They have informed all their biggest donors a deal has been accepted and signed. Press conference tomorrow to make it official.
If the rumors are true the deal is worth upwards of $10M per season.
Struggling to make sense of this. I can't see him staying in college for long, and the supposed terms are... They're game changing. A deal of at least $9M per year has major implications to the future of the sport. They number just seems absurd and puts college coaches on a higher pay scale than the NFL. I don't know, something just seems off with this.
What are your thoughts? Have a few Michigan friends so I'm happy for them for getting some good news after what they've been dealing in recent years. But man I don't know, I am finding this one tough to swallow.
Comments
That amount of money makes them seem EXTREMELY desperate. My first thought - that amount of money has to come from somewhere. What's getting hit? Non-revenue sports budget? Academics budget? Rich alumni?
They have the money. It isn't a hit at all.
The only other program in Div I football that could spend on equal footing with Texas is Michigan.
Texas is in a league of their own
Isn't Florida pretty well off as far as financial resources are concerned?
Not Texas, of course, but I think they're up there.
According to SmartySense, whatever that is, Texas is all alone in revenue, but the expenditure column is not so extreme:
Alabama and Auburn are fighting their private little war (and still netting $47M and $39M, respectively) while the rest of the top 10 spend between $28M and $23M.
Oddly, VT is not on the list. Guess we were #11 that year.
Doesn't this also automatically bump Nick Saban's salary? I seem to remember he had a clause that guarantees him to be the highest paid coach in the NCAA.
Didn't he make 7.3 million in 2014? It's not chump change to bump him up but he is in that neck of the woods already.
Good lord. I thought he was still in the $5-6mil range.
EDIT: Not only is your figure accurate, but Saban earned more than $2mil more than the second highest paid college coach (Bob Stoops, $5.25 million)
Boy does Big Game Loser Bob get overpaid.
I agree it impacts the overall sport in a bad way. Every other big boy coach up for an extension is going to want Michigan money. Let's at least hope a big chunk of that is incentive based.
I'm sure it is. When they announced Bud's deal it was said to be worth $1.6 mil or whatever but then you look at the break down and there are yearly retention bonuses and whatnot as well. There is no way they are going to pay him that much as a yearly base salary. Anyways, we don't play them unless it's a bowl or something so as long as he's not stealing recruits from our backyard.....which is possible....I don't really care. They can overpay as much as they want that program isn't going to be fixed overnight.
I don't know... Seems like Stanford went from 1-11 to stomping our guys out in the Orange Bowl overnight.
Harbaugh is a really, really good coach. Especially at the college level.
And his "style" is a perfect fit for Mich. With the financial numbers in today's game (incl wealthy alum/supporters who can contribute $1 mil/yr without batting an eyelash), this is not a bad financial move for Mich.
It's not like he didn't have success in the NFL, but some guys are just better off in College than they are in the NFL. Nick Saban comes to mind. This is absolutely a home run hire. It actually couldn't be a better fit.
I don't understand how it impacts the sport in a negative way. Let's say Michigan signed him for 6 million. If he makes them nationally relevant again, he'd be adding WAAAAAAY more value to the school than the 4 million dollar difference between 6 million and his new contract.
Let's not pretend that CFB isn't one of the biggest entertainment money makers in the nation. The people who run those multi-million dollar programs should be compensated accordingly. Hell, I think it's an easy argument to make that coaches should earn MORE, not less.
I think the argument is that it creates further separation between the top tier programs and lesser programs.
Its inflation, and that isn't good
I agree but they should lose their tax exempt status. Contributions to the Hokie Club and its equivalent shouldn't be tax deductible either. Its a joke IMO.
Not all of it is.
Just like not all the money goes to the football team. A lot goes to the players and a lot to the other sports.
Then, after you simply buy your membership to the club, you get to pay for the tickets to the sports you want.
Why shouldn't it be tax deductible to donate to a colleges scholarship program?
what I read on espn is that the deal is reportedly worth $48 mil for six years. That was from reports earlier this month though of what Michigan was offering. Now the question is how long does he stay there?
It also doesn't say how much of that is in bonuses, incentives, etc. Could be big milestone payouts to keep him on the hook. Big payout at end of every 2 years or 3 years. we'll find out soon
That should certainly make Michigan a formidable opponent on the recruiting trail and the field. The recruiting aspect especially concerns me considering we've lost some big names to them even when they weren't that good.
I don't worry about changing the landscape of coach salaries, as we don't play in the sandbox of landing the top coaches in the game - or haven't had to. There's very few schools that will have to really take notice, I think.
I like to keep an eye on it because while we've been fortunate to stay out of the coaching derby for over a quarter century we will be taking part in it within the next few years. I mean coaches are now taking contracts that are twice as much as what we could offer in a best case scenario. I'm not liking how this is looking big picture going forward.
my thought is that most schools, even in the SEC, are thinking UM is nuts (although it being a $48MM deal is slightly more in line with college salaries). While the salaries are jumping like crazy, I'd think a great coach could be had for $3MM or less - doesn't look like it'll fetch a coaching legend/elite coach with experience anymore though. I hope UM, TX, tOSU, Bama, Oregon, Ok St (Pickens), and a few more are the only ones that have the donors or the athletic funds that can make a deal like this happen. We can play in the same arena as the other 100 or so schools in FBS.
MGoBlog is probably ready to melt down. They've already had internet connection issues.
But in reality, I could see Harbaugh staying there for a bit. It sounds like he has soured some on his NFL experience, he doesn't really like sharing the power with the front office, and if some of the players do get tired of him, you know college players already have an expiring time on how long they're in school. SO I think he will at least stay the length of his contract. After that maybe he'll jump back in.
And because this GIF is too good to pass up
This is just ridiculous, and bad for the sport of "amateur" athletics. Of course the amateurs playing the game aren't getting any money (I'll pause for the laughter to die down.) And of course, football staffs to need to be paid.
And of course, I am all for a free market wherein salaries are based on a careful weighing of risk and reward. Unfortunately, the NCAA member institutions tend to get all the benefits of a free market, with little exposure to the risks, as the actual costs of any investment failures they make gets passed to the students, and also to the taxpayers if the institution receives any public funding.
This is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb in the NCAA salary wars, and if it is responded to by those that can afford it or even think they can or think they must afford it, has the potential to have hugely negative effects on the rest of college sports and worse, college education.
I'm not even concerned that it's going to actually result in any tangible on-field results. If it would, then we'd be seeing it already -- how many of the top-paid coaches of their era ever pan out with actual enduring dominance? There is simply no way any coach is worth that much money in today's game..
I don't blame Harbaugh. They made him an offer he simply couldn't refuse.
But this is not good for the sport.
I was going to comment on this topic, but your post summarizes my thoughts perfectly. Consider this strongly "seconded".
I don't know about that... Saban is at 7 million already and the next is 5 million something. If Michigan really ponies up 8 per year then really it was Saban's deal that was the bomb. The difference here is that Saban was fleeing the NFL while Harbaugh, disagreements with the 49ers front office aside, was still a hot commodity in the NFL. But I doubt many universities are gong to be able to do these numbers. Salaries are going up constantly but very few places have the means to pay out this much.
I don't know how you can say a coach isn't worth that much. Look at what Saban has done at alabama. They could have doubled his salary and it would easily cover the amount that he personally has done for them.
48 mil over 6 years is chump change compared to what Harbaugh can do for them.
Michigan was my least favorite fanbase I've dealt with, so naturally I'm hoping they fail.
Anyways, I think this hire/deal is the result of a few things:
All these things considered, there was really one option available (maybe two if you think Les Miles was a legitimate option). When the supply is low and the demand is high, the cost will increase. I think this will prove to be an outlier in the future. Perhaps if UF or UT cannot make a resurgence, we'll see other desperate moves, but I think it will require a violent combination of politics and desperation to see a similar offer in the next decade.
One could argue that coaching has a greater effect on the outcome of a college game than an NFL game. Just a thought that occured to me as I read the thread.
That's unfortunate since every Michigan fan I encountered in New Orleans was pleasant. Sure, there was some jawing back and forth before the game on Bourbon street, boo's were exchanged, and of course some good natured trash talking. After the game though, every one that I saw said it was a great game, many said we should have won and that DANNY COALE CAUGHT THE DAMN BALL. It was very difficult to be upset at their fans because they were very kind, but everyone has a different experience.
Yeah I agree. All of the Michigan fans I ran into were pretty great really. In fact of all the out of conference opponents we've played since 2008 (when I first started going to games), I'd say they were the best.
I don't give a damn about Michigan...Danny Coale caught the ball!!!
I will never not +1 this
Apparently Michigan has decided to make the announcement right before their next basketball game, which has caused that games ticket prices to skyrocket. One set of tickets that was selling for $28 a piece before the announcement is now listed at $120 a piece and several other "fans" are asking for $1000s for their tickets. Guess they have to pay that Salary somehow
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12092008/jim-harba...
Does he get to bring his khakis with him?
He's going to be very successful at Michigan as he's been literally everywhere else he's been, at every level. However, this upsets me for 2 reasons:
1) It was a catch. Screw you, Michigan.
2) As a 49ers fan, I can't believe they let him go. The fired him essentially because he rubbed the management the wrong way and he bruised their egos. Do they really think the average fan who pays for tickets gives half a crap about whether or not the head coach plays nice with the GM and owner? Of course not! We could give a sh*t about your happiness, Baalke! Thanks for sending us into another 10 years of head coach purgatory, where we'll spend season after season dreaming of the playoffs and wondering how in the world we let a guy who took us to 3 consecutive NFC title games, including a Super Bowl (and what was essentially the right to smack Denver in the Super Bowl) get away. And keep in mind, his first NFC title game appearance was in his first year, with a team coming off a 3-13 record the year before. Great job, Niners.
Doesn't matter what they're paying him, Michigan got a steal here. Harbaugh will be perfect there, and salary aside, Michigan being Michigan (and not last-10-years-or-so-Michigan) is good for college football. Here's to actually having more than one or two exciting B1G games to look forward to all year.
What were your thoughts on firing Greenberg?
Good idea, timed and executed about as poorly as could have possibly been done, bad hire afterwards. Is there a point to this? Cause these are two entirely different situations - level, sport, amount of success... really nothing at all similar about these two coaches except they both have abrasive personalities, which is not at all uncommon for coaches.
i'm not a 49ers fan, but i think you're right that they made a huge mistake. because of egos, they let one of the best coaches on any level walk out the door. their recent history includes tedd nolan and mike singletary (who i'm bummed wasnt a great coach).
A unique combination of desperation by Michigan football donors & feigned disinterest by Harbaugh created the $8M annual salary. While it has been many decades since Michigan won a MNC, they do carry an elite status.Just as with the Power 5 conferences and non-Power 5 conferences, there is a moat between the elite football schools and those that are not, in terms of revenue & expenditures. We are outside the bubble on that, so it doesn't impact us drastically. When we hire a replacement for Frank Beamer, it will be from outside that bubble, and the salary will be less huge.
Harbaugh's hard-a** attitude will translate better to college than the NFL, and won't wear down players so much. I don't envy the Michigan AD, but that's why he is also paid huge amounts of cash.
I wonder how the folks down in buckeye feel about this.
Cool with it
100,000+ seats at that stadium that they fill fairly regularly even when having bad seasons...that's a lot of chedduh.
There's a Yahoo Sports article out right now basically proclaiming Michigan as the team to beat from now till forever and making Harbaugh out to be some sort of savior for all of college football. Honestly it's pretty obnoxious to read.
The sad bit is that it's really only a slight exaggeration. Look how great he was at Stanford with pretty much zero fan/alum support and insane admission requirements. Now he's at Michigan, where people are more or less ok with darn near anything and ponying up the cash so long as they beat OSU.
I know, right? The PAC 12 had a flurry of hiring a couple years ago and that conference is much better now (top to bottom). Putting Harbaugh at Michigan is like the 2014 version of putting Saban at Alabama - put one of the better coaches in a place with essentially unlimited funds and Boom! championship. Michigan should go far with this one.
I think he will be successful because I think he will be an instant recruiting success. However, I will play devil's advocate for a second. Couldn't an argument be made that Singletary put the talent in place at SF to be successful, and Harbaugh has just sustained it? Also, at Stanford, he had a once a generation qb talent and like 8 future head coaches on staff, could that have made him look better? If he is truly as nutty as reports say he is, is it possible he won't be lucky enough to assemble a coaching staff like he's used to?
Again, I present these as discussion points, because it is my opinion that Harbaugh is a great coach and will be a great recruiter at Michigan. I foresee them being Nationally relevant again within three years.
I really like your devil's advocate point, cause I think it's fun to discuss. So I'll take a crack.
I think to an extent, Singletary put the necessary talent on the team for Harbaugh to work with. However, he couldn't manage it and was less than outstanding working the free agent market. His teams just lacked toughness and the edge you need to really be a force in the NFL. Harbaugh didn't add much, but he added enough, and was able to use Alex Smith effectively enough, to win a whole lot of games. Going from 3-13 to a conference title game in one year is pretty darn impressive - and it's not like he had a bunch of freshmen redshirtting during that 3-win season. That's the great thing about the NFL, and a kinda crappy thing about the NFL - it's much more fluid than the NCAA and generally easier to get things turned around. Everyone's on about the same level in terms of talent and resources.
Your point about the coordinators is a pretty valid one, but shoot, I'd argue most of the Head Coach's job is finding great coaches to work under him, and letting them work. See Beamer, Frank. I think he'll do more of the same and Michigan will be up and running within a couple of years.
Bill Parcells was good at finding coaching talent as well.
I'd also point out he's inherited two programs now with little recent success and low expectations. His recent spat with the powers that be in San Francisco makes me wonder how he'll handle Michigan-type pressure. If he doesn't perform he may be run out of town in short order simply because his abrasive personality accelerates the split.
Difference is, he wins 3 Big 19 titles, beats OSU 2 or 3 out of 4 and has them in contention for the playoffs, he won't be chased off by anyone. SF made a huge mistake IMO.
I think it is important to remember that college football is a business and on an entirely different level than 95% of other collegiate athletics (apologies to the great Bass Fishers of Virginia Tech). It's no different than the latest and greatest technology. The on-field product at Michigan wasn't bringing in business (fans, donations, etc) and something needed to be done. They offered the money they wanted to get the on-field product they want and need to generate business.
Players should still be paid though. That's my only issue with it.
Over/under on how long until Urban asks him what his deal is?
I'm more interested in the over/under for how long until they split a sad pizza.
That was one of my favorite moments in sports history. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Harbaugh went for 2 up by about 27 points with about 4 minutes to go in the process of dropping 60+ on USC in LA. When they got to midfield for the handshake, Pete Carroll (in his last year at USC), asked him, "what's your deal?" Harbaugh responded, "what's your deal?" shook his hand, and left.
The best part was that the next year, Stanford had a "what's your deal?" promotion. You could get tickets to the USC game and 2 others of your choice for something like 60 bucks. It was awesome.
Shades of Hayes and Schembechler there. Only way that interaction could have been better would have been if someone had asked Harbaugh why he went for two and he had responded, "Because I couldn't go for three!"
One of the best lines in college football history
How 'bout Spurrier? When he learned that an athletic dorm had suffered a fire at Auburn at that many students' books had burned, he suggested that, "The sad part is, half of them hadn't even been colored in yet"
What is extremely puzzling is how much juice Lloyd Carr still holds within Michigan football circles. This book coming out this week - 'Three and Out' - details some of that sway, and i just don't get why Carr retains such influence, mainly for the detriment of the program.
While Harbaugh worked wonders at Stanford, he will be fighting some pretty entrenched coaches for recruits at Michigan. At least he will run the kind of team that UMich folks like, so they should be happy about that.
This is a home run hire. The landscape of college football just shifted north. Expect Michigan to challenge Bama for the top recruiting class every year.
Wrong. Harbaugh will have his hands full trying to keep up recruiting against Urban Meyer & Mark D'Antonio. Michigan's not going to suddenly jump up to Top 5 national status just because they overpaid for a coach.
I think Mich State's time is done, they have only risen as Mich has struggled. I think between Urban and Harbaugh the SEC effect on recruiting has been pushed back down south. I think we are going to be in trouble as we seem to be unable to go south for recruits with the SEC and now the North will be plucked clean by two B1G powers.
Agreed. Mich St will be back to little brother in a few years. OSU is good now, Michigan should be good pretty soon, Mich St and Wisconsin are in for a tumble, and don't sleep on PSU although they need to get their numbers back up.
Mich St. was never a top 10 recruiter to begin with. I don't see much drop off there
They lost their elite DC to Pitt. There will be a significant drop off IMO.
I will wager that UM finishes the next two years (not this one, but the next two) both with top 10 recruiting classes, qualifies for a BCS level-bowl in the next 4 years, and wins a BCS level bowl/playoff game in the next 5 years.
Won't be overnight, but it will happen soon. Harbaugh is a top 5 active coach.
I agree. Not sure how anyone is spinning this as a bad move.
You are going to see an Alabama like resurgence with Harbaugh at the helm. You're talking about an excellent coach being paired with a die hard rabid fan base at a historically relevant football factory. The only schools in this class are Bama, Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, and Michigan. These are the schools your daddy grew up with being the big boys. Right now, this makes 3 of them with an elite coach, with the 2 who were already established with their guy in the playoffs. Texas and Penn State have 2 of the best young coaches in the game, and is not hard seeing them dominant soon. And the one with arguably the biggest upside still hasn't made their move, yet. If ND gets their act together, they would be unstoppable.
With pay for play on the table, with deals like this out there, schools like Virginia Tech are getting monetarily squeezed out of relevancy. We simply cannot compete in a world where to match perfect coach with great job takes $8M, minimum. This is why I don't like this, because it is creating a very legitimate division between the haves and the have nots, even more so than what is there now, and is squeezing the rest out. Hell, the playoffs right now make up of the 4 of the biggest spenders with the biggest pockets in today's world. That division is only going to grow with the out of control spending going on at some of these programs. And this is during an economic downturn when attendance is declining across the board!
I would put USC in that list as well, but they need to get there act together like Notre Dame. It's just the rich getting richer, which has been happening for decades. Coaches are in a free market, so it's going to happen until a school gets really burned
Keeping up with msu? Really? In the last 4 years msu best class was 22 while having two finishes outside the top 40. In that time michigan had 2 top 10 finishes. Let's not get on field results and program power confused.
And btw jumping into a top 5 status is exactly what he did at standford even though they're a minor league program power compared to Michigan
Just speaking from an ABSEC (Anybody But SEC) perspective, this is great.
That's going to be hard to chant at games...
A-B, S-E-C!
Just made it a chant for ya
OK everyone can calm down now...
More:
A reasonable contract? What's the fun in that?
cough * somebody wisely stated this above * cough * blatant self-promotion * cough *
Dammit. Give me reasons to hate you.
Don't know if its already been mentioned here...
But.... when we beat Michigan, it'll be redemption for the Orange Bowl....and that one game where Danny Coale caught the ball.
don't recall ever losing to Michigan in the Orange Bowl....
or in a sugar bowl.
damn right. I do however recall stories of Pac-10 officiating crew getting all manner of voodoo hexes and curses put on them after a spectacularly poor job at officiating a game. But.. nope, never lost to Michigan
He is referring to the fact that it'd be redemption for 2 games:
- Orange Bowl loss to Stanford
- Sugar Bowl loss to Michigan.
Don't you try to make me remember those accurately!
-Orange Bowl: Tyrod went ham and we won. Sad Harbaugh was sad, and fled to NFL.
-Sugar Bowl: Danny caught the ball, of course, and we partied on bourbon st until it was renamed wild turkey st.
Jayron Hosley didn't drop that int, ran it back for a score, and we went on to dominate the Orange Bowl. That's how I remember it.
The main thing I remember about that game is throwing my phone while Bruce Taylor threw his mouth piece on yet another long TD pass. Such a frustrating game.
Edit: my sarcasm detector fails immensely reading texts online