With all due respect to the folks who try to create the best game day experiences at college campuses across the country every Saturday, Michigan’s athletic department really isn’t doing itself any favors this weekend.
Ahead of an absolutely massive showdown between the Jim Harbaugh-less Wolverines and Ohio State on Saturday, Michigan unveiled its pregame schedule which included a flyover by a US Navy P-8 Poseidon.
The plane itself is nothing fancy to look at. It’s a retrofitted Boeing 737, so if you need a visual image, just look to the sky. There’s probably one flying 30,000 feet or so above you. It’s your basic passenger plane is what we’re saying.
But it’s what the military has retrofitted the plane for that makes the flyover of Michigan-Ohio State notable. Go ahead and guess how the P-8 is used.
Yep, it’s a spy plane.
The P-8A Poseidon is the U.S. Navy’s multi-mission maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft conducting long-range anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). P-8A Poseidon is the replacement aircraft for the P-3C Orion.
Of course it’s a spy plane!
Now, again, flyovers at college games are usually planned weeks, if not months, in advance. You don’t just call up your local military base and ask them to swing by on short notice.
Is there any possible way Michigan’s game day experience team knew the program would be embroiled in a sign-stealing scandal when they booked a P-8 for The Game? Probably not. I mean, if they did, that’s just over-the-top trolling you almost have to applaud.
Almost being the key word. And college fans nearly respected the effort.