Affable Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy is shameless in his support for the Michigan football team, his alma mater — he played a key role in helping the program net top 2025 recruit Bryce Underwood.
Portnoy was taken aback by the 2025 preseason AP college football poll that placed the Wolverines at No. 14, behind the likes of 2024 National Champions Ohio State and perennial powerhouse Alabama.
“How many years in a row does Michigan have to drub Ohio and Bama before we’re ranked ahead of them?” a salty Portnoy wrote, clearly thinking the acquisition of Underwood would be recognized by the committee.
Fans in the comments belabored Michigan’s 2024 record and recent cheating scandal as reasons why Portnoy is delusional. “Maybe don’t lose five games,” one said, remarking on the Wolverines’ 8-5 record a season ago.
“Five years without cheating, and I’ll allow it,” another wrote. “I’m still trying to understand why Michigan is even ranked,” one said. “Well, Ohio State did just win the national title, so…” a fan posted.
Michigan will start the season at home against New Mexico in late August before traveling to Oklahoma to face the No. 18 Sooners in Week 2. The team’s toughest test will come in late November against No. 3 Ohio State.
Underwood, still 17, was named one of the cover athletes for EA College Football 26. He’s currently in an open competition with the incumbent Mikey Keene
Coach Sherrone Moore has praised both. “He does everything the right way,” Moore said of Underwood. “He makes sure that he attacks everything in the best way. And I literally just got off the phone with him, calling me, asking me what time he has to be at the team meeting on Tuesday. So he wants to make sure he’s on time to do everything right.”
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The second-year coach also commended Keene. “You talk about Mikey, we did a study about snaps in college football, and he leads the team with 2,029 snaps in college football,” Moore said. “That’s a lot of snaps in the game. So he’s a guy that’s done it, that has experienced it at a high level.”