The Michigan football program has won more conference championships than any football program in any football conference. Michigan holds Division I-A records for most wins, most winning seasons, best winning percentage,[5] and most undefeated seasons. For a program to succeed at this level, its athletes must succeed individually. Thus, Michigan's program has produced numerous elite athletes who have established high standards of performance. In college football, the programs that have produced the most All-American American football players are Notre Dame, Michigan, and Ohio State.[6] In football, offensive performances have been tracked statistically much longer than defensive ones.[7] Thus, there are extensive records that document high achievement on offense by Michigan athletes. This list documents the records according to the publicly available University statistical archives.
There are three controversies with this list. The archives only include statistics since 1949. Thus, many statistical achievements are ignored. There are two additional biases that give more weight to recent athletic excellence. In 1972, the NCAA allowed freshmen to participate in college football competition.[8] In addition, college football season have lengthened significantly since Michigan began playing football. Michigan played just three games in 1887.[9] By 1927, the season had lengthened to eight games,[10] and by 1967, the Michigan team was playing 10 games a season.[11] The 2007 Michigan Wolverines football team will play 13 games: 12 regular-season games and the 2007 Capital One Bowl.[12]
When freshmen were ineligible to play and seasons were as short as 7 or 8 games, players could not play more than 25 games in their entire career. Now, a thirteen-game season is common for modern Michigan football teams and a player may be eligible to play over 50 games in his career. Single-season records and career records are naturally held by more recent players who have been eligible to play more games in a season and who have been eligible to play more seasons. There are several controversies among the lists below resulting from these biases.
In addition to these biases, football has changed. Originally, football had no passing until 1906 when the rules committee (including Amos Alonzo Stagg) took action to lessen onfield deaths. Passing did not really become popular until the 1930s when both the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Football League adopted standardized football sizes.[13]
This table omits the first 70 years of Michigan football when rushing was prevalent. Willie Heston continues to be the career rushing touchdowns leader with 71.[14]
This table omits the first 70 years of Michigan football when rushing was prevalent. Willie Heston continues to be the career rushing touchdowns leader with 71.[15]
