The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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16 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2026 FOOTBALL PREVIEW MICHIGAN FOOTBALL "Recruiting is the lifeblood of a college football program." We've all heard it many times, but the cliché has proven to be true. Talent acquisition is the name of the game, but there are different ways of going about it now that players can transfer an unlimited amount of times without sitting out a year. General managers and coaches are ex- hausting all options to build high-level ros- ters, including through the portal. This sea- son, the Big Ten has just one team without double-digit incoming transfers — USC with nine. Even projected national title contend- ers Oregon (16), Indiana (17), Ohio State (17) and Michigan (18) have well over a dozen. Indiana became the outlier of all outliers in winning the Big Ten's third straight national championship last season. CBS Sports writer Bud Elliott has long tracked "blue-chip ratio," the percentage of four- and five-star pros- pects on a team. Until 2025, every national champion from 2011 on had a blue-chip ra- tio of 50-plus percent, including Michigan in 2023 (54 percent). However, Indiana was at 8 percent a year ago and largely won because of an abundance of transfers and an incred- ible coaching staff led by Curt Cignetti. The backbone of a typical basis, though, is high school recruiting, even if the Hoo- siers shattered that theory last fall. It's no surprise that the teams who usually finish near the top of the league also bring in the best classes. Over the last five seasons, Ohio State (aver- age national class rank of fourth), Oregon (5.8) and Michigan (12) have recruited the best in the conference, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking. USC, though, just inked the No. 1 class in America — one of five Big Ten teams to have their best class in the last five years in the 2026 cycle, a trend worth noting. The Wolverines pulled in the No. 11 class in the FBS in 2026, finishing fourth in the Big Ten behind USC (No. 1 nationally), Ohio State (3) and Oregon (4). That was the best among programs that made a head-coach- ing change this offseason, with U-M going from Sherrone Moore to Kyle Whittingham. Ohio State is still the class of the league on the recruiting trail, even if Indiana is currently on top on the field. The Buckeyes have had top-five classes all but one cycle since 2015, including each of the last five years. Oregon, meanwhile, has joined as a top- five recruiting power under head coach Dan Lanning, with No. 3, No. 4 and No. 4 finishes in 2024, 2025 and 2026, respectively. Penn State took a dip because of its No. 64 group in 2026, due in large part to the coach- ing staff change with Matt Campbell taking over for James Franklin. PSU had a 13.4 aver- age class ranking from 2021-25. There's a significant drop-off after Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, USC and Penn State. Iowa (30.8) and Washington (38.4) are next up and worth watching. Both had their best classes in some time coming into this fall, finishing No. 23 and No. 13, respectively. — Clayton Sayfie BIG TEN RECRUITING — FIVE-YEAR SNAPSHOT Avg. Class Best Class TEAM Rank 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 (2022-26) Ohio State 4 3 5 4 4 4 3rd (2026) Oregon 5.8 4 4 3 7 11 3rd (2024) Michigan 12 11 6 16 18 9 6th (2025) USC 17.8 1 15 18 9 46 1st (2026) Penn State 22.6 64 13 15 14 7 7th (2022) Iowa 30.8 23 33 29 39 30 23rd (2026) Washington 38.4 13 25 48 27 79 13th (2026) Wisconsin 39.2 69 27 22 46 32 22nd (2024) Michigan State 39.2 58 47 43 23 25 23rd (2023) Maryland 39.8 38 32 44 47 38 32nd (2025) Nebraska 40 87 21 24 29 39 21st (2025) Rutgers 41.2 37 29 40 58 42 29th (2025) Minnesota 42.4 32 51 34 43 52 32nd (2026) Illinois 42.4 22 45 52 40 53 22nd (2026) Indiana 46.2 30 53 60 59 29 29th (2022) UCLA 48.2 65 40 68 31 37 31st (2023) Purdue 55.8 50 90 30 65 44 30th (2024) Northwestern 58.2 55 65 73 49 49 49th (2023, '24) Big Ten Recruiting Rankings Breakdown Team Transfers In UCLA 42 Penn State 38 Wisconsin 33 Purdue 29 Michigan State 28 Illinois 20 Minnesota 18 Michigan 18 Indiana 17 Ohio State 17 Northwestern 17 Rutgers 17 Oregon 16 Nebraska 16 Iowa 15 Maryland 14 Washington 14 USC 9 Freshman defensive end Carter Meadows is one of two five-star prospects to sign with Michigan in 2026 (Savion Hiter is the other). U-M finished with the No. 11 class nationally, per Rivals. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS