ANN ARBOR -- There will be no football under the lights in 2015, in Ann Arbor at least.

The Michigan football program announced Thursday that it will not be hosting a home football night game next season. The team will play three road night games (at Utah, at Maryland, at Minnesota), but will not host a game under the lights at Michigan Stadium.

Interim Michigan athletic director Jim Hackett explained earlier this winter how he expected to host a night game this year, and said he expects to possibly have multiple night games on the schedule at home in the future -- but as time went on, his tune began to change.

Hackett explained how it became somewhat difficult to find the right spot for a nighttime contest at Michigan Stadium. He didn't want the home-opener against Oregon State to be at night. He didn't want to host Ohio State at night in late November either.

And, when it came to possibly hosting Michigan State in prime time, Hackett expressed concerns over overall safety due to what's usually an abnormally large turnout -- with East Lansing and Ann Arbor sitting roughly 70 miles apart.

Moving forward, though, Hackett is not ruling out the possibility of potentially playing MSU at night in Ann Arbor.

"I think, in our future, who can be in and out of consideration will be an open book," Hackett said earlier this month. "What I'd like to do is to get a strategy for whomever's here, to make sure it's a safe moment. Michigan State presents some unique challenges because of the proximity of the campuses. We could end up with us up there at night or them down here at night with a sea of people being part of the game, and that puts pressure on the safety system.

"We're trying to work through that."

Michigan Stadium has played host to three night games in the past, against Notre Dame in 2011 and 2013 and against Penn State in 2014. The Wolverines are 3-0 in those contests, and the 2013 game against Notre Dame currently holds the attendance record (115,109) for a college football game.

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