Michigan Football 2026 Schedule Officially Released

The football season is still half a year away, but Michigan’s 2026 schedule has already been laid out.

The Wolverines will have their hands full. From taking on the reigning national champions to road games against perennial powerhouses, their schedule is certainly not a breeze — it never is in the Big Ten. Regardless, there’s still plenty of optimism surrounding the program, especially with new head coach Kyle Whittingham and his staff roaming the sidelines.

Here’s a week-by-week breakdown of Michigan’s 2026 football schedule…

The first of three non-conference home games, the Wolverines will host Western Michigan to kick off the season. 

This will mark the eighth meeting between the programs, with Michigan entering the game with a perfect 7-0 record.

After losing to Oklahoma on the road in 2025, Michigan will look to earn the series split at Michigan Stadium in Week 2.

This game will conclude the home-and-home agreement between the two programs, and it will provide an opportunity for both teams to collect an early extra power-conference win.

Rounding out the non-conference slate, Michigan welcomes in The University of Texas at El Paso. UTEP had a season to forget in 2025, finishing the season 2-10 overall and 1-7 in Conference USA play.

This will be the first all-time meeting between the two programs.

Kicking off Big Ten play, Michigan will host the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big House. 

Since the Big Ten went away from the divisions system, the Hawkeyes have been stuck as a second-tier team in the conference. They certainly have the capabilities to beat top-tier teams and are a very solid team year in and year out, but they’re still trying to break through their recent ceiling.

Michigan will head to Minneapolis for its first road game of the season to take on Minnesota.

The Wolverines are 44-4 in the battle for The Little Brown Jug since 1968, and they’ve won the previous five meetings.

Off of the bye week, Michigan will play the first of a two-game homestand against Penn State.

The Nittany Lions boast a new head coach as well, former Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, so it’ll be two new-look teams dueling it out under first-year head coaches. 

Week 8 brings the reigning national champions to Ann Arbor. Indiana lost its Heisman-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza to the NFL Draft, but there’s been nothing to prove that head coach Curt Cignetti can’t build another contender without him.

Regardless of who is under center, the Hoosiers will be an incredibly tough matchup for any squad.

Rutgers struggled last season, going to 2-7 in the Big Ten, and next season might not bring any relief. As of the time of this writing, they still don’t have a defensive coordinator and their recruiting class falls in the bottom half of the Big Ten.

Michigan will take on its bitter in-state rival on the first Saturday of November. The Spartans, too, have a new head coach in Pat Fitzgerald, so this will be the first game between two coaches which both programs hope will be their long-term leaders. 

The Wolverines have had control of this series, as Michigan State has not won since 2021. 

For the first time, Michigan will head to Eugene to take on Oregon in a Big Ten game. The squads played one Big Ten matchup in 2024, with the Ducks winning 38-17.

Oregon returns its star quarterback, Detroit native Dante Moore, who decided to forgo the NFL Draft to return to school. Moore was a projected top-10 pick.

Michigan’s final home game on the schedule comes against UCLA. The Bruins had a tumultuous season in 2025, finishing the year 3-9. They’ll look to turn it around in 2026 under first-year head coach Bob Chesney.

Rounding out the regular season is, of course, The Game.

Ohio State broke Michigan’s four-year winning streak last season, and it will have a chance to create a streak of its own in 2026 at home in Columbus. The Buckeyes return Heisman-finalist quarterback Julian Sayin, and they will undoubtedly have a contender-level roster.

Year in and year out, The Game is a barometer for the season’s success, and there’s nothing that says that won’t remain the case in 2026.