CBS Sports sees Michigan football's 2025 as glorious best case, horrible worst case

USA Today

21 hours ago

Not many get it, but CBS Sports' Tom Fornelli apparently does.
Michigan football has a favorable schedule in 2025, assuming that it can handle life on the road, with what should be a punishing defense and a resurgent offense. After beating Ohio State and Alabama to close out the 2024 season, the Wolverines could be a hot team this season, which is why Fornelli sees the Wolverines' best-case scenario being an undefeated season in 2025.
Best Case 12-0: Bryce Underwood lives up to the hype (and the paycheck) to immediately reinvigorate the program. Nobody blinks when he throws four touchdowns in the opener against New Mexico, but after he throws for 300 and rushes for 100 against Oklahoma a week later, he becomes the story of college football. On the defensive side, the losses aren't felt for long as new studs emerge and the Wolverines roll through the regular season. After beating Ohio State for a fifth straight year, the NCAA issues a formal apology for all that hullabaloo about sign stealing.
OK, that's a little facetious, but we'll take it. However, the worst case scenario is a redux of last year, minus the going out in a blaze of glory type of deal that happened last year, rectifying the 7-5 regular-season record.
Worst Case 7-5: It turns out Jim Harbaugh was important to the program. Underwood shows flashes but is a true freshman prone to making mistakes. The Wolverines are blown out by Oklahoma and then lose again at Nebraska while Sherrone Moore serves his suspension. More road losses follow against USC and rival Michigan State. Then the regular season ends with a blowout loss to Ohio State, in which the Buckeyes exorcise all the demons. The NCAA then hits the program with a two-year postseason ban.
So, which one is likely? We tend to lean closer to the best case over the worst case, but the answer may be somewhere in the middle. Given the home-road-home format of the season, the Wolverines will need to show that they can win away from Ann Arbor -- something they didn't get good at until 2021. There are still some tough games -- like Oklahoma, Nebraska, and USC -- and they're all on the road. Ohio State comes to Ann Arbor this year, and while the Buckeyes are defending national champions, they did lose to Michigan in The Horseshoe, 13-10, a year ago.
Thus, 9-3 or 10-2 seem likely, while the maize and blue work to get the younger parts of the team going, especially on the road. But 7-5? That would likely mean every single thing falling apart.
Every. Single. Thing.