Dan Wetzel has the details on Harbaugh's contractual demands
Dan Wetzel, who appears to have very good sources within Schembechler Hall and/or related circles, has the details of what the sticking points are with Harbaugh's contract (emphasis added):
Specifically, sources said Harbaugh is seeking language that would grant him immunity from termination from any finding or sanction that could arise from multiple current NCAA investigations into the football program.
Harbaugh is also seeking a delay in the start date of the new contract to maintain a lower buyout that NFL teams would have to pay Michigan to hire him away. The buyout in his current contract dropped from $2.25 million to $1.5 million on January 11. Michigan is seeking that to rise to about $4 million in a new deal. Harbaugh has sought to have the new deal not start until Feb. 15, thus maintaining the lower, and more favorable, buyout number until after the NFL hiring cycle has concluded.
Harbaugh is seeking a matrix of fines be spelled out if there are any future NCAA violations as well as prohibiting the school’s athletic director from firing him “for cause” and instead having that decision, should it ever arise, rest in a three-member arbitration panel, sources said.
Seems pretty clear that Harbaugh doesn't trust Manuel (or, perhaps, any future AD) to be the decider of Harbaugh's fate.
Harbaugh has sought to have his contract grant him immunity from termination for any violation stemming from those cases. It additionally spells out any penalty he may face should the NCAA rule him responsible in any future case. That would include specific fine amounts for any Level I or Level II violation.
He is also seeking to have any decision involving “for cause” termination — whether for NCAA violations or anything else — to be determined by a three-member arbitration panel rather than the school’s athletic director, a role currently held by Warde Manuel. Traditionally, for-cause termination of a coach would be determined by his direct supervisor. The athletic director would still be able to fire him for performance-related issues.
The arbitration panel is a system used by the university's president. It is common in university executive contracts, but not with coaches, according to numerous college administrators.
January 16th, 2024 at 3:31 PM ^
I'd pay money to watch that job interview. No way those two could coexist in Dallas.
January 16th, 2024 at 3:35 PM ^
While I agree with this - man Jeffrey Lurie aint exactly a wallflower Ford type of guy who sits in the background. He has some Jerry Jones in him as well.
January 16th, 2024 at 5:27 PM ^
In order for that to work, they'd have to broom the coaching staff that put them in the Super Bowl a year ago. I guess they've all forgotten how to coach (.667 winning percentage, 3 playoffs in 3 years notwithstanding).
*If* they do that, that's a message to Harbaugh and future coaches that your leash will be short: First sign of failure, you're done.
Also, unless they're also firing Roseman (or forcing him out), any new coach is *not* getting personnel control. I don't see Belichick winding up there for that reason, and Harbaugh would have to come to a modus vivendi with their GM, and likely map out the edges of their working relationship, before taking the job.
I suppose it's possible they could really, really want Harbaugh and make the case that "we only fired them because you were available, we'd never do that to you".
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Yes, the Eagles had a bad finish to the year, and lost to a team that probably isn't as good as they are most days. (It's the NFL, so beating someone 7/10 is abject domination - which still leaves you losing 1 time in 3!). Yes, they had a few injuries that played into that, which is part of life in the big city. But thinking they're going to broom their staff seems, well, crazy fan talk.
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Now, Jerry Jones is a known maniac, so I could see the Cowboys opening up, but unless Harbaugh was confident of his ability to get along with meddling ownership (and didn't get flashbacks to SF), that doesn't look likely either. Belichick could end up there, as he has the gravitas and pedigree to command Jones' respect and dictate at least part of how he'd want to operate. I'm not sure Harbaugh's track record would enable that same situation in Jones' eyes.
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Assume that Harbaugh is looking for a situation which would give him multiple Super Bowl shots in, say, a five year window. The teams with openings do not look like they're one draft away from doing that to me:
Raiders
Panthers
Falcons
Chargers
Commanders
Titans
Seahawks
I don't think *any* of those teams are making the 2nd round of the playoffs multiple times in the next five years, let alone the Super Bowl. The teams that I see that could are teams that are set with the coaching situation:
Chiefs
Bills
Ravens
49ers
Eagles
The Texans, Lions(!?!) and Dolphins have potential, depending in part on what they do and what happens around them. (For example, if the Packers fall apart, the Lions have a solid route to one playoff win and the conference championship each year.)
The problem here, of course, is that these teams are in that position at least partly because of the coaching staffs, and hence are unlikely to boot them.
And if they do boot them (Eagles), is that a sign that the coaches were the problem, or the players? For example, maybe Hurts and Brown really are entering the injury-prone stage of their careers, and Kelce/Graham/others are retiring. Does that job look as good without Hurts?
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The bottom line is that if Harbaugh wants a Super Bowl ring and not just an NFL job, there's a lot of wishcasting involved.
January 16th, 2024 at 5:57 PM ^
How is Nick Sirianni incompetent when his results on paper are very similar to Harbaugh's? 1 super bowl appearance and 3 playoff appearances overall. Only difference is Harbaugh won an extra 2 games in the playoffs to get to the nfc championship game the 2 seasons he didn't make the superbowl and Sirianni so far hasn't had a season where he doesn't qualify for the playoffs(unlike harbaugh his last season)
January 16th, 2024 at 12:33 PM ^
Honestly, the fact that this is playing out in the media as leaks is encouraging. Means Harbaugh's camp views UM as a realistic option. Him having options is a reasonable position for one of the preeminent coaches to take
January 16th, 2024 at 12:34 PM ^
Yep after reading this it's clear he wants to be in the NFL. Let him go be there. I appreciate what he has done here, but you can't have it both ways.
January 16th, 2024 at 1:40 PM ^
Actually monkey, when you're highly in demand you can.
The rest of us just have to take it & like it...
January 16th, 2024 at 1:08 PM ^
This 100% .. I'll take it unless ... I mean why bother at that point? Seems like would be an easy "give back" to get something else of more value elsewhere in the contract.
January 16th, 2024 at 1:38 PM ^
I'm fine with that. I'd love him to remain at Michigan, if agreeing to this delay facilitates that why not?
What would the school actually be losing by agreeing? All it asks is status quo another month. So if they play hard ball on it they don't gain anything, but may well lose something...🤷♂️
January 16th, 2024 at 1:48 PM ^
Harbaugh wants to keep the NFL door open which is fine.
One (or two) more years with this talent could be special back to back and also provide some additional mentoring for Moore and staff.
Give the man what he wants Warde.
January 16th, 2024 at 3:27 PM ^
This guy gets it. We have given Jim the red carpet treatment. If he wanted to be here he would agree to a $50M buyout. $4M is still nothing. And then moving the date out a month so he can participate in the coaching carnival yearly is less than optimal.
Anyhow he did his job here - only at Michigan do we land on our dream coach, who wants to kick the tires elsewhere annually.
January 16th, 2024 at 4:07 PM ^
Disagree. a $50M buyout gives Warde massive power over Harbaugh. Can hamstring him if he wants to. Harbaugh could then go public, but that's a mess and would hurt UM.
Low buyout keeps Warde from having power over him...
January 16th, 2024 at 3:38 PM ^
Agreed. We love you Jim, but pick one would ya? This is like a toxic relationship where the other keeps breaking up with you, then coming back. All in or all out.
January 16th, 2024 at 4:08 PM ^
Would you be all in for a boss who you don't feel has your back? That's my read on this more than Jim wants NFL.
January 16th, 2024 at 5:32 PM ^
If Jim goes to the NFL, it will be because
1. He finds a situation where he'll be given full roster control to build the kind of team he wants to win with, AND
2. He believes enough of the right pieces are in place already to build a Super Bowl winning team
Jim has the track record to demand those things and can afford to be very selective, but #1 is still asking A LOT as far as most team owners are concerned, while #2 further narrows the number of opportunities that he would seriously consider.
With these parameters in mind, it makes total sense for Jim to approach this as "I want and expect to most likely be coaching Michigan again next season, but I want to leave the door open just in case my (other) dream job materializes."
And frankly, he has the bargaining power in this situation. From the athletic department's position, it probably looks like the highest upside course of action is to bet on the unlikelihood of Jim finding the specific, narrowly-defined type of NFL situation he's interested in pursuing. What alternative do they have -- fire the coach that just won Michigan's first outright national championship since the 1940s over contractual details, starting over from scratch effectively, OR simply wait out the NFL interest knowing that you've still got Sherrone Moore as a successor in the off chance that an NFL team is willing to give Jim exactly what he wants?
Another way of looking at it is that if Jim is being this demanding in his contract negotiations with the university, he's going to be similarly uncompromising when it comes to discussing opportunities with NFL owners. Think back to his Vikings interview where he supposedly wasn't offered the job, and all the other interviews where the story ends up being that the job was discussed and ultimately wasn't offered. These teams aren't going to make an offer that they already know the candidate is going to reject. In these conversations, it must quickly become apparent that Jim has a specific list of demands he wants the owners to agree to, they'll ask if he's willing to compromise in terms of what he's asking for, i.e. "would you accept the job if we give you X and Y but not Z?". Jim replies that he wouldn't. "Ok, then thanks for your interest but we aren't offering the job." "Ok, good luck with your coaching search and call me if your situation changes."
It's horrible PR for an organization to make an offer for a high profile position like NFL head coach only for the candidate to very publicly decline the offer, so offers don't get made unless there is strong alignment between both parties and a sense that they will agree to terms. This approach allows these organizations to save face by saying "we didn't offer the job to Jim Harbaugh" rather than "after hearing what we were and weren't willing to do to bring him here, Jim Harbaugh turned us down."
January 16th, 2024 at 10:00 PM ^
My question if Harbaugh has been up front and honest about everything why is he so concerned about something else coming out from the investigation? I think UM has been very fair with Jim and you can’t just sell the farm and not have any control over an employee. I think Jim needs to give a little also on these demands. Either he does or he really doesn’t want to be at UM anymore
January 17th, 2024 at 4:18 AM ^
I don’t think he’s afraid of anything significantly bad coming out in the investigation. I think he doesn’t trust Warde and the NCAA and is worried about getting fired for a cheeseburger and not having his boss stand up for him. I don’t blame him for specifically demanding assurances in this area, given the clear tension that exists between him and Warde.
January 16th, 2024 at 11:37 AM ^
I agree if Ward can't get it done then Santa should.
We will deem this the Santa Clause.
January 16th, 2024 at 11:40 AM ^
You can't fool me. There ain't no sanity clause!
January 16th, 2024 at 12:28 PM ^
Profile pic checks out.
I agree. Am I the only one who was hoping for a $15MM buyout clause? $4MM seems like tiebreaker-against-Jim-if-NFL-likes-two-guys-the-same money. I was hoping for subsidize-the-next-coaching-search-such-that-we-get-our-pick-of-new-coach-and-the-fanciest-dijon-coordinators money.
January 16th, 2024 at 11:38 AM ^
I think it's funny that we even have an AD when President Ono has been doing most of the legwork since he's been here.
January 16th, 2024 at 11:39 AM ^
"...and if you can't, Santa should get it done for you."
...and then replace you.
FIFY
January 16th, 2024 at 11:44 AM ^
Switch the order and we gucci
January 16th, 2024 at 11:56 AM ^
Maybe Santa should dual role president and athletic director.
January 16th, 2024 at 11:39 AM ^
Yes, with the possible exception of delaying the higher buyout. If you sign a new contract, the higher buyout should kick in immediately. Even $4M may not stop an NFL team but $1.5 is quite low and if Harbaugh agreed to take an NFL job less than 1 month after signing a new Michigan contract, frankly that's quite embarrassing. Even $4M might not be sufficient comp to Michigan to potentially deal with all of the fall out from that.
January 16th, 2024 at 11:43 AM ^
Pretty clear that these demands go above the AD's pay grade, such as the arbitration panel that would remove him from the AD's purview. Your beef is probably with Ono and the Regents, not Warde.
January 16th, 2024 at 12:38 PM ^
And with Jim to some degree. The buyout proves he wants to be in the NFL
January 16th, 2024 at 1:49 PM ^
The very fact Harbaugh feels he needs these stipulations is why our beef is with Warde!
January 16th, 2024 at 2:51 PM ^
Amazing that so many of "us" don't understand that.
January 16th, 2024 at 11:50 AM ^
Can somebody explain what a "show cause" penalty is and why it would screw Michigan if they agreed to Harbaugh's contract demands and then the NCAA gives Harbaugh a "show cause"? I googled it and the language is confusing, so I thought maybe somebody could dumb it down for me?
January 16th, 2024 at 11:53 AM ^
He couldn't coach for the entirety of it, and the NCAA can punish the university for merely continuing to employ him.
January 16th, 2024 at 12:53 PM ^
Didn't an FSU assistant coach just get a 2 year show clause and is still going to be coaching at FSU?
January 16th, 2024 at 2:00 PM ^
This is where I'm confused as well.
Does a show-cause automatically suspend that individual from any and all coaching activities? Or does a show-cause only impact an individual's ability to get hired at another institution once the show-cause has been put in place?
January 16th, 2024 at 5:15 PM ^
YES you absolutely can coach with a show cause see Adkins at FSU. It's a big misunderstanding that people think you can't coach with a show cause.
January 16th, 2024 at 12:57 PM ^
I don’t know if these specifics are covered in the article but usually it works like this:
Harbaugh doesn’t want to be exposed to a termination “for cause” if the NCAA comes down with some unilateral coach accountability penalty where he did nothing wrong (that is within his control) and the NCAA also now eliminated any ability for arbitration or due process.
If this were to happen, it is not that they would be required to retain him. Rather, the university can still terminate the agreement, but they can’t terminate it“for cause”. The difference is they would still have to pay him under a termination “without cause” if they don’t want to defend him.
January 17th, 2024 at 12:00 AM ^
You can coach (unless suspended, which the show cause would probably come with a suspension, not necessarily for the full length). But it (as of this year) automatically imposes some penalties on the school that employs you, and basically puts them on double secret probation such that any further violations get harsher punishments.
January 16th, 2024 at 12:03 PM ^
I thought a show cause only comes into play if a coach from a penalized school quits and tries to take a job at another NCAA-member school. I don't think that would apply to Jim and Michigan. He would just have to serve out whatever penalty is imposed.
January 16th, 2024 at 12:06 PM ^
Jeremy Pruitt (Tennessee) recently got a 6-year show cause for recruiting violations. He personally paid players IIRC.
NCAA can do whatever they want. If Stalions is The Greatest Scandal In History and he's (per their new rule) directly responsible, PLUS they say he lied to them about cheeseburgers (even though they can't PROVE it) then who knows how long a show cause the NCAA would feel like sticking him with. Maybe none, maybe lifetime. Nobody knows!
No reason for Harbaugh to even deal with this crap anymore if he can go to the NFL.
I'm happy to blame the NCAA for pushing our coach out.
January 16th, 2024 at 1:08 PM ^
I agree with this.
Harbaugh may prefer to stay at Michigan as Plan A, but he wants to and should at least protect himself against any unfair unilateral NCAA rulings where he feels he did nothing wrong. He also wants to listen to NFL offers.
For those NFL offers to be attractive, its not just the money and the offer to be head coach. He will want other assurances from an NFL organization so that he is not s/t idiots like there were at the niners. He would want a situation like his brothers.
At the end of the day he may not get all he wants from either negotiation, but he wants to and should be able to make a choice. No one can say which is plan A or B unless both offers give him everything he wants. He has a right to be able to negotiate both deals and make that choice.
January 16th, 2024 at 12:17 PM ^
Walter White ‘asking for a friend’ about legal consequences. I love MGoBlog.
January 16th, 2024 at 11:58 AM ^
I don’t know if demands these specific and all encompassing could ever be called “reasonable.” He may be a good enough coach that the University should capitulate to unreasonable demands, but agreeing that he is un-fireable regardless of ANYTHING that is found in the on-going investigations is not something the University is going to agree to and I’m pretty sure he knows it.
January 16th, 2024 at 12:02 PM ^
I'm inclined to agree - the demand is unreasonable, and he has to know that.
if he's knowingly making an unreasonable demand in the negotiations process, then he's not really negotiating in good faith. And if one isn't negotiating in good faith, does one really want the job he's negotiating for? It doesn't seem like it.
and i think this has little to do with Michigan, and everything to do with the NCAA (and probably a bit to do with trying to cross a Superbowl off his bucket list).
January 16th, 2024 at 12:03 PM ^
Harbaugh is seeking language that would grant him immunity from termination from any finding or sanction that could arise from multiple current NCAA investigations into the football program.
This is likely a huge sticking point. If it is found that Harbaugh did know about the advanced scouting, i.e. he lied to the university and NCAA, this wording implies he would have immunity from termination. It may be that that they've agreed to immunity for what is known and knew findings aren't covered, but that still takes a bit of work to itemize everything that is covered.
The immunity from termination for sanctions could also be a huge sticking point. If the NCAA gives Harbaugh a 1-year show-cause, what does Michigan do? Keep him on payroll but not as head coach for a year, then reinstate him? I can understand both sides on this.
The itemized list of fines for penalties could be another sticking point. He doesn't care about money. If he earned the school 10 Level 1 violations at $100k per, the university probably considers the damage to be worth more than a million dollars.
He's trying to arbitrate penalties for things that haven't happened and the school probably is understandably hesitant about what type of a position that could put them in in the future. Again, his side is also understandable with the NCAA seemingly hating him, but that just makes the negotiation more difficult for the school.
January 16th, 2024 at 12:37 PM ^
Yeah, I’m not taking a shot at Harbaugh here, he just won a national title and will never be surpassed as my favorite coach of all time at this point, but these demands indicate to me that Michigan should be actively instituting Plan B. They cannot hire anybody while he is still under contract but they can have somebody all but hired. Ono and Manuel should be pretty far along on the hiring Moore or going outside the program to hire discussion right now and should be telling Harbaugh “let us know if you actually want to negotiate.”
January 16th, 2024 at 1:57 PM ^
They absolutely could not go outside the program & start shadow negotiations with another coach without it getting back to Harbaugh via Don Yee. That would virtually guarantee he's out.
They absolutely could be making sure Sherrone is feeling valued & having preliminary talks about a raise & a possible future promotion should Jim leave. Above board all the way, and Jim would appreciate it.
The only guys I wanted over Sherrone were DeBoer & Jedd anyway, so why bother pissing in the kettle?
January 16th, 2024 at 2:11 PM ^
It’s abundantly clear that Michigan is at the most plan B for harbaugh right now, and there’s openly articles each day about interviews he’s taking. Given this, if Harbaugh truly cares about the program, can he reasonably expect Michigan to just sit around dick in hand and not have a contingency plan?
January 16th, 2024 at 2:19 PM ^
fwiw, reports about his recent meeting with the Chargers were not a surprise to most of us, given the reporting of his discussions with the Chargers over the summer, and the heating up of speculation once the Chargers fired their coach in early December. That he was going to take NFL meetings after the playoffs was a foregone conclusion, imo.
the sticking point here, imo, is his desire for immunity in the face of punitive actions from the NCAA on the Recruiting and Scouting investigations. Michigan doesn't want to be in a position where they have to pay out tens of millions of dollars in salary to a guy who's not allowed to coach.
January 16th, 2024 at 4:37 PM ^
I don’t think it matters whether Harbaugh knows or not. I would think that he would think that if they weren’t talking to other coaches including Moore right now they are complete morons.
I don’t think Moore is the slam dunk hire though. I think that depends a lot on how much of the other staff remains together. Moore certainly had very impressive moments, he also had moments that resulted in many a head being scratched.
I AM NOT saying he would not be a good hire, he would be, but it would be at least partly a “continuity hire.” It might be worth taking a gander around the landscape, particularly if Minter and/or Hart go elsewhere and continuity wouldn’t be a thing anyway. I’m guessing Hart would be a no brainer OC though if Moore is hired).