Michigan Football Rumors: Jim Harbaugh Weighs Record-Breaking Contract

Getty Jim Harbaugh, seemingly endless source of Michigan football rumors

It would be a record commitment for college football, but the hot Michigan football rumors has head coach Jim Harbaugh sitting on a contract worth 10 years and $125 million to remain with the top-ranked Wolverines. That’s a $12.5 million-per-year payday that would make him the highest-paid coach in collegiate history.

The current record holder for richest contract on a per-year basis is Nick Saban of Alabama, who makes $11.4 million.

The Harbaugh contract, according to NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, has a contingency in it that is currently holding up the process. Harbaugh would be forbidden, at least in 2024, from pursuing an NFL coaching job in the terms of his current offer.

“There is a caveat, and it’s NFL-related,” Rapoport wrote on Sunday. “If he signed the deal — which he has not yet done – Jim Harbaugh would agree not to entertain or accept an NFL job for the 2024 season. The NFL clause would be one season only, but that’s apparently been enough to drag out the process.”

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Michigan Football Rumors: Jim Harbaugh Eyeing NFL

That would be difficult for Harbaugh to accept given that he has long sought to validate his career by returning to the NFL after he had a successful run with the 49ers from 2011-15. The 49ers went to a Super Bowl and an NFC championship game in Harbaugh’s short tenure, which ended with a bizarre mutual parting of ways that Harbaugh later claimed was not really mutual.

Harbaugh Took Over Michigan Shortly Thereafter

Harbaugh has actively pursued NFL jobs in each of the past two seasons. He was interviewed by the Vikings in 2022 and, this year, he interviewed with the Broncos before they hired Sean Payton. If he wanted a job in the NFL, he would be a candidate in a number of places, most notably the Los Angeles Chargers, who would give him the opportunity to coach star quarterback Justin Herbert.

Would Harbaugh leave Michigan football while he’s sitting on the No. 1 team in the game? Ten days ago, Jason LaCanfora of the Washington Post reported that the NFL remains an obstacle for a long-term Harbaugh commitment to UM.

Citing an anonymous GM, Canfora wrote. “Despite all the hoopla recently about Jim Harbaugh being on the verge of another new deal with the University of Michigan, people in the NFL aren’t really buying an end to his NFL thoughts. ‘He wants back in the NFL, bad,’ the GM said. This probably ends up with him back in Ann Arbor, but don’t discount those NFL desires.”

Violations Closing in on Wolverines

Do not discount those Michigan football rumors. One of the issues that Harbaugh has had to deal with has been the fickle violation decisions of the NCAA, which suspended Harbaugh for three games because of a vague sign-stealing scandal. He is facing more sanctions, too, related to his recruiting ativities during what was supposed to be a dead time during Covid-19.

Bouncing to the NFL would conveniently allow him to wash his hands of the “baggage” that comes with his repeated NCAA reprimands. That is the thinking of longtime college football analyst Paul Finebaum.

“I still think he’s a fascinating figure. I am not sure we’ve had many people like him in college football,” Finebaum said. “I don’t know him very well, and I have had some interactions over the year and some near-misses. He is somewhat of a dinosaur in a changing world. Like many, I will be surprised if he’s there whenever Michigan’s season ends because there is too much baggage built up.”