I’m guessing they mean the school? But the word University never appears in the article. I know nothing about sports, so this is all extremely confusing to me.
Yeah, it would be the University of Michigan. It should include it. It felt like the title was missing something, like “Michigan man”, but as a sports fan I was able it figure it out by the name of the coach. Should definitely include the full name. UMich would have been a least a little better as that is often used as an abbreviation.
It isn't just sports but college sports, which seems to be a uniquely American kind of sports.
Universities created collegiate sports as a way to help colleges teach leadership skills. The competition between universities in sports became a measure of which to judge universities and later became a source of profit for universities. The NCAA regulates most of the colleges in the US.
If you see a state name when referring to sports, it is likely referring to a university with a name "University of State". There are no state based games and professional sports in North America usually refers to a team by their name.