Michigan Football Named One of the 'Cleanest' Programs Ahead of 2026

Some programs play differently than others on the field, and according to The Action Network, Michigan Football was ranked as one of the cleanest programs heading into 2026.

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Michigan’s football program is almost always in the news. Whether that’s for on field stuff or otherwise, the Michigan football team is one of the biggest brands in all of college football and is treated as such.

Over the last three years, beginning with the sign stealing investigation involving Connor Stalions, and ending (we think) with the resignation of Warde Manuel, there have been plenty of opportunities to call Michigan a dirty program off the field.

On the field? That’s a different story.

The Action Network recently put together a statistic they call a “dirty score” to determine how undisciplined a team was from 2020-2025.

The stats are calculated with a combination of penalty yards per game, penalties per game, first downs given up via penalty, and penalties per play. Final scores run from 0 to 100 with 100 being the dirtiest.

Michigan’s Dirty Score

From 2020-2025 Michigan’s dirty score according to this metric was ranked 2.94 behind just three teams.

Two service academies in Army and Air Force were the top two teams in the rankings. Iowa was ranked third, finishing just ahead of Michigan.

Michigan’s fourth ranking spans over a team where they had their glory years of 2021-2023, culminating with a national championship, but also some lean years.

Michigan football was not particularly good in 2020, 2024, or 2025, but if nothing else, they were disciplined according to this metric.

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They averaged 4.35 penalties per game for just under 40 yards per-game. That included a miniscule 0.030 penalties per play score, which ultimately put them in elite company.

Rivals Dirty Score

Of course, what is college football if not for looking at what your favorite team is doing at a better level than your biggest rivals?

If there is a program that is going to cry foul about anything that ever happens at Michigan, it’s in Columbus, Ohio or East Lansing, Michigan.

Ohio State, to their credit was ranked as the 111th dirtiest program on the field according to their dirty score. They were in the same range as teams like Northern Illinois, Oklahoma State, and Ball State.

If Ohio State has had problems between 2020 and 2025, it has not been in terms of piling up flags, as opposed to being unable to finish games against teams that are just as good or better than they are. So there is not much to boast about there from a Michigan perspective.

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On the other side? Michigan State ranks just outside of the top-25 of this metric, coming in with a dirty score of 81.62. They ranked 26th on the list thanks to averaging nearly 6.5 penalties per-game, for 58.58 penalty yards per game.

The timeframe given spans over multiple eras with Mel Tucker and Jonathan Smith reigning as the team’s head coach in that time frame.

This is actually something that will likely change with Pat Fitzgerald at the helm. They were ranked as the seventh cleanest program from 2020-2025. Of course, Fitzgerald was not the coach the entire time these numbers were collected, but discipline is one of his trademarks as a coach.

The winner, however, in the Big Ten for this metric was Iowa who is often known for playing clean, hard-nosed football.

Michigan, however, for all the fanfare surrounding its program over the last five years, finished a close second as one of the cleanest programs in all of college football.

College football has changed - but the identity of the Michigan football program hasn’t.

The biggest battle to watch in camp is how things shake out in this phase of the game. https://t.co/aLbzzcnEdO

— Jacob Westendorf (@JacobWestendorf) August 3, 2026