Is 2025 playoff or bust for Michigan’s football? March Madness Outlook? Wolverines mailbag

Ann arbor, me. – For Michigan’s fans, the last weeks of the basketball season are good news in front of them. Spring football begins next week, as does the NCAA tournament. Fresh starts are all around.

The men from Michigan faded the route and lost four of their last six games of the regular season to fall out of Big Ten title competition. There is still something to celebrate that both the men’s and the women’s team return to the NCAA tournament, and when the basketball season ends early, Michigan fans can look forward to the beginning of the Bryce Underwood era.

We come to your questions. ((Submitted questions that were processed for length and clarity.)))

2025 is a gift from the planning gods. Only three teams who had won records last year. Do you think if Sherrone Moore does not reach the playoff this season with this schedule, will it be on the hot seat next year? This would go out with a very talented and experienced team from a season with five loss ’24. – Ryan K.

The more I look at it, the more I agree with Ryan about Michigans 2025 time plan. There is no Penn State, no Oregon, no Illinois, no Iowa, no Indiana. Apart from Ohio State, the toughest big ten games in Nebraska and USC are. The trip to Oklahoma on September 6th will be fascinating because Brent Venables has a lot on the ability of quarterback John Mateer to develop a turnaround. When Moore can beat his Alma Mater in Norman, Michigans is wide open to a CFP offer.

Apart from that, I don’t see this as a playoff-or bust season for Moore. Michigan lost five games last year, but defeated USC, Ohio State and Alabama and landed the nation’s recruit in the nation. The signing of Underwood gave Moore a three -year window to bring the program back to the national championship conaction. We will see whether Underwood can deliver what he has told Rich Eisen this week -“a few Hismans and at least one Natty” -but I suspect that Michigan fans are satisfied with a deep playoff run and one or two big ten titles.

The schedule became more difficult in 2026 than Michigan Oregon, Penn State, Iowa and Indiana as well as the state of Ohio played in Columbus. If Underwood is still a star today, Michigan should be competitive in all of these games. Another 7-5 finish in 2025 would be disappointing in the face of Michigan’s schedule, but I doubt that it would bring bogs to the hot seat.

What or whom do you care besides QB Play where you are most interested in? Who could be the most endangered after the spring game? – Marshal R.

First of all, I have to give Michigan recognition for planning a spring game if several other programs cancel their cancellation. The coach of Nebraska, Matt Rhule, one of the coaches who pulled a spring game in the plug, quoted the reason why Marschall played: coach does not want to plan an open shop window that gives other programs the opportunity to evaluate their players.

This is another way to keep the fans the bag because the college football cannot work together. Fans have a maximum of seven or eight chances of watching their team at home every year. By the end of April they are hungry for a football fix to surprise them until August. The replacement of a spring scrolling with a glorified PEP rally is a downgrade for fans who are already squeezed to give more money so that programs can keep their players.

Are you looking for schools really spring play band to find a second cornerback that you can lure into the transfer portal? Yes, some of them are likely. So? If the player is good enough to play, other schools will see him at some point. And the spring portal window exists so that players who do not like their position in the deep card can find a new home if they want. Transfers will happen, spring game or no spring game.

Ok, what was the question again? I am happy to see what Alabama looks like about the recipient of Justice Haynes and Indiana Transfer, Donaven McCulley, in Michigan uniforms. I am excited to see whether someone depends on Michigan’s group of young Wide Receiver, which includes players Channing Goodwin in the second year. I am also looking forward to giving an insight into the five-star-tackle Andrew Babalola, who would sooner or later protect the blind side of Underwood.

Of course, the piece underwood, Mikey Keene and Jadyn Davis will be the greatest story. When Davis comes from spring as a quarterback No. 3, there will certainly be many programs that inquire about its availability. There would definitely be a market for a player in the second year who was a top 10 quarters in his class. Michigan may have some work to do to shorten his roster to 105 players at the beginning of the season. Therefore, some players could continue near the cut line after spring, but most of these departures took place in December.

Do you have an idea of ​​how many scholarship players the football team are planning to get out of the 105 squad? It seemed as if most teams were still addressing between 85 and 90 and filling the rest with walk-ons to still meet the title IX. At the moment it is around 100 scholarship players. – Ryan K.

The definition of a “scholarship player” will be more difficult in the age of duty roster limits and the participation in sales than ever. Most players receive the full package, but it is likely that some of NIL supplemented will receive. Last month I projected Michigans 105-man squad and found that most places were taken by players who were set to scholarships. Some of the players, maybe four or five, were more preferred walk-ons.

The Wolverines were able to have more than 85 scholarship caliber players in Michigans National Championship season in Michigans National Championship season by using Nil to replace scholarships. I can’t tell you exactly how math will work, but I would expect Michigan to be one of the more aggressive programs when it comes to investing in the lower 20 percent of the squad. Not because the 96th player per se will play a lot of snapshots, but because the more scholarship players you have, the better your chances of finding a difference.

Was the massive zero effort for football a one-year Blip or the beginning of a large-scale, impressive zero operation? – Zach D.

Many factors came together so that Michigan Underwood and the rest of his recruitment class 2025 landed. It was a great advantage to have removed the recruit of No. 1 in the nation. For Michigan, this happened to vote with the last recruitment cycle before the home settlement comes into force. Programs could make NIL offers because they know that they would also have 20.5 million US dollars of funds for releasing sales that would offer after the settlement.

The schools are still trying to find out how they can make sure that future NIL deals match the fair market value of a player. We are talking about forming a new company to enforce rules in connection with Nile and sales participation, although the details are currently sparse. It is possible that this has a terrifying effect on the zero market, but I would not rely on it. If Underwood has almost announced, it will be difficult to argue that he is overpaid.

My understanding is that the participation of Larry and Jolin Ellison is not unique to land a five-star quarters back. I also don’t think it’s an empty check. As long as there is a benevolent billionaire who is ready to help Michigan’s recruitment efforts, I would expect the Wolverines to be competitive for elite prospects. Michigan will not sign the No. 1 player every year, but it is reasonable to regularly sign a program with Michigan’s resources.

What happened to the Matt Weiss case? How does it fit the other problems? – Gabriela C.

If you are not one of the people who ask for an update in the comment area of ​​all history, you may have forgotten that Michigan’s former offensive coordinator was released more than two years ago after vague allegations of suspicious computer activity. Trust me, I have not forgotten. I asked the University of Michigan police authority last month whether there had been new developments and received the following answer from the public information officer Melissa Overton.

“It is still being examined in cooperation with the FBI,” said Overton. “Some cases can be really detailed, and there is no timeline.”

I will not speculate about what’s going on because everything I say would be exactly that: speculation. I am sure that it will have more to report in the future, but at the moment I can’t honestly say whether or how this situation is connected to one of the NCAA problems in Michigan.

How far do the Wolverines go in basketball in your opinion? (Please take men and women!) – Jordan T.

I have the feeling that the men from Michigan, a No. 6 seed in The athleteThe latest projections will be a trendy selection in the first round. The Wolverines went in the Big Ten with a negative value differential with 14: 6, which represents a rather large anomaly. The numbers state that Michigan was a team in the middle of the pack that had a great run in one-session games and not a title candidate for the title of the conference conference.

It is difficult to make a deep run in March without a consistent guards, and that has been the problem for Michigan lately. The lack of production from the background, combined with a preference for sloppy sales, has pulled down downwards. While it has been a fight lately, there is the possibility that the Wolverines will open things as soon as they get out of the big ten and see some new matchups. Most teams have not defended a duo like Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin. Perhaps a change of backdrop is enough to help the Wolverines to recapture the river, which they had at the beginning of the big ten game.

As for women in Michigan last week The athlete Project the Wolverines as No. 7 seed with a potential matchup in the second round against Uconn, which would be a difficult draw. The Wolverines helped to blow Maryland and hang hard with USC in the Big Ten tournament, which could be enough to collect them in No. 6 line. Here the updated projections on Friday have the Wolverines with a potential second tour against NC State. The chances of getting into the second weekend would look much better in this scenario.

The Wolverines have shown that they are able to hang with elite competition. They opened the season with a defeat of six points against South Carolina and played competition games against USC and UCLA. Michigan has two new students, Olivia Olson and Syla Swords, who appear on average 16 points a piece and not much of anything. In the second round, the Wolverines are more able to make a higher sperm welding and they could run if the matchups fall in their favor.

(Photo: Alika Jenner / Getty Images)