Kyle Whittingham must make Michigan a top-four Big Ten team once again to reach CFP

Does Michigan want to be among the college football elites in this new era of college football? While the Wolverines did win the College Football Playoff at the end of the 2023 season, as well as making the playoff the two years prior to that, the game has changed. Two coaches later and a playoff format tripling in size, Michigan must adapt or die under its new face of the program in one Kyle Whittingham.

On Friday, On3's Chris Low, Brett McMurphy, and Pete Nakos reported it will still be a 12-team playoff.

In Nakos' article, he did reveal some key stipulations with the playoff format for the 2026-27 college football season. "The field will not expand in 2026, but auto bids will go to each Power 4 champion, regardless of ranking, and Notre Dame is guaranteed an at-large bid if ranked in the top 12 of the final CFP poll." What this tells Whittingham and the Michigan faithful is it must be a top-four Big Ten team.

The first year of the 12-team playoff saw Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State, and Indiana make it in. While Penn State missed out on it this past year, Indiana, Ohio State, and Oregon all made it back. With the Big Ten having won the last three national championships with Indiana, Ohio State, and Michigan each taking one apiece, it is a league where the cream rises to the top. Michigan must get back to this level.

With the new Power Four and Notre Dame auto-bids, Michigan may have to be a top-three team then.

What the College Football Playoff field adjustments mean for Michigan

With the ACC almost not getting a team in, as illustrated by Duke winning the league and getting left out, only for Miami to get the last at-large bid in, as well as the ridiculous Notre Dame exceptionalism we all have to shamelessly stomach for some reason, the pathway into the playoff as an at-large team gets even murkier. Will it be seven or eight "guaranteed" bids split between the Power Two leagues?

What this latest legislation says is under the new rules, Duke and Notre Dame would have gotten in. Duke would have been the No. 12 seed instead of James Madison. With Notre Dame being No. 11 in the final rankings, maybe the Fighting Irish would have taken the last spot in over No. 10 Miami, who was ranked ahead of them, and beat them head-to-head? That is so dumb. What are we doing here?

So what this means for Michigan is the Wolverines will have to be exceptional because the college football world does not make exceptions for unexceptional programs, unless that program is Notre Dame, who gets to cherrypick its weak 12-game schedule. So in effect, a team like Michigan needs to make sure it finishes inside of the top nine annually, instead of coming in at No. 18 in the final ranking.

Overall, there are really only three at-large spots up for debate each year. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Group of Five champions all get in. That is five spots. We can also reasonably expect that the Big Ten and SEC will get at least two at-large teams in a piece. That brings us to nine. If Notre Dame wins about 10 games, they will likely take one of the three remaining "at-large" bids to be had.

While fielding a top-four Big Ten team should be the annual goal, it might have to be top-three now...