Although it would be a record commitment for a college football team, Jim Harbaugh, the head coach of the top-ranked Michigan Wolverines, is reportedly sitting on a ten-year, $125 million contract. With that annual salary of $12.5 million, he would become the highest-paid college coach ever.
Nick Saban of Alabama currently holds the record for the highest deal in terms of annual salary, making $11.4 million.
NFL Network source Ian Rapoport said that a provision in the Harbaugh deal is what’s now slowing down the process. Under the rules of his current agreement, Harbaugh would not be allowed to pursue an NFL coaching position until at least 2024.
“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.”
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.
