The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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62 THE WOLVERINE ❱ NOVEMBER 2025 W hen it comes to talent being spread across the sport and week-in, week-out parity, college football is closer to college basketball or the NFL than it has been in some time, maybe ever. Because of free trans- fer rules and NIL and revenue-share money inducing student-athletes to move from school to school, there are few teams head-and-shoulders better than the rest of the pack — going against the trends that were in place over the previous decade, when Alabama (3), Georgia (2) and Clemson (2) combined to win seven of the 10 national championships from 2015-24 and combined for six runner-up finishes in that time frame as well. Now, the player who would be Geor- gia's third-string defensive tackle or linebacker or wide receiver is starring at Miami or Oregon or Texas Tech. Coming off a 43-35 win over Ole Miss, a dogfight that the Bulldogs may have won handily in the past, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said the quiet part out loud. "We've had this distance because we've been better than everybody else," he said, per Yahoo Sports. "Our margins are smaller. Margins are tight everywhere. We have two former NFL coaches on our staff. They say it's [like] the NFL." Couple the talent dispersion with larger conferences providing more ardu- ous travel and different styles of play that create favorable or unfavorable matchups, and the results from one week to the next are wild. How could USC look so pedestrian while losing 34-32 at Illinois but domi- nant at home in a 31-13 win over Michi- gan the following week? How could four of the 10 top-15 teams with losses in the Week 9 Associated Press poll have fallen to unranked squads — Alabama (Florida State), Miami (Louisville), Oklahoma (Texas), Texas Tech (Arizona State)? How could four of the top-10 teams in the pre- season, including Nos. 1 and 2 Texas and Penn State, already be out of the top 20? Both the media's grasp on who's great, who's good and who's average, plus the crazy upsets we're seeing, are proof that this is as different as it feels. It's a fundamentally altered sport than ever before, and it's made for exciting Saturdays, even though a lot of the talk Sunday through Friday is frustrating for fans to endure. Private equity deals? Players quitting their teams to redshirt and transfer? Ath- letes suing for more eligibility? Rampant tampering? The Big Ten may add beyond 18 teams? The most confusing possible CFP models? Get us to Saturdays. A MINDSET SHIFT We have one season of data on the 12- team College Football Playoff, plus an- other half year of teams vying for it. It's way too early to draw conclusions, but something we're seeing is that it's the teams built for the long haul, that can win enough games to get in, stay together (and healthy) and play their best football at the end that will have a shot to lift the trophy on the final Monday night. Sounds like the NFL or college basketball. Ohio State was that team a year ago, despite two tough losses, at Oregon and at home to Michigan. This year, Alabama had a brutal setback in its opener against Florida State that had fans calling for the coach to lose his job, with one old lady in Tuscaloosa even saying she'd use her potential Powerball winnings to pay Kalen DeBoer's buyout. Now, the Crimson Tide are playing like a team capable of capturing the na- tional championship, having beaten four consecutive ranked opponents, including snapping Georgia's 33- game home winning streak. SEC fans are crazy, but we're all trying to wrap our heads around this new reality. Michigan had two tough losses, at Oklahoma and at USC, that were more concerning because of how it played rather than not scoring more points than the opponent. But it was no time for the Wolverines to panic, because all of their goals were still ahead of them. And while there were "tough conversations" between coaches, players and staff the week after the 31-13 defeat at USC, the Wolverines recovered by beating a good Washington team, 24- 7, Oct. 18. Now, U-M will be favored in the rest of its games until the Nov. 29 clash against Ohio State, and we all know the Wolver- ines will have a shot to win that one at The Big House. If Michigan builds and improves, gets healthier and gets some breaks, U-M could find itself in the playoff. Get a good matchup and/or catch fire, and it's any- one's guess as to how far a team like that could go. None of it means the Wolverines or anyone else shouldn't attempt to be- come a superpower in the sport, or get as good as they can. It's just that more teams — including yours — are in the mix than ever before, making for a lot of pos- sibilities but a higher chance of suffering disappointments throughout the year. That's how we feel right now. Maybe things will change, like college football certainly has. ❏ SAYFIE BLITZ ❱ CLAYTON SAYFIE The New College Football Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said, "Our margins are smaller. Margins are tight everywhere," acknowledging that NIL induce- ments and offseason transfers have added greater parity in college football, with weekly results reflecting that new normal. PHOTO BY TONY WALSH/UGAAA Staff writer Clayton Sayfie has covered Michigan athletics for The Wolverine since 2019. Contact him at Clayton.Sayfie @on3.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @CSayf23.