Harbaugh writes open letter about transfer and NFL eligibility rules
I love that Harbaugh leads football in this way, and isn't afraid to upset the status quo...
Love Jim, but unfortunately the exploitative NCAA - NFL marriage won't change. The NFL's free minor league system is also its own money printing machine as things stand, and all the powers that be have no financial incentive to do what's right for the student athlete. It's corrupt collusion and violates anti-trust laws, yet is accepted as the norm.
I love Jim's idealism and can only imagine how frustrating it must be for him to recruit and coach on an uneven playing field against universities where putting the word "student" before "athletes" to describe the participants is farcical.
He speaks the truth, I expect nothing to change.
This doesn't look like it was typed in excel?!?
Am I the only one that sees this and wishes he would spend his time recruiting and trying to win games instead of wasting his time with this administrative stuff?
If he's not interested in coaching anymore, apply for Warde's job.
You Definitely are.
You don't get it. This IS recruiting.
This is literally the opposite of recruiting.
Millions of dollars or earned media coverage that's pro athlete is somehow going to HURT recruiting?
How many Michigan players would go pro after their sophomore years or earlier.
This would really hurt OSU more.
" You don't get it. This IS recruiting. "
No, it's not. There are two kinds of modern recruiting:
1. Here's a car and a pile of money. Someone else will take classes for you.
2. You have to do your own classwork and pass at this school. Then you can play football.
It's readily apparent category schools are in.
Having a coach who advocates for students and athletes makes Michigan a more attractive destination. Establishing himself as a leader of a more equitable treatment of CFB players appeals to prospects and is a new way to give Michigan a leg up without breaking rules.
We recruit by advocating for more equitable treatment of CFB players.
OSU recruits by winning and having lots of 1st round draft picks.
Which approach do you think bears more fruit?
We don't have that data set yet. This is a new strategy.
Also: I'd rather do the right thing and have it bear less fruit than do the wrong thing and have it bear more.
So winning and having 1st round draft picks is the "wrong thing"?
How do you suppose recruits would react to that?
I think you’re skipping a few steps
So winning and having 1st round draft picks is the "wrong thing"?
How do you suppose recruits would react to that?
So winning and having 1st round draft picks is the "wrong thing"?
How do you suppose recruits would react to that?
Winning and 1st round picks are results, not actions in this case.
The "wrong thing" is putting "winning" above the best interests of the players. Thinking winning cures exploitation is ridiculous.
This is Harbaugh’s plan here gets rid of OSUs top players earlier. One or two years and they’re in the NFL, where Harbaugh continues to recruit 3* players who stay 4-5 years and then you have the Nova model for football. Older teams beating the younger higher skilled teams.
Let's stop acting like ANYONE here actually cares about about how these guys do in the classroom? Be honest with yourself for once. Not a bad thing.
Betting no one here knows what the individual players are majoring in. I don't ever remember anyone asking about how John O'korn did as a student yet all had an opinion on his overall play. We shouldn't be embarrassed about admitting this.
Face it 90 pct of the scholarship football and basketball players would never get accepted to the University of Michigan if they applied as a student only. They came here for sports. No one gives a shit about their classroom performance.
I'm so done with the "poor college football player" crap.
They get $100k+ a year in benefits at age 18, while more academically accomplished kids pay that same amount to attend the same school. Wait until you're paying that for your kid.
Schools are for school first, playground games second. Or third.
If you didn't "come here to play school", then leave.
This can't possibly be a real post. Without going through each of the many inaccuracies and false equivalencies about the athlete-student experience at Michigan versus the general student body, the cost of attendance at Michigan is not even close to $100,000 per year.
A large number of college football players and their families are poor. Most of them do not receive cash benefits to play and are required to lift, watch film and practice for more hours during the week than any student spends studying. On top of that, they have at least the minimum course-load to maintain eligibility.
He didn’t say tuition was $100k, he said they got $100k benefits.
Out of state tuition and room and board is $64,386. Most recent years they’ve gotten an international trip that would cost say $2500? My understanding is that training table food is better than what the average student gets, that adds some money. In addition to the academic opportunities they get, they also get access to training facilities and trainers that would easily cost multiple hundreds per month. They also get lots of athletic gear and often bowl swag. It is not hard to estimate benefits of north of $75,000. Not necessarily $100,000, but probably not far from it.
They definitely earn it with all the work they put in.
you're killin' on this thread bro
Stop with the "student-athlete" bs. There is no student left in the term. Athletes do not have the time to study (nor do some want to) like the rest of the student body. With NIL, they are no longer amateurs in any sense of the word.
This falls into same hypocrisy of the Michigan Man term and yet we continue the idiocy about how we send our "student-athletes" to real school and how they live in real student dorms and that's why we are better than OSU, etc.
Here's an idea: Admit football and basketball athletes opportunities and experiences are very different from that of the non-athlete student body.
Even as much as I agree with Harbaugh, I hate to break it to you, but this is not going to help Harbaugh recruit. Winning big games is the only thing that will. Highly ranked recruits will not give two shits about this.
It’s also coaching. Coaching is about more than Xs and Os, as any good coach will tell you.
exactly - shows prospective recruits he has their best interest in mind
Exactly. Also, this is a 2 page letter (with bullet points)... It only probably took an hour or 2 to compose.
He probably just dictated the main points to an assistant who typed it up, it made the rounds to get into a presentable format, then Harbaugh signed it and it was submitted.
I really doubt Harbaugh failed to call a recruit in order to spend extra time wordsmithing this letter. He's got people for stuff like this.
I’m confused why you are even acknowledging this idiocy with a defense. If people think that the time Harbaugh has spent on this has hurt the future of the football program, they’re too stupid to understand your reply.
Bingo! Anyone else who doesn’t see it that way is umm. Obtuse?
Yep. Wander off-track when you can beat OSU. Until then keep it on the field.
College football is NOT the NFL minor league. You don't get called up and sent back down. You don't get traded or transfer any time.
First go to and pass classes.
Second, play a game and get a $100k/year full boat college education for it.
College football loses me a little more every day.
We often see reports from the OSU end that they kick our ass because they are focused on us 24/7/365 and we do not match that focus.
Here is a post on our board admitting this is 100% true.
Good.
This would make sense if there weren't so much money on the table that was made on the backs of these players. 90% of the product on the field that makes up a multi-billion-dollar per year sport is the players, and suggesting they should be happy with roughly $60k per year in education while having to maintain grades, practice almost incessantly, travel, and be subject to stupid rules (like not being permitted to get A RIDE from certain people)...that's just silly.
During feudalism, serfs were given food and property. But they did a disproportionate amount of the work while receiving far too little of the benefits. Right now, the NCAA is making these players into modern-day serfs. Quit the "get off my lawn" nonsense and think about the human part of it.
It looks like you are in denial. The problem is even if NCAA Football is not technically a minor league for NFL, no college football player can get there without parlaying their skills in NCAA. So in that sense, yah, NCAA is a feeder league for NFL. A certain group of high school players knows that they can't reach the NFL but can be serviceable in college football. Michigan fans are up in arms when they are given scholarships to the Michigan football team. The players who know they are good for the NFL and then choose Alabama or OSU over Michigan, are derided as taking money under the table.
So what would someone in the position of Michigan football coach do? "Try harder." He is. And this is what it looks like.
I like his approach. He is preaching what he believes in.
I'm not sure what you are advocating. Are you proposing that Michigan go all in for cheating/having players that seem not to have any relationship with the actual University or that they get paid as professionals to represent the university or do you want to go to the complete opposite and make sure all players are really students and just getting the allowed tuition, room and board, tutoring and counseling, etc?
Bye.
JBrand, This letter is a sign to every future S/A that Jim is looking out for them. He's recruiting the whole damn country in one letter. This is not a waste of time in any way. Trying to make College Football better is better for everyone and the more we can do to make this a more even playing field with less outside money influences the better for Mich. Unless you like the current system where OSU, Clemson, Alabama etc.. pay players to come and get all the best S/A's while the rest of us take the rest. Have you watched the CFP's the last five years. Clemson and Alabama have been in everyone and OSU is not far behind.........
You are confused with NIL rights which will help Michigan.
If anything, Harbaugh's ideas will hurt Michigan.
If the dumbass moron doesn't already get it, you explaining it to him is not going to help.
Not confused about NIL rights. They will help Michigan, I agree. How JH's idea will hurt Michigan, I do not see. The more transparency the better. Now paying a player to come to your school for 3 years will not have the incentive it used to. Kid can leave after one is he is ready for the NFL. It also, makes the S/A's decision about the education aspect of this whole thing more front and center. Whether you go to the NFL early, or don't get drafted and come back, or have a very short low paying (relatively) NFL experience you can still get your education. Where would you rather have it from? Michigan or Alabama. So if you want to convince me this will hurt Michigan, how? Also, it's better (maybe not perfect) for S/A and isn't that what it should be about anyway
Yes and no. This letter and the underlying philosophy could actually offer a recruiting benefit. Through them, Harbaugh demonstrates that he cares about players' prospects beyond the immediate benefits they bring to Michigan football. That kind of approach can swing a recruit from interested to committed.
That said, any recruiting benefits--and any associated on-field success--probably accrue at the margins. Focusing on marginal advantages makes sense if you have already plucked the low hanging fruit. That does not seem to be the case here.
There is zero advantage to Michigan in this. Zero.
It isn't like JH is asking for these benefits for Michigan players specifically.
No recruit will give a shit about this.
1) You're wrong. Recruits will definitely care about this—especially ones who feel like they're close to NFL-ready right now.
2) You're wrong. It will benefit Michigan by being seen as Leaders and Best (yet again) in an evolving CFB landscape.
3) The primary beneficiary doesn't have to be Michigan to make something the right thing to do for players and for the sport. Treatment of players is WAY bigger than Michigan, and I'm glad our coach is enough of a human being to be thinking about that.
Parents will care. Not all , but many. And the kids w those parents are typically better for the program.
Are we missing the part about having a Coach who leads with integrity? Or putting the S/A in "first" position. Or creating a sense of transparency, so that kids from all socio-economic backgrounds have the best opportunities to pursue their dreams of athletics and education? Or the commitment to ensure the professional athlete who leaves early will still be able to gain his degree? There is more to like here...
I have no idea if this gives Michigan an advantage in recruiting. Maybe initially. What it does do is continue to position the leading public institution in the country as a leader in academia and athletics. That matters to parents of many athletes, alumni and donors.
It is possible to coach AND also want the best for the student athletes (whether that is at Michigan or elsewhere). These ideas are not mutually exclusive.
Yes, it is a "shut up and coach" comment.
0-5.