SIAP: Harbaugh says he's not worth his salary.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12552178/jim-harbaugh-mi…
How can you not love this guy?
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I'd go to war with Jim any day of the week. I love how he's not like the hired hands that Tuscaloosa and Columbus have. He cares more about Michigan than any of us on here even do. He despises Ohio State and MSU more than we do. We're about to let a rabid dog loose in August.
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He's foaming at the mouth.
March 24th, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^
Jim Harbaugh doesn't fight wars. His meer presence prevents them as all opposition cowers before The Jackhammer
I agree.
He's worth more than his salary.
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and playing the media well. If he would have admitted to being worth that much then the jackals in the media would paint a target on his back. It's a smart move.
that's the politically correct answer.
But honestly, he IS worth the $$$. Absolutely. And he shouldn't necessarily be ashamed to say so.
There was a big kerfuffle about 5 years ago when UConn BB HC Jim Calhoun was asked the same sort of question, and Calhoun said "yes, I'm worth every penny I get paid." Some people were annoyed by his frankness. But for what Calhoun did for Connecticut basketball, and raising the value of the program (and extra publicity for the school), he was exactly right.
First time I've read ESPN.com comments in a while. Always a treat.
made his salary and then some with the newfound demand for their fitted michigan baseball caps. . . .or at least it will. . .
Here's a question. Is the 100,000+ attendance crisis over with Harbaugh at the helm? Yes right? Imagine if we hired a B-list candidate. Would we be looking at ~90,000ish crowds at the Big House?
Yes.
March 24th, 2015 at 10:09 PM ^
Our worst fears would've come to life and he would've hired Greg Schiano or Steve Addazio
Many of us were ready to trade our souls and maybe our first born children to get him here so I would say he's worth his salary.
are teenagers. I would trade them for an ice cream cone at times lol
March 24th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
In my own opinion, Jim Harbaugh is worth the comfort that Michigan football is perhaps now headed in a positive direction and the confidence that the ceiling just got much higher for the program and that's before the money really. In other words, he's definitely worth the money for what this potentially means long-term and the transformations that seem to already be happening.
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/college-football/2015/03/51697/jim-harbau…
Michigan will pay Harbaugh between $5-$7 million dollars this fall to lead a team that, at best, will finish with three or four losses.
Is he worth that kind of money? No. To Harbaugh's credit, he realizes he's overpaid.
March 25th, 2015 at 12:30 AM ^
Not to take away from Meyer's accomplishments, but he struggled for 3 years to beat Hoke's teams. Hoke is considered an incompetent oaf, akin to Fred Flinstone, in most OSU circles. Do they really think it got any easier to beat Michigan now that Harbaugh is at the helm?
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I wouldn't expect them to have any understanding of economics, or any subject requiring deeper thought, for that matter.
as one of those 8 or 9 wins are agaisnt OSU, Harbaugh would be a steal at twice the price.
Fucking hate ohio. The entire goddamn state.
March 25th, 2015 at 10:19 AM ^
March 25th, 2015 at 12:30 PM ^
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March 24th, 2015 at 10:29 PM ^
The whole concept of is somebody "worth" their salary to me is ridiculous. Of course he is because somebody (in this case us) was willing to pay him 5MM and he was willing to take it. Therefore he's "worth" exactly 5MM per year. Just like houses, cars, collectables - you name it - the free market decides what something is "worth" and no matter how much it bothers some people - in a relatively free market your worth is defined by the dollars someone is willing to pay and you're willing to accept.
It drives me nuts to hear people bitch about celebrity income or sports salaries. Because unless they're going into the negotiations with a gun they are "worth" exactly what someone is willing to pay them and they are willing to work for. Not a dollar more or a dollar less.
March 24th, 2015 at 11:25 PM ^
I want to upvote this 100 times. Well said. Also, look at a guy like Saban. Not only has he earned Alabama (and the SEC as a whole) money in the form of making it to and winning national championships, but I'd also bet that Alabama has received more money in donations since he started winning.
Also applications to Alabama from out-of-state students have skyrocketed. This means 2 things: (1) more money in the form of out of state tuition; and (2) a larger pool of students to select from, and selectivity is a factor in university ranking. This means that, by winning, he has actually improved the university as a whole. I know Michigan is a much better school than Alabama, but the point holds that many students, even high achieving ones, will make choices, in part, based on extracurricular activities such as sports. The value of such things is difficult to quantify, but does exist.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2013/05/13/the-magic-of-nick-sa…
March 24th, 2015 at 11:39 PM ^
Well, sort of, but your comment seems to suggest that people never overpay for things, which is obviously untrue unless you simply don't believe in the concept of objective worth. When the "market" is extremely small and the goods are extremely scarce, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to declare the worth of an item in market terms. People can and frequently do overpay in those situations.
Brady Hoke was paid about 4 million a year to coach here. The market didn't decide he was worth that much, one moron with a big checkbook did. Was he "worth it"?
March 25th, 2015 at 12:00 AM ^
I get what you're saying but it's easy to judge worth in hindsight. Bottomline, someone was willing to pay $4m to Hoke. Part of that price tag comes from havign to keep up appearnaces - Brandon knew that the head coach of Michigan football needs to be paid at the top of the profession's payscale (but not the very top) commensurate with the programs elite self-image and persona.. Brandon could have offered him $1M per year and Brady probably would've accepted it. But maintaining our lofty reputation/perception as a program required being willing to pay $4M, which Brandon was....making it worth it.
March 25th, 2015 at 10:18 AM ^
unless you simply don't believe in the concept of objective worth.
There definitely is NO objective worth.
March 24th, 2015 at 11:39 PM ^
I read this site every day. I rarely log in or comment, but this is exactly how I feel. I wish I could upvote this more.
I can understand why people are bothered by how much athletes, actors, and CEOs make, but saying someone isn't worth a salary that they are currently earning is completely ridiculous. If I offered someone $10 to mow my lawn, that may seem like a lot to a lot of people (let's say most of the world), and not much at all to someone who grew up in a very expensive area; but to say that the kid cutting my lawn isn't "worth $10 per mow" is ridiculous, because he clearly is to me, and I'm paying him that exact amount.
Same goes for CEOs, if the shareholders don't think that person is worth it, they can fire him. For actors, entertainers, and athletes, don't complain if you go watch their movies, buy tickets to their shows, watch them on tv, or buy tickets to sporting events. It's that simple, the Yankees will determine how much ARod is worth, if they are wrong and overpay him in terms of a sports contract, too bad, that's their problem. This is why the Patriots and Red Wings have had a lot of long term success, they have done well with not spending too much of their salary cap on a player not playing up to their perceived potential, also known as worth in a capitalistic society, at the time of their signing. This applies to actors and actresses, as well as to CEOs. You are worth what someone is willing to pay you and you are willing to accept, nothing less, and nothing more.
March 24th, 2015 at 11:44 PM ^
This makes absolutely no sense from an economic standpoint. You're redefining the meaning of "worth" by assuming that every person making value judgments is a rational actor. Overpaying is a real thing. Some people actually do make more money than they produce. Sure, that's the fault of the employer as you point out, but I'm not sure what that has to do with worth.
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March 25th, 2015 at 11:15 AM ^
If you are in the working world right now you went to a job this morning where you and your employer decided what your "worth" was. Nobody forced you to accept it and nobody forced your employer to offer it. If you're really good at it (like Harbaugh) chances are others will want you to work for them and your "worth" will go up. If you really suck at it (like Hoke) your employer will prolly not want you around long and they'll let you go and your "worth" will probably go down.
But at the end of the day whether you like it or not - your worth is defined by what you and a third party agree it to be. Just like when you sell a house, a baseball card or a used blender. The state does not determine this value. YOU determine this value. And it doesnt matter if your friends, family or anyone else (like a random internet poster) doesnt think you're "worth" it - the fact that your employer and you do agree is all that matters.
So is Hargaugh worth 5MM? Absofuckinglutely. Not a dollar more or a dolllar less. That's a free market at work boys and girls.
#invisablehand
By your definition, there's no such thing as a good or bad deal. If I found a sucker to buy my blender for $1 million dollars it doesn't mean that it's actually worth it. It just means there's stupid people out there. In that case, what's really worth 1 million is my ability to identify and rope in suckers, not the blender. Was Dave Brandon worth the almost a million he got. I would say his ability to foster personal loyalty was worth that much, but he was worth far less to actual doing his job.
March 25th, 2015 at 11:33 AM ^
Yes, goods are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. The housing market is insane in some areas right now. My neighbor bought in 2010 and, without doing anything to the house, is going to make a good deal because there is now a better market for the same house.
When it comes to the business world, I would definitely not say that everyone is worth what they are making. There are plenty of times that someone comes in with a great resume and smooth talking and gets hired, only to learn that they can't perform the job they are hired for, and it's 6 months of pain or more before you let them go.
There is also a great deal of cronyism/ nepotism, buddies club in the business world that allows for inflated payments for unqualified people. I know at my company that the people running it, ran with very little oversight, hired and paid their friends or gave inflated contracts to friends to do work, only to run the company into bancruptcy. This doesn't even get into people that are just better at negotiating their salaries.
So yes, there was someone willing to pay someone a huge salary, but their worth was not what they were making. Note this can also work on the flip side, as there are people who could get more that don't, because they'd rather pass on those to others. I think Harbaugh and the CEO of Costco are two examples of people who could have gotten more and than what they are paid.
March 25th, 2015 at 12:32 PM ^
I am not claiming that every person paid X amount generates X amount of value. I am also not claiming that the business world is not riddled with people hopelessly misplaced and unable to do the job they were hired for (Lord knows I've worked with a few). But everyone of those idiots were "worth" what the company was willing to pay them right up to when they were fired and then they were "worth" zero.
If the question had been asked "Did U of M get 5MM of VALUE from hiring Jim Harbaugh?" the answer, to me at least, would be a hell yes. But the question is "was he worth it" and that's a whole different issue altogether.
but what you are arguing now is purely linguistics. In the context of Harbaughs statement, he stated that he thinks (truly or not) that his worth (value to your statement above) to the University is less than $5 million. I know you are not a lawyer, but it seems you are playing games with technicality of the meaning of the word rather than the intent of the word.
Your argument still doesn't hold value. I sold my car to my brother for nothing. That does not mean that it was worth nothing (he sold it years later for a few hundred dollars), but my brother was going back to school to change careers and I had just gotten my first job and wanted a new car. You can't simply say Jim Harbaughs worth is $5 million when his market value is probably much higher, but he chose this salary in part, because of his love for the University.
Your argument seems to be purely based on a technicality of a word, and even then doesn't hold up very well.
He's unstable and crazy and a fantastically diabolically successful football coach. We're not talking about leading Ball State to one year of relevance with cursory connections to a national title team, or about a lifelong Bo assistant, or a lifelong Bo assistant who failed as an HC elsewhere. Harbaugh is none of that. He's a former player at college AND NFL level, and a coach of college and NFL level. Bo never did that. Moeller never did that. Carr never did that. There are plenty of examples of NFL coaches who came to college level and sucked. Harbaugh is not that either. He's weird. Harbaugh is going to win a lot of football games.
Ohio State has thoroughly enjoyed dining on surf and turf for some time. They now have a great coach, have had very little bad luck, while Michigan's program has been flailing around in turmoil, uncertainty and dysfunction for several years.
With an unproven QB, I too expect Michigan to play like average Joe's in year 1. Nobody expects Michigan to win the Spanish Inquisition this year. Or do they?
I do believe that Harbaugh's Wolverines are going to be competent, and at least good enough to pulverize with extreme prejudice the opponents they're supposed to, and perhaps may pull down the trousers of a few other opponents who think nothing bad ever happens to them anymore.
March 25th, 2015 at 12:40 AM ^
Michigan, as a program, was at a crossroads after firing Hoke. If you wanted any hope of making Michigan relevant as long as Meyer and Dantonio are around, you needed to get Harbaugh. Whether it's right or not, anyone else, in the eyes of the students, alums, boosters, that person just wasn't going to be good enough, and they would've been set up for failure just like RichRod. Unless you wanted subpar crowds, continued beatings from your rivals, and overall indifference to the program, there was literally no other option. Harbaugh was the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth choice.
There's a sense of optimism around our program right now that hasn't been seen in quite some time. We might not see immediate results, but the results will come, despite what the scum in East Lansing and Columbus would tell you.
Every dog has his day, my friends. Harbaugh is a mad dog. It's time to let him off the leash.
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