Scott Bell's Newsletter

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve sent a recap from my weekly appearance on WTKA in Ann Arbor with Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub. Two weeks ago, I was out of town for a funeral and didn’t appear during my normal slot. Last week, we spent Monday morning talking about Dusty May and his international transfer portal pursuits — only for him to bolt to the Dallas Mavericks within the hour after our talk concluded. Not surprisingly, that’s what this morning’s visit centered around.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out this year’s U-M football fan survey — an annual staple for this newsletter. This year’s version was the largest yet, and I’m grateful for all of the responses. With north of 325 people filling out the 40+ question survey, and many of those surveys requiring multiple responses, there were more than 20,000 individual votes to sort through in recent weeks.

In 2024, the Michigan football team did what many thought would be unachievable in the modern college football era — it won a National Championship on the heels of a perfect 15-0 season. Just a few months ago in April of 2026, the Michigan hoops team followed the lead of its gridiron counterpart and improbably won a National Championship just two years removed from an 8-24 rock-bottom season.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out this year’s U-M football fan survey — an annual staple for this newsletter. This year’s version was the largest yet, and I’m grateful for all of the responses. With north of 325 people filling out the 40+ question survey, and many of those surveys requiring multiple responses, there were more than 20,000 individual votes to sort through in recent weeks.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out this year’s U-M football fan survey — an annual staple for this newsletter. This year’s version was the largest yet, and I’m grateful for all of the responses. With north of 325 people filling out the 40+ question survey, and many of those surveys requiring multiple responses, there were more than 20,000 individual votes to sort through in recent weeks.

After a bit of a break on posting these, I’m back with a recap of my weekly radio appearances on WTKA with Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub. Most of my May appearances centered more around the Pistons and other non-Michigan topics since it was the quiet part of the college sports calendar.

This post is unlocked and available for all readers. Welcome to one of my favorite annual newsletter staples — the Michigan football fan survey. First and foremost, thank you as always for subscribing to the Scott Bell Newsletter, whether you do so at a free or premium level. One thing I’ve aimed to do that I hope to continue in Year 7 is add more interactive elements where content isn’t just for subscribers, but it’s also guided by and at times, contributed to, by said subscribers.

Apologies for not sharing my radio appearance last week. In an effort to send out my 7,500-word wrap-up of Michigan’s magical run in hoops, that one fell through the cracks. So this week’s radio recap newsletter will be audio of my last two appearances on WTKA with Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub. The first podcast is from yesterday, where my chat centered almost exclusively on Michigan’s Saturday spring game. You can find that audio HERE.

A quick note at the top: I’ll be sharing audio from my last two appearances on WTKA in a separate newsletter Tuesday morning. The one from last week covers the National Championship for hoops while my one from this morning goes over thoughts from Michigan’s spring game over the weekend. But before I do that, I wanted to get one last e-mail out about these commemorative Michigan National Championship basketballs before it’s too late.

There he stood. Just minutes after making history, Yaxel Lendeborg was making sure he was embracing history, too. On the stage with his teammates. Atop the ladder after cutting down the nets. In the locker room as the celebration intensified on the heels of Michigan’s 69-63 win over UConn — a victory that delivered the Wolverines its second-ever hoops National Championship.