Podcast: No Germany game, bye week storylines, Big Ten title scenarios, Michigan basketball opener

On this episode of The Wolverine Podcast, Clayton Sayfie, Anthony Broome and Chris Balas discuss injuries and more storylines on the bye week, before shifting focus to basketball and then their college football week 11 picks against the spread.

Watch this episode in the video embed at the top of the screen or on our YouTube channel. Listen in the embed below or search ‘The Wolverine’ wherever you get your podcasts.
The Wolverine Podcast is available on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and more!

Michigan announced Wednesday that its home game against Western Michigan to begin the 2026 season will be in Ann Arbor, rather than moving it to Frankfurt, Germany. U-M explored moving the game but decided against it, ultimately.

“I think it’s the right move,” Sayfie said. “I mean, you’re playing Western Michigan. It would be one thing if they were playing Navy or something like that out there. I could see it, or a bigger opponent. But it just makes sense.

“Now you’re going to have eight home games next year, which is really nice coming off of a six home game year.”

“I’m grateful,” Balas said. “I want to go to Germany some day, and it would’ve been fun. At the same time, that’s just a stupid trip, when you’ve got a school that’s an hour and a half down the road or whatever it is, and you go to Germany to play that game.

“We do know that even after they went over there and were looking at arrangements, that it was still on. So, this is a very recent decision and a change of heart, but a good one, because I know there was some pushback from people in the administration against it. It makes zero sense, fellas, flat out, and always made no sense.

“I’m happy that we have that week where we don’t have to recover, and we can just go into the season in week one like everybody else and watch this Sherrone Moore-less Michigan football team against the Western Michigan Broncos.”

“I would’ve been thrilled to go back to Germany, having just been there,” Broome said. “On the same token, I don’t think this made sense from a money standpoint. I don’t think it made sense from a product standpoint. You’ve got two schools that are separated by, what, an hour and a half of freeway, and you’re going to send them over to Germany to play a game where one of the schools is going to win by 40, the other one’s going to lose. It didn’t make sense at all.”