growler4

October 29th, 2023 at 8:38 PM ^

Look, I like Coach Harbaugh and hope this all blows over and that he finishes his coaching career here, but putting a pause here seems quite appropriate all things considered from the vantage point of the University and the Athletic Department. I would imagine that Coach would agree.

Joined: 11/24/2014

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BlueTimesTwo

October 29th, 2023 at 9:26 PM ^

Sorry, bud, we don’t have nearly as much experience in cheating so I guess we’re not as good at it.

The fact remains that Day has complained about sign stealing for years and a) did practically nothing to change the signs; or b) changed the signs and still got absolutely destroyed in their own stadium.

So either your coach sucks or your team sucks.  I’m betting it’s both.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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creeBlue2

October 29th, 2023 at 7:14 PM ^

I'm assuming rescinded is synonymous for on pause in this situation. I assumed nothing would happen until we had a clearer picture here.  Timing sucks, but still hoping this gets sorted out and signed . 

Joined: 01/10/2011

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MacGyver

October 29th, 2023 at 7:37 PM ^

WSJ uses “pause” in place of “rescind” in the last paragraph.

The pause on his raise in recent weeks, parallel to the additional scrutiny in the sign-stealing investigation, is likely only to increase the speculation that Harbaugh may decamp for the professional game before the NCAA makes its ruling. In the meantime, Harbaugh has Michigan marching toward yet another College Football Playoff appearance.

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GLORY

October 29th, 2023 at 7:42 PM ^

That's a nice thought, but anytime clients "rescind" contracts/offers, 90% of the time they intend on cancelling and not move forward.  Hope this is the other 10%, but I'm afraid not.

Edit: If in fact the contract extension wasn't "rescinded" (and was on pause), this WSJ headline, "Michigan Rescinded Contract Offer to Jim Harbaugh After Sign-Stealing Allegations" is some Pete Thamel yellow journalism BS.  This can easily be misconstrued as cancelling the contract.  I mean, when is enough enough?  Don't we need to (at some point) defend or at least clarify these sensationalized headlines/news??

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creeBlue2

October 29th, 2023 at 7:46 PM ^

That's a false equivalence. Your clients are rescinding an offer vs hearing from a third party an offer was rescinded. What we have here is a game of telephone at least 2-3 people removed. 

Sam has also stated from his sources the offer "being rescinded" is categorically false. 

Joined: 01/10/2011

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GLORY

October 29th, 2023 at 7:57 PM ^

"Rescinding" and "pausing" are two different things.  I was just responding to that claim and perhaps, the rescinding narrative is false, as you stated?  

IDK, if Harbaugh was not involved in the "SpyGate" and there's no clear evidence of it, why "rescind" or "pause" this contract extension to our most important asset?  Further, I have zero confidence in Warde navigating this process in a timely/efficient manner.  Many reasons to get this done, but a lot of doubt.

Joined: 06/12/2021

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JonnyHintz

October 29th, 2023 at 8:14 PM ^

if Harbaugh was not involved
 

Look, I’m not saying Harbaugh is a liar. I know he said he didn’t know and wasn’t involved. But do we (or the administration) know that to be true? When you’re talking about handing out a huge contract extension DURING an investigation into violations by the program, you’d better be sure the coach wasn’t involved. 
 

My guess is they feel better waiting for the investigation to play out a bit, get some information and see where this thing is headed before they announce they’re giving Harbaugh a huge raise. Just imagine how bad it would look if we announced an 8 year deal paying $12 million per year and then a week later it comes out that Harbaugh orchestrated this whole thing? 
 

Offering an extension while at the early stages of being investigated for a rules violation is just a PR nightmare waiting to happen. 

Joined: 01/11/2015

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It'sGreatToBe

October 29th, 2023 at 8:45 PM ^

This is incredibly easy to contract around, though, and that will significantly mitigate the PR risk by making it clear that the agreement contemplated which conduct (if discovered) would be considered unacceptable. Time kills deals, and it is increasingly not on our side to get this finalized prior to the NFL carousel in a couple months, recruit signing day, etc. — the closer we get to those the more appealing it becomes for Jim to take time to evaluate his options. So add in a provision to the causal termination provision that sets out the criteria that would constitute “for cause” for the signal stealing investigation and get this thing done already. 

Joined: 09/28/2014

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It'sGreatToBe

October 29th, 2023 at 9:41 PM ^

That’s not the argument at all. Just off the top of my head, it does the following:

  1. It signifies that Jim is valued as the football coach of the university. There were reports back in January that the university was working on an extension to his existing deal, and it became a topic once against last month with media questions as to why it’s still not resolved. We’re now into our November games, and delays like this can give recruits meaningful apprehension about how the university feels about his tenure and permit opportunities for negative recruiting (e.g., a deal isn’t getting done because he’s out the door, etc.).
  2. It’s also an opportunity to increase his salary. He’s the fourth best paid coach in the B1G, and he’s made it clear that he thinks he should be compensated commensurate with his performance.
  3. Relatedly, it’s an opportunity to increase his buyout as consideration for a meaningful extension. His buyout is currently well below market and does very little to help mitigate the annual NFL concerns. Ideally these levers should all work in tandem.  (“We’ll make you the best paid coach in the B1G via a lucrative long-term deal, but you need to agree this is going to remain your home and we’re not doing this song and dance every year.”)
  4. Finally, there’s the intangible aspect that’s been frequently reported that Jim cares greatly about feeling like he has the support and backing of the university. Public reporting of delayed agreement negotiations only undermines the perception of support for Jim at Michigan, and as he’s presented with other opportunities like the NFL there’s a significant emotional cost to being drug through investigations like this and not feeling confident that you have strong institutional support (both privately and publicly). 

I’m sure there are more reasons one can come up with, but I think the fact that the parties have been discussing the need for this new agreement for quite some time (and it’s reportedly only on pause due to this scandal) is fairly clear evidence that both parties believe one is merited.  

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MGlobules

October 29th, 2023 at 7:57 PM ^

The two things are not the same. Paused would suggest that it's on hold pending; to rescind something is to revoke or cancel it, and suggests an end. The Journal piece is all over the map. IN either case, I am not a fan. This suggests doubt about Jim's actions. Neither Warde nor anyone else in the admin was required to suggest doubt; they could simply have said that the process was continuing, etc., then waited for the NCAA outcome. Hope this is only a hint that the AD is maladroit, not that they're pessimistic/that things have taken a turn for the worse. Sounds like Sam is at pains to say no, thank goodness. You've got highly touted recruits with decisions pending, all kinds of stuff--we really need some backbone from our people.

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