The 2025-26 campaign gives Michigan the chance to see its football and basketball programs simultaneously succeed:
Few schools across the country have been as successful across both football and basketball as the Michigan Wolverines . This is certainly true from a historical perspective, but even over the past decade, it is rare for a program to be considered a legitimate contender in both of college athletics’ premier sports.
With both Sherrone Moore and Dusty May coming off strong ends to their inaugural seasons, expectations are beginning to rise in Ann Arbor, especially with solid offseasons for each program. However, getting both football and basketball to click at the same time is a rare feat — meaning 2025-26 could be something special.
Actual results have oscillated
Both Michigan football and basketball have had a number of highs over the past decade, but often they have come at different times. Basketball’s Big Ten championship and No. 1 seed in the 2020-21 NCAA Tournament came after football went 2-4; meanwhile, the College Football Playoff title corresponded with the infamous 8-24 campaign that ended Juwan Howard’s tenure.
The 2016-17 and 2018-19 seasons are good benchmarks for what multi-sport success would look like. Those football teams would have made the 12-team CFP, while basketball hit the Sweet Sixteen a few months later. I suppose 2021-22 also featured the CFP and Sweet Sixteen, but that was not a good hoops squad, just one that had a hot weekend.
Advanced metrics mostly agree
If we use SP+ and KenPom instead of postseason results, the story is more or less the same. 2021-24 each saw top-five football teams with basketball teams outside the top 30, while the preceding year was obviously the opposite. Even with Sweet Sixteen appearances in 2016-17 and 2024-25, those hoopers fell outside the top 20 for the season as a whole.
That leaves a three-year span when both programs were consistently good. 2017-18 and 2019-20 had football (13, 10) and basketball (10, 16) as solid, but not elite teams. The year between, 2018-19, is the one time that metrics had each in the top 10 (10th and fifth, respectively), which also matches the eye test from the Revenge Tour-National Championship Game combo.
Where are we now?
2024-25 was a reduced version of that experience from seven years ago. Football hit a rough patch but finished strong (SP+ No. 26), while basketball found postseason success despite some bumps in the regular season (KenPom No. 25). The programs seem to be on equal level, though both want to move up a tier or two.
With Wink Martindale getting the defense into a good place and Bryce Underwood expecting to elevate the offense, SP+ currently has Michigan at No. 10 heading into the season. That is a generous bump, but not that unreasonable, and in-line with much of the Jim Harbaugh era.
While KenPom has yet to provide 2025-26 projections, Torvik (which rarely differs from KenPom too significantly) has the Wolverines up to No. 4 following the confirmation of Yaxel Lendeborg’s attendance, combined with the rest of the incoming transfers. It might feel lofty, but basketball does have three top-10 finishes in the efficiency rankings since 2018-19.
The takeaway is clear: analytics like both football and basketball to take a jump up from last season. In terms of the postseason, that probably means making the CFP Quarterfinals and at least the Elite Eight, which are challenging goals but certainly attainable. Doing so would likely eclipse the high-water mark for this duo’s combined performance and solidify Michigan’s spot atop its peers.