Michigan
Here’s how Sean Magee and Sherrone Moore have made Michigan a premier destination for recruits
The world of college athletics is preparing for a seismic change in just two months with the House vs NCAA case expected to be approved on April 7. As the leading source of revenue for athletic programs across the country, college football teams are expecting up to $17.5 million to be split among the athletes, and true NIL deals are expected to be the ice cream on top of the birthday cake.
The Michigan Wolverines took their time understanding the NIL space for the first few years during its existence, staying cautious of paying someone too much money without understanding the ramifications of paying millions of dollars to teenagers. When Michigan made the National Championship, however, the program got more aggressive in the space. Now, the Wolverines are dishing out millions of dollars to high schoolers and have the No. 6 ranked class in 2025 because of that.
But given the uncertainty in how revenue sharing will impact recruiting, retaining players and team chemistry, many are wondering if college football is moving closer to becoming a secondary professional football league to the NFL.
In an interview with Jon Jansen on the In The Trenches podcast, Michigan Football GM Sean Magee explained the differences between the NFL — which has structured draft and free agency processes — and college football, which is continuously changing and will continue to do so after April 7.
“In the NFL, when you’re a free agent and another team offers you the most money, you’re going,” Magee said. “There’s no decision. That’s the decision — they’ve offered the most. That isn’t the college environment yet. Now, it could be, right? But the individual still has their own agency on where they decide to go. It’s not just a transactional environment where Team A offered X, which is higher than Team B. This is still a decision based on relationship, based on wants, based on needs, desires, or maybe it’s geographic, maybe it’s a family push, whatever it may be. Players still have the agency to decide where they wanna go. It’s not just taking the highest offer.”
The Wolverines have preached culture, the Michigan degree and the relationships formed between the coaches and players as other factors that influence a player’s decision to come to Ann Arbor. The “value” of what Michigan offers players far exceeds monetary value, and that is why Magee believes Michigan can continue to be successful in the new NIL space.
Relationship between front office and coaches
Another big difference between college and the NFL is the relationship with the front office and the coaching staff. In the NFL, the general manager and their personnel make the roster decisions, and the coaches fall in line with what those decisions are. In college, however, the general manager and the head coach are in communication every single day, and it is the coach that goes on the road to find new talent for their roster.
“We are constantly — throughout every day, week, month — in constant communication about what this roster looks like, what the vision is, what the strategy is, how we’re gonna execute getting there,” Magee said. “…Ultimately, the head coach — he’s the chief executive of the program, but the process gets us to making those decisions. So the more accurate and disciplined we are with the process, those decisions aren’t that, ‘Well, we’re doing this over everything else.’ The process is leading us to conclusions.”
Roster construction
These decisions relate to who is on the roster, but it is also about how the roster is constructed. With the House Settlement reportedly being approved in April, Michigan will need to cut its roster from 136 players in 2024 to 105 in 2025. That means taking away walk-on spots, cutting numbers in certain position groups and prioritizing talent across the board rather than overloading talent at one position.
In the NFL, a roster consists of 53 players, which typically are split between 25 offensive players, 25 defensive players and three special teams players. While the roster is still doubled in college, Magee and head coach Sherrone Moore are constantly evaluating how the roster should look.
“If we’re at 105, we have a goal and a vision of how many we need at each position,” Magee said. “A talent accumulation approach — if we’re gonna have eight running backs on the roster and (have) a 105-man roster, let’s get the best eight running backs we can. Let’s spend to get this. But again, like any market where you don’t have infinite resources, is that the best deployment of your resource to go get the eight best running backs? Because how many are gonna touch the ball?
“With a capped amount of resources, how do you best allocate? You start to then work — myself and coach Moore talk every day about what those numbers should be, what it should look like, what the targets should be, how we’re gonna build this, not just for next year, but build it in years beyond.”
There will be many changes over the next few months that will drastically impact college athletics. However, it won’t be a full shift to the professional landscape of the NFL. College front offices will be able to work in their own unique way, and it’s encouraging to hear that Magee, Moore and the rest of those involved are in lockstep.
Michigan’s 2027 class experienced a blow on Sunday when three-star Las Vegas (Nev.) Centennial safety Maxwell Miles announced he was flipping to Minnesota.
Miles’ decision to join the Wolverines took place in March during the program’s first commitment surge of the offseason. He took a visit during spring camp and quickly pledged.
Miles becomes the second safety this cycle this decommit from Michigan following Darrell Mattison flipping to Ole Miss a few weeks ago. Currently, U-M yields 14 commits in 2027 heading into June.
The news came once Miles took an official visit to Minnesota over the weekend, leading to him siding with the Golden Gophers. One of the schools that Miles picked Michigan over included Minnesota, along with Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, and San Diego State. Safeties coach Tyler Stockton was the leading figure in originally landing Miles.
“Me and Coach Stockton have a good relationship,” Miles told Maize n Brew. “He keeps it real with me and pushes me to be better, and I respect that a lot. Same with Coach (Kyle) Whittingham, it’s a strong relationship. He’s someone I can learn a lot from, and I appreciate how he approaches the game with his players.”
Two projected safeties make up Michigan’s 2027 class in four-star Tavares Harrington and three-star Charles Woodson Jr.
Rounding out the group are four-star tight end Colt Lumpris, four-star cornerback Darius Johnson, four-star defensive lineman Xavier Muhammad, four-star wide receiver Quentin Burrell, four-star running back Tyson Robinson, four-star edge rusher Jayce Brewer, four-star offensive lineman Jakari Lipsey, four-star edge rusher Recarder Kitchen, four-star quarterback Kamden Lopati, three-star linebacker Brayden Watson, three-star offensive lineman Sidney Rouleau, three-star running back Lundon Hampton and three-star offensive lineman Louis Esposito.
Rivals lists the class as the 10th-best in the FBS and fourth in the Big Ten.
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s season came to an end just short of reaching the NBA Finals.
After another strong campaign, OKC battled the San Antonio Spurs, but fell in a seven-game series, missing two key players for most of the matchup.
Even with Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, though, the Thunder’s primary issue against San Antonio was defending superstar Victor Wembanyama. Oklahoma City managed to slow down the 22-year-old in a few matchups, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to win the series.
Mark Daigneault’s team will now head into the offseason with a few opportunites to find answers to this problem, however. In addition to Williams and Mitchell returning to full health, which will be key for OKC, Thomas Sorber, the Thunder’s first-round pick in 2025, should be healthy after missing his entire rookie season with a torn ACL.
Oklahoma City also has two picks in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft, and could add more young pieces to the roster.
A pair of recent mock drafts slotted Michigan big man Aday Mara to OKC, who could be an interesting option to try and combat Wembanyama’s size and length. Mara measured at 7-foot-3 without shoes at the NBA Combine, recording a 7-foot-6 wingspan, 9-foot-9 standing reach and weighing 259 pounds.
Given Wembanyama’s abilities, it seems unlikely that any rookie can fully counteract the MVP Finalist and Defensive Player of the Year, but Mara’s size would give OKC another matchup to try against the Spurs’ standout.
After two seasons at UCLA, Mara had a breakout season with Michigan, averaging 12.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.6 blocks per game while shooting 66.8% from the field. Mara earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and All-Big Ten recognition for his efforts, helping the Wolverines with a national championship in his lone campaign with the team.
Bryan Kalbrosky of USA Today slotted Mara to OKC with the No. 12 overall pick in this summer’s draft, while Cameron Salerno of CBS Sports projected the Thunder to trade the No. 12 and No. 17 selections for the No. 9 overall pick to draft Mara.
Kalbrosky also paired Tennessee’s Nate Ament with Oklahoma City at No. 17 overall. Ament recently said in an interview with Kevin O’Connor that he completed a predraft workout with the Thunder.
Ament measured 6-foot-9-and-a-half without shoes and notched a 6-foot-11-and-a-half wingspan, weighing 210 and recording a standing reach of 9-foot-1-and-a-half at the NBA Combine.
As a freshman at Tennessee, the former five-star recuit averaged 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and a steal per game while shooting 39.9% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range.
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Michigan
Ex-NFL All-Pro unimpressed by Michigan QB Bryce Underwood — who could become backup: ‘Don’t understand’
Former All-Pro NFL safety Eric Weddle is not a believer in Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood.
During an appearance on the “Zero 2 Sixty” podcast, Weddle, who attended the Wolverines’ spring practices, said that it would not be surprising if Michigan’s backup quarterback is playing instead of Underwood come this fall.
“Mark my words, I was out there for spring ball,” Weddle said. “Don’t be surprised if the backup [is] playing early because that Underwood kid, you know, I don’t think he could throw or play quarterback, so we’ll see.”
Weddle, who spent 14 seasons in the NFL with the Chargers, Ravens and Rams, explained that quarterbacks should be taught to play their position first, and be an athlete second, adding that this is what he tells his son, Gaige Weddle, who is a 2028 four-star QB recruit.
“I don’t understand. I don’t understand, like it’s just quarterbacks in general, but I don’t understand how the position is not being taught like from the pocket,” Weddle said. “Like I try to coach Gaige that you are a quarterback first who can be an athlete.
“You’re not an athlete who plays quarterback…You get to the next level, everyone’s as fast as you, everyone’s as strong as you, like your mind, processing, pocket awareness, feel, and getting the ball out on time is what I’ve stressed to him most, as a quarterback.”
Weddle’s comments come after Underwood, the consensus No. 1-ranked 2025 QB recruit out of high school, had a somewhat underwhelming freshman campaign with Michigan.
Through 13 games with the Wolverines, Underwood, 18, threw for 2,428 yards with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions while posting a 60.3 completion percentage, helping lead Michigan to a 9-4 record.
He added 392 rushing yards with six scores on the ground.
Underwood also had a disappointing performance for Michigan in a 41-27 Citrus Bowl loss against Texas, passing for 199 yards — going 23-for-42 — with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
Despite the poor showing, Underwood recently told reporters that he has high expectations for both himself and the Wolverines heading into the 2026 season.
“Just like the whole team, and everything that happened to us even after the season, I had to get over it,” Underwood said on May 21. “That was the only option we had. It’s the only option I had. We went through a lot, but I think we’re going to be more player-led this season.
“I feel like we are more of a team now.”
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