Is a College Football Playoff berth realistic for the 2025 Michigan Wolverines? Vote in this edition of SB Nation Reacts.
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The 2025 version of the Michigan Wolverines, Team 146, is still coming into form. However, there’s hope that this season will be better than last year, when Michigan had an 8-5 record. Despite bumps in the road during Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore’s first season, the team did finish strong, beating the eventual national champions in Ohio State and Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
In this edition of SB Nation Reacts, we want to know if you think Michigan making the College Football Playoff in 2025 is realistic. Vote below.
Michigan made the College Football Playoff in 2021, 2022, and 2023, culminating with a National Championship win over Washington in January of 2024. While the Wolverines didn’t make the CFP in 2024, they’ve strengthened the roster in multiple areas by adding elite recruits and good transfer portal players. Key portal additions include QB Mikey Keene (Fresno State), RB Justice Haynes (Alabama), DT Damon Payne (Alabama), and WR Donaven McCulley (Indiana). And no addition has been talked about more than that of five-star recruit, QB Bryce Undewood, who was the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 class.
The sense is Michigan’s offense will be more productive and exciting with new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, who has had prolific offenses at North Carolina and other programs. On the defensive side of the ball, there’s plenty of returning talent and a defensive coordinator in Wink Martindale who really started to get in a good groove in November of last year. Michigan’s defense could be among the best in the nation despite losing Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, and Will Johnson, all of whom could be drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday.
The College Football Playoff now consists of 12 teams, and last season, four Big Ten teams made the playoff (Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Indiana). Per FanDuel Sportsbook , the Wolverines currently have the fourth-best odds of winning the Big Ten Championship at +800 while Ohio State leads the conference at +200. It’s worth noting that Ohio State didn’t even make the Big Ten Championship Game last season but still earned a playoff berth and a National Championship.
For a program of Michigan’s stature the expectation is to push for the playoffs each and every season, and while there are many unknowns heading into the season and a lot of improvement necessary between now and the season opener against New Mexico, the best programs are always in the thick of things each and every season. With that in mind, this writer believes a playoff berth is a realistic expectation for the 2025 Michigan Wolverines.