Bowl projections: Michigan surges into College Football Playoff picture

The Michigan Wolverines are sitting at 4-1 and heading on a road trip to USC this weekend in a game that could very well decide their College Football Playoff case.

The USC game may be what puts U-M in the CFP conversation, but it needs to keep winning and likely finish the year with 2 losses or fewer to make it happen. One brave soul is betting on U-M to come out on top this weekend and is the first to project the Wolverines to land a spot in the 12-team field this season.

Here is a roundup of what the college football media thinks of Michigan’s postseason destination.

Bryan Fischer, Sports Illustrated: College Football Playoff at Alabama (Dec. 19-20)

Full disclosure, we first went to Fischer’s weekly bowl projections and used the COMMAND+F function (yes, this author is Team Macbook) several times to find Michigan. They were not there, so we were about to message and ask why.

Before that happened, we checked his College Football Playoff rankings. Lo and behold, the first Michigan projection in the playoff of the season. Fischer has the Wolverines as a No. 11 seed heading to sixth-seeded Alabama in the opening round.

“It was an effective victory for Michigan over a pesky Wisconsin team at the Big House on Saturday afternoon and you can start to see a potential run brewing for Sherrone Moore’s team now,” Fischer wrote. “If Michigan can survive the trip to USC next week, it will likely be favored to win out the rest of the way until facing a certain Ohio State team at home for what figures to be a play-in for the Big Ten title game. If the Wolverines meet the Crimson Tide in a rematch of last year’s bowl game, you can bet the TV networks will make this the prime-time Saturday night game during the opening weekend of the playoff.”

On3’s Brett McMurphy: Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Texas (Dec. 31)

Our colleague’s projection has a contest with Arch Manning and Texas taking place in Orlando. The Wolverines and Longhorns last met in Week 2 of last season in Ann Arbor, a 31-12 Texas victory. U-M and the Longhorns are currently set to meet again in 2027 as part of the home-and-home series that kicked off last year.

ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura: ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Texas (Dec. 31)

The first of two ESPN projections has what McMurphy has with a showdown against the Longhorns.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach: Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Tennessee (Dec. 31)

Another Orlando projection for the Wolverines, this time against the Tennessee Volunteers. The Vols have a 1-0 series lead against Michigan all-time, blowing out the Wolverines 45-17 on Jan. 1, 2001 in Orlando.

CBS Sports: ReliaQuest Bowl vs. LSU (Dec. 31)

CBS Sports has another trip to Tampa on deck, which would give them a showdown with the LSU Tigers. The two schools have never met before on the gridiron, and it would be a fascinating matchup given Bryce Underwood’s flip from LSU to U-M last recruiting cycle.

Athlon Sports: Cheez-It Citrus Bowl vs. Texas (Dec. 31)

Make it a Texas trifecta in the bowl projections this week with Athlon’s Steven Lassan jumping on board.

College Football News: Las Vegas Bowl vs. Utah (Dec. 31)

Our last projection of the week is an outlier that sends Michigan to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to take on the Utah Utes. The Wolverines are 1-3 all-time against Utah with their lone win coming during the 2002 season, a 10-7 victory in Ann Arbor. Utah beat Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2008 (25-23) and 2014 (26-10) and grabbed a 24-17 victory in Salt Lake City in 2015, the first game of the Jim Harbaugh era.