The Deal is *almost?* Done [OP's title edited]
https://twitter.com/nickbaumgardner/status/1347387889689260039?s=19
[Edited, as Baumgardner's tweet doesn't call it a "done deal".
Put down your pitchforks and extinguish your torches, please
-rob f ]
January 7th, 2021 at 10:46 PM ^
Base salary 4 million, max incentive is 8 million (his old salary) - Harbaugh betting on himself and staying home at a discount. Low buyout. Humbling himself for half the salary - First class. Go earn that ? coach!
January 7th, 2021 at 10:50 PM ^
Hopefully this reinvigorates the James we all fell in love with.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:34 PM ^
Real world example here....if your work was paying you $100k a year the last 6 years, and decided to renew your contract at $50k a year but threw in sales goal incentives you've rarely been close to reaching any of those last 6 years that could get you close to being back at that $100k level. Oh, and they also cut your severance package back significantly. Would you be reinvigorated?
How about your team of coworkers whose jobs depended on yours? Would they be fired up to help out the guy management hasn't shown any faith in? Or would they be out looking for new jobs? What about trying to recruit new members or clients your team? Think they'd be amped to sign up for this?
This is we want to fire you...just not today move from Michigan. A punt on 4th and 1 from the 35 kind of move. Scared to make a decision, and opted to squander an opportunity instead.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:39 PM ^
Just remember in your real word example where you take a $50k pay cut, you are probably also sitting on a $1-2M nest egg (Jim's $ from NFL playing and coaching).
January 8th, 2021 at 9:29 AM ^
$1-2M? Are you kidding? He's made $8M a year for the last six years! You can't spend all that money on Khakis.
January 8th, 2021 at 10:48 AM ^
I believe he's saying someone making $100k/year would have a nest egg of $1-2M, in comparison to JH's obviously larger nest egg.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:46 PM ^
His "buddies" got a lot more $$ for them so they good.
You better appreciate $50k and a fucking chance or get a better job.
Plus he likes the schools in the area.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:51 PM ^
That is not a really good analogy as earning $50k vs $100k is a HUGE difference in the real world (like you can't afford a house with $50k). In practice, there is not a huge difference in your day to day living making $4 million or $8 million. You are probably driving the same car and living in the same house and taking the same vacation.
I took a significant pay degrade (~$30k) to take the job that I knew I would like better before. If I was in Harbaugh's position, this is not something that I would rule out or be upset about taking.
January 8th, 2021 at 1:48 AM ^
Correct, there are significant diminishing returns on pay that high. Especially when you've already made more money than 99.99% of people of the course of your career.
The difference between $50k and $100k is a massive lifestyle difference. It's struggling to get buy compared to being somewhat comfortable.
He'll never even know the difference between $4M and $8M. Only his grandchildren or charity of choice might know the difference in 50 years.
January 8th, 2021 at 6:43 AM ^
Can we stop this! Yes there is a difference between making $4M & $8M. People seem to think that all millionaires live the same type of lifestyle. Guarantee you Alex Caruso and Anthony Davis aren’t making the same financial decisions on a day to day basis.
January 8th, 2021 at 4:33 AM ^
You can absolutely afford a house at 50k.
January 8th, 2021 at 7:33 AM ^
About 10 years ago I took a $25K per year pay cut because the new job offered better job security and chances for advancement.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:38 AM ^
How did that work out for you?
January 8th, 2021 at 10:06 AM ^
Been promoted twice and I'm still in the job. And I love it.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:53 PM ^
Agreed. This is a bit humiliating for a top tier coach like Harbaugh. And in other professions, this would be either a clear demotion or a passive aggressive way of firing you, but just letting you fire yourself.
January 8th, 2021 at 1:31 AM ^
He could’ve just said no and taken a buyout in your example.
He Didnt. Because he wants to coach here.
January 8th, 2021 at 1:45 AM ^
Yeah, heard on wjr couple weeks ago, he was going to resign, a smaller deal (yrs and $) bc AD has suffered from lack of funds due to pandemic. But once it’s up and going he’s getting another extension back to top tier $$.
So this kinda sounds like it was spot on.
January 8th, 2021 at 5:04 AM ^
Your explanation makes the most sense here. I bet that will be the story put forth.
January 8th, 2021 at 6:54 AM ^
I always got the feeling this was a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" type of scenario with Jim and Warde as well. I seem to also remember (I could be wrong) that when people were talking about Jim making Nick Saban type money when he was hired he replied something like, "you can pay me Saban money when I beat him" or "I don't deserve Saban money until I beat him". So perhaps Jim humbled himself in that fashion. I could also envision Jim taking a pay cut simply to get his staff more money.
January 8th, 2021 at 7:10 AM ^
Not so much. Michigan didn’t offer a buyout. If he said no he could have quit or played the last year of his existing contract with no extension.
I think there are a lot of people not realizing how cash strapped the athletic department is right now.
January 8th, 2021 at 8:18 AM ^
Or.....he wants to coach here because he found out nobody in the NFL wants him to coach there ?
January 8th, 2021 at 6:45 AM ^
Color me a skeptic. If this is the deal on the table and I can make 8 million in the NFL, I'm getting the hell out of Dodge. Harbaugh is now 57 and while that's not old he is starting to get to the age where his best years may well be behind him.
When Harbaugh arrived here the larder was quite full thanks to Hoke (and Mattison). He has no where near the same level of defensive talent, his head coach is gone and the fan base no longer seems him as the savior. His ability to make a phone call and get his old friends to come help him out is probably considerably weakened.
Yeah, I'd consider plan B.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:35 AM ^
It may not be all about $$ for Harbaugh. You gotta think the guy has some pride and would want to fix right this sinking ship. Leaving the program in its current state to go after NFL $$ just doesn't sit right.
January 8th, 2021 at 8:14 AM ^
Do you think if UM fired you and your only offers were to coach another team for half his salary, become an assistant for 1/10th of his salary, sit out a year, or coach the Jets, that you wouldn’t take half the salary over the other options and be motivated?
Trying to compare a D1 football coach salary slide to a regular career field is narrow. Sales associates aren’t nationally evaluated by millions of folks and the media, for one.
We are lucky if it is true—because Jim Harbaugh will absolutely want to prove himself worth what he had been paid. Professor
January 8th, 2021 at 8:31 AM ^
Well, of all the options you listed, I would definitely coach the Jets.
January 8th, 2021 at 8:21 AM ^
I get that... but the key difference may be the financial state of the athletic department. He may be trying to cut them some slack.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:53 PM ^
“We want to keep you, but don’t think you’re worth what we’ve paid you.” The hell kind of message is that??
The results of the last 6 years, and especially the last 2 are OK if we’re paying half as much?!?
Nothing about this deal makes any sense from a university perspective. For Harbaugh...I guess you can rationalize it considering no one in the NFL wants him and this is as good as it’s going to get in college.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:56 PM ^
From the University’s perspective, they’re saving money during a pandemic where the athletic department is already expected to lose money. This is a small step in keeping the department stable. That’s the best way to spin this story anyway.
January 7th, 2021 at 10:58 PM ^
Is there such thing as a 21st-century precedent in which a head coach agrees to return to coach a team while cutting his salary in half? This is... quite unusual.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:00 PM ^
Agreed. But a pandemic is also quite unusual
January 8th, 2021 at 1:49 AM ^
The pandemic feels like a convenient excuse in this case to save the AD $4M dollars per year. It'll be quite surprising when we find out Harbaugh accepts this deal. It's a shot to the ego.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:45 AM ^
Also, don't forget that Harbaugh is... quite unusual.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:00 PM ^
No, because there are still incentives in there to hit close to $8m a year so it’s not about saving money.
Its a clear message that losing 3-5 games a year is OK...as long as we are only paying you $4M a season. This deal does nothing at all to make the team better. All it does is send a message that mediocrity is OK if it’s reasonably priced.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:04 PM ^
I can completely understand how you received that message from this contract. Obviously, I don’t think that is the message that Warde would mean to communicate - but your logic is sound. I think the contract is basically saying: he has not met expectations, but we still believe he has the capacity to take us where we want to go. Let’s give him another shot that has less financial risk for the athletic department and the team (with low buyout making an easier quick firing if necessary).
January 7th, 2021 at 11:11 PM ^
Sometimes the message you intend to send winds up being pretty far from the received message. There’s a reason coaches are almost never (maybe never period...can’t think of any example of this in any sport) resigned at a lower salary. There’s no way to spin as a positive thing.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:13 PM ^
I think the contract is saying, we don’t have the balls to fire you, so here’s a low ball offer (even though it’s more than Campbell makes) in the hopes that the NFL will bail us out and find a job for you. Harbaugh may be betting on himself but realistically this is his only option at this price currently.
This is like a prize fight where each fighter takes a dive at the same time.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:20 PM ^
Exactly. It's a we don't want to fire you...today contract. They basically just took the lame duck year of the original deal and spread it out to last for 5 seasons now. Because with a lower buyout, if he's not hitting incentives he's on a permanent hot seat.
It was a punt.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:00 AM ^
That's a bingo.
Warde gambled that if he lowballed Harbaugh he'd be insulted and leave on his own because he doesn't have the stones to fire him.
The problem now is 2-4 is not only acceptable it warrants an extension. The only way out for Warde now is if we REALLY suck so he can muster up the courage to let him go.
What an embarrassment of riches we have.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:18 AM ^
Try not to get too offended by this, but sometimes I really wonder how you have gotten to where you are in life. I think your read on this, and a lot of other things related to the program are way off base, to put it mildly.
January 8th, 2021 at 8:24 AM ^
This contract sure sounds like a great offer if presented to Matt Campbell. As a first contract, the coach would be extremely motivated by this. As an extension, not so much.
January 8th, 2021 at 9:01 AM ^
This would totally be my take.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:06 PM ^
You can't really make that argument until the details of the finalized deal is revealed. You may end up being right and Harbaugh will end up effectively making the same as before. OR it's possible that he gets 1 million for making the Big Ten Championship, another million for making the playoffs and 2 million for winning the whole damn thing.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:07 PM ^
Even with the 2-4 this season I believe his record is still higher win % than Bo.
So I guess Bo was a loser even though he played 7 games a year vs little sisters of the poor.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:29 PM ^
You know you can look this up right?
Bo had a winning percentage of 0.785 at Michigan.
Harbaugh has a winning percentage of 0.690 (nice) at Michigan.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:10 PM ^
I believe it's about valuing performance over reputation. It's also about Harbaugh betting on himself to EARN the incentives.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:14 PM ^
Because his other option is.......what exactly? I’ll settle for him earning the $4 million. What are the odds he does that?
January 8th, 2021 at 12:40 AM ^
If he's still anything like he has been the last two years?? There's a 0.0% chance he earns his paycheck. This whole thing stinks, but I won't feign surprise or outrage as if I didn't expect things to be handled so poorly.
January 7th, 2021 at 11:15 PM ^
Who gives a crap about him earning the incentives and proving himself? This isn’t some junior level sales associate trying to prove he belongs with the big dogs. He’s a high level coach that’s already had SIX years to prove he belongs, and has failed.
Bringing him back at a significantly lower salary is a demotion of sorts, and keepin people you’ve demoted while still expecting and hoping for high level results from them almost never works in any line of work.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:52 AM ^
"...keepin people you’ve demoted while still expecting and hoping for high level results from them almost never works in any line of work."
I'll grant you that. The outcome sucks, and even the most optimistic of us knew the outcome was going to suck. We were just waiting on the details so we could specifically bitch about how much it sucks.
January 8th, 2021 at 12:13 AM ^
"All it does is send a message that mediocrity is OK if it’s reasonably priced."
Hey, you leave our roster alone!