Michigan is keeping its 2026 season-opening game at home.
The school announced Wednesday that it would not move its Week 1 game against Western Michigan to Frankfurt, Germany, in Week 0. The school had previously said over the summer that it was exploring the opportunity of playing the game overseas.
“We did a thorough and exhaustive evaluation in relation to playing an international game,” athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement. “Based on the analysis of all the factors, we felt it was best to keep the game in Ann Arbor as it was originally scheduled for the 2026 season. I want to thank [German soccer club] Eintracht Frankfurt and their stadium management company for all the work they did in partnership with our staff to try to make this game a possibility.”
Manuel added that the school remained “open to exploring the right opportunities for our teams to play internationally.”
Since the game is staying at Michigan Stadium, it will be played on Sept. 5.
Had Michigan played Western Michigan in Germany, three college football games would have been held in Europe during the 2026 season. TCU and North Carolina will open the season in Dublin and Kansas and Arizona State are playing in London in September.
If Michigan had played in Frankfurt, head coach Sherrone Moore would not have been on the sidelines. Moore is suspended for Week 1 as part of the NCAA’s punishments for the Connor Stalions advance-scouting scandal. Moore served a self-imposed two-game suspension in Weeks 3 and 4 of the 2025 season. The timing of that suspension allowed him to coach at Oklahoma in Week 2.
Moore and Michigan dropped their appeals of the penalties in the Stalions case earlier this season. Michigan was given four years of probation and was fined millions of dollars as Stalions was found to have used in-person scouting to decipher opponents’ signals.
