone who has done this twice already knows it.
What to bring. Michigan Stadium is a clear-bag venue, so a clear plastic bag or a small clutch. Tickets live on your phone, so bring a charged one and screenshot them before you lose signal in a crowd of a hundred thousand. No outside food or drink.
Dress for the month, not the season. A noon kickoff in September bakes — the bowl holds heat and there is no shade anywhere in it, so sunscreen and water once you're through the gate. By November it is the other problem entirely: layers, and something that keeps rain out.
Parking, prices and the gate policy are set fresh each season. mgoblue.com carries this year's map and what you may bring through the gate; it is worth two minutes the week of the game.