Michigan Wolverines
The Michigan Wolverines comprise 27 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan, including 13 men's teams and 14 women's teams. These teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except women's water polo, which competes in the NCAA inter-divisional Collegiate Water Polo Association. Team colors are maize and blue, though these are different shades of "maize" and "blue" from those used by the university at large. The winged helmet is a recognized icon of Michigan Athletics.
In 13 of the previous 24 years, Michigan has finished in the top five of the NACDA Directors' Cup, a list compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics that charts institutions' overall success in college sports. UM has finished in the top ten of the Directors' Cup standings in twenty-three of the award's thirty seasons ; 6th best nationally.
Sports sponsored
The University of Michigan Athletic Department sponsors teams in 14 men's and 15 women's NCAA sanctioned sports.Baseball
The men's baseball team won national championships in 1953 and 1962 and has sent 138 players to the major leagues. The current coach of the Michigan Wolverines is Erik Bakich, who came to the University of Michigan after the 2012 season when Rich Maloney stepped down. Michigan has won 35 conference championships, made 25 NCAA Tournament appearances and won those 2 national titles. For 13 seasons from 1990 to 2002, Michigan won a lone Big Ten title in 1997 and made just one NCAA appearance in 1999. In 2015, Coach Bakich led the program to its first NCAA tournament berth since 2008 after needing to win the Big Ten tournament to qualify. In 2019, the Michigan Wolverines baseball team made it to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, its first trip to the College World Series since 1984.Basketball
Men's basketball
The men's basketball team plays its games at Crisler Center. The Wolverines have won 14 Big Ten regular season titles, as well as the inaugural Big Ten tournament in 1998, which it later forfeited due to NCAA violations. The team has appeared in the NCAA Final Four on eight occasions and won the National Championship in 1989 under Steve Fisher. The program later vacated its 1992 and 1993 Final Four appearances due to NCAA violations. Other notable players who played for Michigan include Roy Tarpley, Loy Vaught, Gary Grant, Terry Mills, Glen Rice, Jalen Rose, Rumeal Robinson, Rickey Green, Phil Hubbard, Jamal Crawford, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson, Cazzie Russell, Daniel Horton, Campy Russell, and Mark Hughes.During the 1990s, the program became involved in a scandal involving payments from a booster named Ed Martin to four players: Chris Webber, Maurice Taylor, Robert Traylor, and Louis Bullock. The scandal ultimately resulted in four years' probation and a self-imposed ban from postseason play in the 2002–03 season. UM also voluntarily vacated regular season wins and NCAA tournament games from selected past seasons. Vacating the results of 113 games won while the four players were eligible, including the 1992 and 1993 Final Fours, the entire 1992–93 season, and all seasons from fall 1995 through spring 1999. After the scandal, Michigan men's basketball would then go 10 years without making the NCAA tournament from 1999 to 2008. They would eventually end the drought in 2009 under then-head coach John Beilein. In 2013, the program would reach its first Final Four in 20 years before falling to Louisville in the national championship, 82–76. The program reached another Final Four in 2018, its second under Beilein. The team would once again reach the championship game, but instead fall to the Villanova Wildcats men's basketball. Beilein would accept a position as the Cleveland Cavaliers head coach after 12 years at Michigan. His replacement for the following season would be alumnus Juwan Howard.
Women's basketball
Michigan traveled to St. Thomas for the Paradise Jam tournament over Thanksgiving weekend in 2011. They took on Prairie View A&M in their first game on Thanksgiving Day, and won 59–53. In their second game, they faced Washington State and won easily, 69–39. On the final day of the tournament, they played Marquette, and won 71–51, to win the 2011 Paradise Jam Championship. Jenny Ryan had a double-double, with 13 points and ten rebounds, to help Michigan to a 7–0 record on the year.The women's basketball team is coached by Kim Barnes Arico, who became the head coach in 2012. Formerly the head coach of the St. John's Red Storm, Arico was named the Big East Conference Coach of the Year for 2012.
Cross country
The men's and women's cross country teams have been nationally renowned since 1974 when Ron Warhurst started coaching the men, and more recently as alum Mike McGuire took on the women's team in 1991. The women's team has qualified for the NCAA championships every year but two since 1988, finishing 2nd in 1994, and winning five consecutive Big Ten titles from 2002 to 2006. The men's team has qualified for the NCAA 24 times in the last 34 years, with a highest finish of 4th. Michigan men have won seven Big Ten titles in that period.Football
The Wolverines have won a record 1,016 games, have the most all-time wins, and the second-highest winning percentage in college football history. Michigan won the inaugural Rose Bowl in 1902, the first college bowl game ever played. The Wolverine football program has claimed 12 national titles.Michigan's 12 national championships have come under the direction of six coaches. The first six were garnered by the team's first coaching superstar, Fielding H. Yost. Yost directed his "Point-a-Minute" teams to four consecutive national titles from 1901 to 1904, amassing a record of 41–0–1. Yost also led Michigan to national titles in 1918 and 1923. Yost was instrumental in the creation of Michigan Stadium and designed it to permit its expansion to expand to a capacity of over 150,000. Yost's legacy also lives on with Yost Ice Arena, where Michigan's men's ice hockey team plays their home games. Michigan football has won six more national titles since Yost permanently retired in 1926. The Wolverines won back-to-back titles under Harry Kipke in 1932 and 1933 and two more consecutive championships under Fritz Crisler and Bennie Oosterbaan in 1947 and 1948. Michigan then won a national title under Lloyd Carr in 1997. Michigan won its most recent national title under Jim Harbaugh in 2023.
Michigan's famous football coaches include: Yost, who came to Michigan from Stanford University in 1901, Fritz Crisler, who guided Michigan to a pair of Big Ten Conference championships and the 1947 national title, has his name carried by the home of Michigan men's basketball team, Bo Schembechler won 13 Big Ten titles in his 21 seasons as head coach between 1969 and 1989, the first in 1969 when he beat his friend and mentor Woody Hayes, beginning of "The Ten Year War" era of the Michigan – Ohio State football rivalry, Lloyd Carr won five Big Ten titles in his 13 seasons at the helm and posted a winning percentage of.753. His winning percentage of.779 in conference play trails only that of Schembechler in Michigan history. Rich Rodriguez succeeded Carr following his retirement in 2007. Rodriguez coached the Wolverines through the 2010 season, compiling a record of 15–22. Rodriguez would be followed by coach Brady Hoke who would go on to coach four seasons. Hoke would end with a record of 31-20. Hoke was replaced by alumnus Jim Harbaugh beginning with the 2015 season. Harbaugh went on to post an 86-25 record in his nine seasons. In Harbaugh's last three seasons, Michigan won 40 out of their 43 games, including three straight Big Ten Championships and College Football Playoff appearances, the third and final of which resulting in Michigan's first national title under the BCS/CFP system. Following the national title season, Harbaugh left for the Los Angeles Chargers and was soon replaced by offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore.
Rivalries
Michigan has a major rivalry with Ohio State, considered one of the fiercest rivalries in American sports. In a pair of ESPN fan polls, in 2000 and 2003, the Michigan–Ohio State series was voted the greatest rivalry in sports in America. Michigan's meeting with Ohio State is almost always the last game of the two schools' regular seasons and has provided many memorable contests, such as the "Snow Bowl" of 1950. The game has frequently decided the Big Ten Champion. As of 2024, Michigan leads the series 62–51–6. The contest on November 18, 2006 marked the first time ever these teams had been ranked No. 1 and No. 2 going into the game, and the first time they were both undefeated since 1973. The 2007 college football match-up between Ohio State and Michigan was predicted to be the No. 2 college football game to watch in 2007 by SI.com's "Top 20 Games To Watch in 2007" list.Michigan has a spirited rivalry with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Michigan leads the series 25–17–1. The two schools are among the top college football programs in all-time wins and winning percentage in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, so it is perhaps fitting that when college football was in its infancy, students from the University of Michigan traveled to South Bend to teach the game to students there.
Michigan also has an intrastate rival in Michigan State; the schools' football teams compete for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. Michigan leads the series 74–38–5.
The Wolverines also have a tradition-rich history with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The two football teams compete for the Little Brown Jug, a five-gallon jug with the respective schools' "M"s on either side and the scores of previous games down the middle. The Little Brown Jug was the first trophy played for between college football teams. Through 2024, Michigan leads the Brown Jug series 78–25–3.