Michigan football's path to the CFP is clear

Michigan football might not have had a spring game that got everyone on board, but the Wolverines are still building a foundation under new head coach Kyle Whittingham. And that should help the maize and blue in spades this upcoming season.

Yes, the Wolverines have an insanely difficult 2026 schedule, but at the time in 2021, that was also the thought that season, with a home game against Washington, a road contest at Penn State, and the regular-season finale against Ohio State. Michigan won all three, but lost in East Lansing, and was able to make the College Football Playoff and win the Big Ten. And how did it do that? With a strong defensive line and run game behind the Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line.

Michigan didn't enter that season with those expectations. It was 2-4 and floundering the year before. But, as CBS Sports put together its post-spring overreactions, the elements are there for the Wolverines to potentially return to the postseason invitational.

We're automatically a CFP contender because Kyle Whittingham is in charge: The spring game raised some eyebrows as Bryce Underwood was 3-for-9 for 22 yards with two sacks, but Whittingham made clear that means nothing, and Underwood is his guy. The bigger case for optimism is on the other side of the ball. Whittingham has repeatedly said this spring that the defensive line will be the strength of this team, and he spent 22 years at turning defensive units into program identities. If he can do the same in Ann Arbor, the CFP conversation isn't crazy.