Who will be Michigan’s next head coach? Kalen DeBoer among favorites, per prediction markets
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Although Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer shot down links to Penn State earlier this month, his name has once again been associated with a Big Ten coaching search.
DeBoer, who has deep ties to the Midwest, is an early favorite to be the next head coach at Michigan following Sherrone Moore’s firing on Wednesday.
Michigan coaching candidates
Thanks to prediction markets like Kalshi, we can get an up-to-date look at who is most likely to be the next head coach at Michigan.
This chart below shows live prices for the top coaching candidates at Michigan on Kalshi:
Kalshi is live in all 50 US states. Contracts are paid out at $1 per correct prediction. So if DeBoer to be Michigan’s next head coach is priced at 20 cents, that means it’s roughly +400 odds in traditional sports betting terms.
DeBoer has plenty of roots in the Midwest, although he doesn’t have much experience in the state of Michigan itself. His lone spell in the state came more than a decade ago when he was the offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan from 2014-16.
Of course, DeBoer and Alabama are currently preparing to take on Oklahoma in a College Football Playoff game on Dec. 19. The timing of that game could make it difficult for Michigan to pull DeBoer away from Tuscaloosa. Although, as we saw with Lane Kiffin earlier this year, a coach leaving prior to a CFP game isn’t unprecedented.
Washington coach Jedd Fisch is also a top contender alongside DeBoer to get the Michigan job as of this writing. Fisch has worked in Ann Arbor before. He was a key assistant for the Wolverines from 2015-16 before taking over as offensive coordinator at UCLA in 2017. Fisch has also worked for a number of NFL franchises during his coaching career.
No other candidate on Kalshi is priced higher than 10 cents per contract as of publication. However, other names could emerge throughout this process. Former Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, former Giants coach and ex-Alabama assistant Brian Daboll and Louisville coach Jeff Brohm are all potential candidates for the Michigan vacancy, per Kalshi’s marketplace.
There’s also a number of coaches who have either signed extensions or publicly committed to their current schools for 2026. That list includes Eli Drinkwitz, Clark Lea, Rhett Lashlee, Kenny Dillingham and Matt Rhule, among others. Each of those coaches are included in Kalshi’s marketplace for the Michigan job at varying price points.
There is no known timetable for Michigan to make an official hire.
Sign up for Kalshi today by clicking here. Use Kalshi promo code SDS to get an exclusive $10 bonus.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
