CBS Sports expects Michigan to improve in 2026, but warns a brutal slate could shrink the win total

Michigan’s 2026 season is starting to take shape in public discussion, and a new projection from CBS Sports suggests the Wolverines could be headed in the right direction competitively while still ending up with fewer wins than they collected in 2025.

In the CBS Sports view, Michigan is entering a “new era” under Kyle Whittingham, with the optimism anchored in the idea that the program’s on-field performance profile should rise from what CBS Sports described as the Sherrone Moore period. The central question, though, is whether that improvement will be enough to translate into a strong record in a schedule that CBS Sports calls difficult.

The projection’s emphasis is not simply that wins might be harder to come by, but that the nature of the improvement could create a mismatch between how the team looks and what it finishes with. In other words, CBS Sports frames the Wolverines as better in a process sense, but still exposed to game-to-game outcomes that can swing a season’s final tally.

A major driver in the CBS Sports argument is strength of schedule. While the underlying article is not providing the full schedule breakdown in the materials available here, the thrust is consistent: Michigan’s path in 2026 includes enough high-leverage matchups that even a more capable version of the team may finish with a record that is worse than it achieved in 2025.

That theme matters in college football because the win-loss column is often treated as the only scoreboard, even though raw improvement can coexist with a less impressive record. When a team’s schedule compresses multiple “must-handle” games into one year, margins of error shrink, and better play can still end with fewer victories if key moments do not break Michigan’s way.

CBS Sports’ framing also highlights how coaching transitions can complicate expectations. A program can become better in schemes, tempo, and decision-making, yet still face a transitional reality where execution and consistency need time. Under that lens, a less favorable record would not necessarily contradict the idea that Michigan is trending upward.

The Wolverines’ 2026 outlook, as CBS Sports presents it, is therefore a two-part story: a team that could be more functional than it was previously, and a schedule that may keep the season from producing a matching jump in the standings. What to watch next is whether Michigan’s performance indicators during camp and the early part of the season align with a “better team” thesis before the schedule’s toughest segments arrive.