Jim Harbaugh, the head coach of Michigan, has been interviewing for an NFL head coaching position and leading the Wolverines to a national championship in the last eight days. His representatives are still negotiating with Michigan for a contract extension that would make him the highest-paid college coach in the country.
Michigan received a draft of the six-year deal last Friday, which includes special wording about termination and delaying the contract’s start date to accommodate the NFL hiring window. The extension would pay Harbaugh $11.5 million annually with incentives. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports broke the story of the contract’s specifics on Tuesday, and two sources verified it for The Detroit News.
After nine seasons as Michigan’s coach, Harbaugh, 60, recently finished his tenth at his alma mater. He guided the team to a 15-0 record and a national title victory over Washington on January 8. It was Harbaugh’s third consecutive year receiving considerable attention from an NFL franchise when he spoke with the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday.
Harbaugh recruited powerful agent Don Yee last month. Two ongoing NCAA investigations concerning the football program are also pending against Harbaugh. When it comes to his contracts, Harbaugh has stated over the years that he is not driven by money.
“You want to be somewhere where you’re wanted,” Harbaugh said last October when asked about his desire for a revised contract at Michigan. “If they like what you do and how you do it, your bosses tell you that and then that gets reflected in a contract. Bottom line, any of us, we want to be somewhere they like how you do it and what you do.”
While the financials of his contract have seemingly hit the right note, Harbaugh’s contract is seeking other assurances, specifically a matrix of specific fines laid out for any future NCAA violations, and also having a three-member arbitration panel that would handle a for-cause firing, rather than having the athletic director, in this case, Warde Manuel, making that decision. As one source pointed out, this is not Harbaugh seeking immunity per se from NCAA violations or termination, but he wants the decision about his future made by a panel of three, not one individual.
Arbitration panels are common in the NFL, but not in college football. “It’s typical in normal-services contracts to have some type of arbitration clause,” sports lawyer Dan Lust, a law professor at New York Law School and host of @ConDetrimental podcast, told The Detroit News on Tuesday. “It’s all about what you ask for. There’s no set uniform contract for coaches and executives
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