There are several reasons Jim Harbaugh’s return to the pros is inevitable, but none surpasses this: Michigan can’t match NFL dollars. There also is the suspension thing.
There are so many reasons Jim Harbaugh’s return to the NFL is inevitable, but none surpasses the obvious one.
Math.
The last I checked, $7.6 million isn’t more than $25 million or even $18 million or $14 million.
The same goes for $12.5 million.
Even if we never mention those other reasons for Harbaugh already having at least one of his formerly khakis-clad legs out the door at the University of Michigan, the adding and the subtracting of those numbers is enough for the following: No matter what the Wolverines do Monday night in Houston, where Harbaugh will coach Michigan during the championship game of the College Football Playoff (CFP) against Washington, moving vans will depart his home around Ann Arbor for an NFL city sooner rather than later.
Let’s go deeper with the math.
And don’t forget: We’re removed four decades, along with $3.3 billion in revenue for a season (you know, the combined total for The Power Five conferences during their 2022 fiscal years, according to federal tax records obtained by USA Today) from when Harbaugh signed to play quarterback at Michigan in February 1982.
That was a month after famed Wolverines coach Glenn “Bo” Schembechler refused a 10-year contract to leave Michigan to run Texas A&M as head football coach and athletic director at (wait for it) $300,000 per season.
Consider, too, that Michigan’s Great Satan is Ohio State.
Schembechler had a legendary 10-year war with Wayne Woodrow Hayes, winner of five national championships, and during Woody’s 37 years with the Buckeyes through 1978, he never made more than (wait for it again) $50,0oo.
Harbaugh makes about that much at Michigan for opening his eyes every morning after those who run the university extended his contract with the Wolverines in February 2022 through the 2026 season for $36.
