Michigan ready to make Jim Harbaugh the highest-paid coach in college football … the latest
by:
Chris Balas•about 5 hours•
Balas_Wolverine
Michigan head coach
Jim Harbaugh is scheduled back in the U-M football building today after a second interview with the Los Angeles Chargers. Sources on the West Coast tell us no deal was finalized Tuesday and provided some insight on where things stand … meanwhile, that has opened the door for the Michigan administration to sweeten its own deal for the coach.
Sources close to the Chargers’ situation say one of the hang-ups in the Harbaugh negotiations is personnel. Harbaugh interviewed well, but some of the general managers they’ve interviewed with to work with him — “Harbaugh guys,” some have called them — might not have been as good as other candidates.
Harbaugh would likely want familiarity and “his guys” in the building with him. But today, the Chargers are interviewing other G.M. candidates — specifically the New York Giants’ Brandon Brown. And Harbaugh is slated for meetings with Michigan personnel regarding NIL, recruiting, etc. His coaches, meanwhile, have been on the road recruiting and holding down The Fort.
As we’ve mentioned, Michigan President Santa Ono has said he’d do everything in his power to keep Harbaugh in Ann Arbor. Sources tell us that now includes offering the coach a contract that would make him the highest-paid in college football. It would include escalator clauses to keep it that way (automatic increases in the agreed-upon wages if certain conditions change while the contract is in effect) and language that would better protect Harbaugh against what has been an “aggressive” NCAA.
We’ve been told that includes language that includes a contract “more like the Bill Self deal at Kansas.” Self negotiated a clause in which he couldn’t be fired for cause based on the findings or punishment from the NCAA probe that was ongoing at the time, but he could take a salary hit if he’s suspended. Per the contract, if the NCAA suspended Self, he would take a 50 percent reduction in salary for the time missed.
The Harbaugh contract would also roll over every year (as Self’s does) at the end of the 6 years, the current length of the extension being negotiated with Harbaugh.
In addition, the “three-man panel” Harbaugh was supposedly asking for in case someone wanted to fire him has been misrepresented, we’re told. What it meant, per those sources — if Harbaugh were to be let go and sue the university, he’d require a three-person arbitration panel to hear an appeal, which appears to be standard procedure.
As of today, Harbaugh is still the Michigan coach and at work and planning for the future. The other day, players were asked for photos for passports for the upcoming annual spring trip. Sources tell us they were initially supposed to go to Israel and Egypt, but the instability there will probably send them elsewhere. We’re not sure if plans change if Harbaugh is no longer here, but it at least seems to demonstrate the possibility he will be.
Watch
TheWolverine.com for more on these developments in the hours and days to come.
