The University of Michigan's athletic teams, known as the Michigan Wolverines, include 27 varsity sports teams. These teams consist of 13 men's teams and 14 women's teams. They compete in the NCAA Division I and the Big Ten Conference in all sports except women's water polo, which is part of the NCAA inter-divisional Collegiate Water Polo Association. The team colors are maize and blue, but these are slightly different shades from those used by the university overall. The winged helmet is a well-known symbol of Michigan Athletics.

In 13 of the last 24 years (up to the end of 2021–22), Michigan finished in the top five of the NACDA Directors' Cup, a ranking created by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics that shows how well schools perform in college sports. The University of Michigan has been in the top ten of the Directors' Cup standings in 23 out of the award's 30 seasons (through 2024), and it was ranked 6th nationally.

Sports sponsored

The University of Michigan Athletic Department supports teams in 14 men's and 15 women's sports that are approved by the NCAA.

The men's baseball team won national championships in 1953 and 1962. It has sent 138 players to the major leagues. The current coach of the Michigan Wolverines is Erik Bakich, who joined the University of Michigan after the 2012 season when Rich Maloney left. Michigan has won 35 conference championships, made 25 NCAA Tournament appearances, and won 2 national titles. From 1990 to 2002, Michigan won one Big Ten title in 1997 and made one NCAA appearance in 1999. In 2015, Coach Bakich led the team to its first NCAA tournament berth since 2008 after winning the Big Ten tournament. In 2019, the Michigan Wolverines baseball team reached the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, for the first time since 1984.

The men's basketball team plays its games at Crisler Center. The Wolverines have won 16 Big Ten regular season titles and the inaugural Big Ten tournament in 1998, which was later canceled due to NCAA violations. The team has appeared in the NCAA Final Four nine times (1964, 1965, 1976, 1989, 1992, 1993, 2013, 2018, 2026) and won the National Championship in 1989 under Steve Fisher and again in 2026 under Dusty May. The program later canceled its 1992 and 1993 Final Four appearances due to NCAA violations. Notable players who played for Michigan include Roy Tarpley, Loy Vaught, Gary Grant, Terry Mills, Glen Rice, Jalen Rose, Rumeal Robinson, Rickey Green, Phil Hubbard, Jamal Crawford, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson, Cazzie Russell, Daniel Horton, Campy Russell, and Mark Hughes.

During the 1990s, the program faced a scandal involving payments from a booster named Ed Martin to four players: Chris Webber, Maurice Taylor, Robert Traylor, and Louis Bullock. The scandal led to four years of probation and a voluntary ban from postseason play in the 2002–03 season. The university also canceled regular season wins and NCAA tournament games from selected past seasons. This included vacating 113 games won while the four players were eligible, including the 1992 and 1993 Final Fours, the entire 1992–93 season, and all seasons from fall 1995 through spring 1999. After the scandal, Michigan men's basketball did not make the NCAA tournament from 1999 to 2008. They ended the drought in 2009 under then-head coach John Beilein. In 2013, the program reached its first Final Four in 20 years before losing to Louisville in the national championship, 82–76. The program reached another Final Four in 2018, its second under Beilein. The team again reached the championship game but lost to the Villanova Wildcats. Beilein left for the Cleveland Cavaliers after 12 years at Michigan. His replacement was alumnus Juwan Howard.

In 2011, Michigan traveled to St. Thomas for the Paradise Jam tournament over Thanksgiving weekend. They played Prairie View A&M on Thanksgiving Day and won 59–53. They then defeated Washington State, 69–39, and beat Marquette, 71–51, to win the 2011 Paradise Jam (Reef Division) Championship. Jenny Ryan had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, helping Michigan to a 7–0 record on the year.

The women's basketball team is coached by Kim Barnes Arico, who became the head coach in 2012. Arico previously coached the St. John's Red Storm and was named the Big East Conference Coach of the Year in 2012.

The men's and women's cross country teams have been nationally recognized since 1974, when Ron Warhurst began coaching the men. More recently, alum Mike McGuire has coached the women's team since 1991. The women's team has qualified for the NCAA championships every year except two since 1988, finishing second in 1994 and winning five consecutive Big Ten titles from 2002 to 2006. The men's team has qualified for the NCAA 24 times in the last 34 years, with their highest finish being fourth. The men's team has won seven Big Ten titles during that period.

The Wolverines have won a record 1,016 games, have the most all-time wins, and the second-highest winning percentage in college football history. Michigan won the inaugural Rose Bowl in 1902, the first college bowl game ever played. The football program has claimed 12 national titles.

Michigan's 12 national championships have occurred under the direction of six coaches. The first six were led by Fielding H. Yost, who guided the team to four consecutive national titles from 1901 to 1904, with a record of 41–0–1. Yost also led Michigan to national titles in 1918 and 1923. Yost helped create Michigan Stadium and designed it to expand to a capacity of over 150,000. Yost Ice Arena, where the men's ice hockey team plays, is named after him. Michigan won six more national titles after Yost retired in 1926. The Wolverines won back-to-back titles under Harry Kipke in 1932 and 1933 and two more consecutive championships under Fritz Crisler and Bennie Oosterbaan in 1947 and 1948. Michigan won a national title under Lloyd Carr in 1997 and under Jim Harbaugh in 2023.

Michigan's famous football coaches include Yost, who joined the university from Stanford University in 1901; Fritz Crisler, who led the team to a pair of Big Ten championships and the 1947 national title; Bo Schembechler, who won 13 Big Ten titles in his 21 seasons as head coach from 1969 to 1989; Lloyd Carr, who won five Big Ten titles in his 13 seasons and had a winning percentage of .753; Rich Rodriguez, who coached from 2007 to 2010; and Jim Harbaugh, who

Sponsorship

In July 2015, Michigan Athletics announced it would change its clothing sponsor from Adidas to Nike. The agreement was worth about $169 million and was called "the richest apparel deal in college sports." In April 2016, the University signed an 11-year contract worth $127.12 million for 31 Michigan sports teams. This agreement began on August 1. With this deal, the Michigan Wolverines football team became the first football program to wear clothing from Jordan Brand, which includes the Jumpman logo. Nike refers to the yellow color in the new uniforms as "Amarillo" instead of the traditional name "Maize."

Varsity club sports

In 2000, athletic director Bill Martin introduced a new level for sports at the University of Michigan called Varsity Club status. This system was created to honor and support club sports teams that have achieved a level of funding, organization, and competition similar to varsity teams. Varsity Club teams are not automatically close to becoming full varsity teams. For now, these teams remain mostly self-funded and managed by the Department of Recreational Sports. However, this designation helps them connect more closely with the U-M athletic department. The Varsity Club status has helped some sports move to full varsity status. In May 2011, men's and women's lacrosse were given varsity status. Men's lacrosse started their first NCAA season in 2012, and women's lacrosse began varsity competition in 2014.

Current varsity club sports:
• Men's rowing
• Women's synchronized skating
• Women's synchronized swimming

Club sports

The Club Sports Program at the University of Michigan is managed by the Department of Recreational Sports. This program includes 38 club sports. Each club sport is a student-led group made up mostly of students, faculty, and staff. Each club is started, developed, and run by the students in that club, with help from Club Sports Program staff.

The club sports programs include:

The men's and women's boxing teams compete in the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association. The men's team won the USIBA national championship in 2014 and 2017. The women's team won four straight championships from 2015 to 2018 and was the runner-up in the 2022 tournament. The University of Michigan also hosted the 2015 USIBA tournament.

The University of Michigan Rugby Football Club plays college rugby in the Big Ten Universities conference of Division I-A against teams like Michigan State and Ohio State. The Michigan rugby club was formed in 1959, though rugby at Michigan began as early as 1890 before becoming less common on campus. The team is led by head coach Brandon Sparks. In 2013, Michigan reached the Big Ten championship match but lost to Indiana 58–38. In 2014, Michigan played in the Collegiate Rugby Championship, winning some unexpected matches to reach the quarterfinals. The tournament was shown live on NBC at PPL Park in Philadelphia. In 2015, Michigan returned to the Collegiate Rugby Championship, defeating UCLA and Texas to again reach the quarterfinals.

Championships

Michigan has won 41 NCAA team national championships.

• Men's (38):
• Baseball (2): 1953, 1962
• Basketball (2): 1989, 2026
• Golf (2): 1934, 1935
• Gymnastics (7): 1963, 1970, 1999, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2025
• Ice Hockey (9): 1948, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1964, 1996, 1998
• Swimming (12): 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1948, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1995, 2013
• Tennis (1): 1957
• Outdoor Track & Field (1): 1923
• Trampoline (2): 1969, 1970

• Women's (3):
• Field Hockey (1): 2001
• Gymnastics (1): 2021
• Softball (1): 2005

† The NCAA began sponsoring college golf championships in 1939 but included titles from the National Intercollegiate Golf Association in its records.

• See also: List of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships, Big Ten Conference NCAA national team championships

• The following 19 national team titles were not awarded by the NCAA (seven were unofficial NCAA championships):
• Men's Football (12): 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997, 2023
• Swimming (7): 1927, 1928, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936

The University of Michigan has earned 11 NCAA Division I national championships across 11 different sports. This success ranks fifth in the NCAA record book. Only UCLA and Stanford, with titles in 16 sports, USC with 15, and Texas with 12, have more varied championship histories than Michigan.

University of Michigan teams have also finished as national runners-up 44 times in 14 different sports:
– Baseball (1)
– Men's basketball (6)
– Women's cross country (1)
– Field hockey (2)
– Men's golf (3)
– Men's gymnastics (5)
– Women's gymnastics (2)
– Men's ice hockey (3)
– Rowing (2)
– Softball (1)
– Men's swimming and diving (10)
– Women's swimming and diving (1)
– Men's outdoor track and field (1)
– Wrestling (6)

• See also: List of Big Ten Conference National Championships, List of NCAA schools with the most Division I national championships

NCAA Division I Directors' Cup

In the NCAA Division I Director's Cup (now called the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup), the University of Michigan was ranked first in the Big Ten 16 times out of the last 28 years ending in 2021–22. During those same 28 years, the university was ranked in the top 5 nationally 15 times.

Olympians

During the 2008 Summer Olympics, 204 University of Michigan students and coaches took part in the Games. They earned medals in every Summer Olympic Games except for the 1896 Games, and they won gold medals in all but four of these events. By the year 2020, University of Michigan students and student-coaches, including Michael Phelps, had won a total of 185 Olympic medals: 85 gold medals, 48 silver medals, and 52 bronze medals.

Mascot

The Michigan Wolverines is one of the few college sports teams that does not have a live or costumed mascot. This is mainly because of tradition. In the late 1920s, the Wolverines had an unofficial mascot named Biff, the Michigan Wolverine. The first Biff was a stuffed wolverine. The second Biff was a live wolverine with a companion named Bennie. However, the two animals became too fierce to attend games, so they stopped being mascots. In the 1980s, some students tried to create an unofficial mascot named Willy the Wolverine. The university did not accept this idea.