Harbaugh on contract: ‘Bigger fish to fry’ now
Coronavirus concerns are top priority at Michigan
Back in January, Jim Harbaugh received a 10% raise following his fifth season as Michigan football’s coach.
The salary bump was tied to an automatic escalator stuffed into his seven-year pact with the school.
But the agreement itself, which is set to expire following the end of the 2021 season, hadn’t been extended — raising doubt about Harbaugh’s long-term future with the program.
After all, it’s become a standard practice in college football for university athletic departments to lengthen coaching contracts to four years and beyond as a way of maintaining the
perception of stability that appeals to both recruits and fans.
Michigan, however, has charted a different course with Harbaugh; approximately 18 months remain in his current agreement with the school.
Asked Wednesday why an extension has not been finalized, Harbaugh responded: “I think there’s bigger fish to fry — for our athletic director, for our administration, for me as a coach. It hasn’t been on the top of the priority list. I would expect something, [that] there will be an announcement sometime.”
Harbaugh perhaps anticipated it would be sooner. Contract negotiations with Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, Harbaugh revealed, were underway last winter.
“It was kind of right there,” he said. “Right in last February when it was being discussed. Then the pandemic hit and it’s been not as high on the priority list.”
The onset of the coronavirus in March has changed everything, disrupting sports and recalibrating the economic engines that power them.
Just last month, Manuel presented a bleak financial picture for the fiscal year that just started. According to his projections, Michigan athletics could face a $26.1 million deficit and a major reduction in revenue due to a significant decline in spectator admissions.
Harbaugh, who was scheduled to make $8.05 million in 2020, has felt the effects wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, he accepted a 10 percent salary cut, although the university couldn’t clarify whether the decrease is tied solely to the $605,000 base amount he receives, or his entire compensation package.
Was it a harbinger for things to come as it relates to Harbaugh’s future negotiations for an extension? More to the point, did Harbaugh damage his earning potential by not finalizing an extension before the world was upended by the virus?
One industry insider doesn’t think so. “There definitely was an impact on negotiations for people that were on the precipice of finalizing deals,” he said. “I know of a handful of deals that were tabled because of the pandemic and just trying to focus on the things that were important at hand. But I think that football salaries as a whole won’t be affected.
“Initially, maybe people will be hesitant to extend contracts. But ultimately, I think people will realize the value of hiring a top-notch football coach.
“If anything, they probably will want to invest more resources in it because it is really important to win and because as you win, more revenues grow. I don’t think there will be a coming adjustment.”
That’s good news for Harbaugh, who was the third-highest paid coach in college football last season and earned less than only Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Alabama’s Nick Saban.
Whether his pay is commensurate with his performance is a matter of debate. He has a robust .723 winning percentage at Michigan and resuscitated the program following the failed regimes of Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke.
But he’s also 2-12 against AP top-10 teams, has yet to beat rival Ohio State in five tries, and is 1-4 in bowl games.
It’s a record Harbaugh has a chance to improve if he sticks around for a while, which it seems he will based on his comments Wednesday.
Addressing the possibility of an extension, “We’ll get to that, I’m sure. We’ll get to that when that’s … more high on the priority list for everybody.”
Right now, he insists, there is no rush. “I’m under contract this year and next,” he said.
So sit tight and stay tuned for more. Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines, Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Big Ten newsletter.