Wolverines

In 1934, the Wolverines named their team MVP a player who would go on to become the 38th President of the United States. Gerald Ford anchored the offensive line for one season at Ann Arbor before politics took him elsewhere, and the program still points to that year as proof of how far a place on this roster can carry a man.

The football program traces back to 1879, and it swept four straight national championships between 1901 and 1904. Fritz Crisler added another title in 1947, and Bennie Oosterbaan followed with one more the next season. Then came a drought: 49 years without an undisputed crown, broken only in 1997, when Lloyd Carr's team, led by Heisman winner Charles Woodson, beat Washington State in the Rose Bowl. Woodson remains the first primarily defensive player to win the Heisman.

Jim Harbaugh played quarterback at Michigan in the 1980s and returned as head coach in 2015. In 2023 he delivered the payoff: a 15–0 season, the first perfect record in Big Ten history, capped by a 34–13 win over Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship. That title made Michigan the first program in the sport to reach 1,000 all-time wins.

Ohio State supplies the rivalry that defines the calendar. The two sides have met every year since 1918 but one. Home games are played at Michigan Stadium, known as the Big House, which seats 107,601.