What ‘bet’ means for Michigan football and Jim Harbaugh
Jared Ramsey
If you’ve paid close attention to Michigan football during the second half of the season, you may have heard the word “bet” being tossed around a lot — especially from Wolverines players and even head coach Jim Harbaugh as of late.
“Bet” became Michigan’s mantra during the final four weeks as the Wolverines finished the season 13-0 and secured the top spot in the College Football Playoffs. In modern pop culture, “bet” is a slang word used as a quick form of acknowledgement, usually in place of “OK.” Players initially used the word as a way to acknowledge Harbaugh’s three-game suspension due to Michigan’s illicit sign-stealing scandal and to let people know they would be locked-in on proving their doubters wrong the rest of the season.
Harbaugh offered up his own explanation of what “bet” means to him and its connotation with the team when speaking on ESPN on Sunday following the CFP reveal which pit Michigan vs. Alabama in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1. Harbaugh, in true Midwest-dad fashion, said “bet” is an acronym about team building during adversity.
“Our players came up with this ‘Bet, Bet,’” Harbaugh said. “I even had to look up what it means. But what it means to me is ‘Bringing Everyone Together,’ and that’s what our team has done. So, bet.”
Players started posting the word online once they learned of Harbaugh’s three-game suspension handed down from the Big Ten on Nov. 10. The posts went viral and prompted other prominent figures in the Michigan community, such as university president Santa Ono and noted alumnus Tom Brady, to join the online chant.
The Big Ten’s suspension was Harbaugh’s second of the season. The league found U-M in violation of its sportsmanship policy “for conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.”
This is not the first slang word Harbaugh has turned into a coaching acronym. In the past, he has described multiple different players as a “dawg” — or as he puts it, a “Disciplined Athlete With Grit.”