After failing to receive an offer from the Vikings, Jim Harbaugh will remain at the University of Michigan. For now. Harbaugh agreed to a new $36.7MM deal to coach the Wolverines for the next five years, in theory. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, though, this extension does little to ensure a long marriage between the two parties involved. 
For the most part, the contract is fairly standard. Harbaugh is set to make around $7.05MM in his first year, a raise of more than $3MM per year, with his salary gradually increasing until he reaches $7.63MM in 2026.
The deal is laced with incentives. Winning the Big Ten East earns Harbaugh $500,000. Winning the conference altogether nets Harbaugh $1MM. An appearance in a New Year’s Six bowl game or the College Football Playoff would gain Harbaugh bonuses of $200,000 and $500,000, respectively. A national title would pay out another $1MM to Harbaugh. He also has award incentives that would pay him $50,000 if he is named Big Ten Coach of the Year and $75,000 if he is named the winner of one of the national coach of the year awards.
Where Harbaugh’s contract differs from what is expected is in the buyout. In the first year, Harbaugh’s contract only lists a $3MM buyout, meaning if a team wanted to hire Harbaugh after next season, Michigan would only be due $3MM despite Harbaugh having four years and $29.65MM remaining on his contract. The buyout gradually decreases each year until, in the fourth and penultimate year of his contract, it totals less than $1MM.
This low buyout will do little to deter any teams eager to hire Harbaugh. It will do even less to keep Harbaugh from looking. It’s an ideal contract for the eighth-year Wolverines head coach. He nets a hefty raise for his accomplishments in the 2021 season, while ensuring an easy exit for the next NFL team that comes calling.
Not a good pro coach. Ok to take an ready made roster to good places but his act wears thin on grown men quickly. Good guy for the community though, was constantly doing stuff for charity when he was in SF
Not a good pro coach? 🙂
Dumb take
I am not even a Harbaugh fan or even like him as a person, but he’s absolutely a better pro coach then college coach and he took a team to freaking Super Bowl. He would be a good hire for 27 teams in the league. The other 5 are great coaches with Super Bowl wins. Idiot…..
Why the name-calling? You had a good, well thought-out rebuttal, and then had to stoop to name-calling. I just don’t get it.
He was pretty good at Stanford and I guess you could blame his burnout in SF on ownership but there were players who voiced that his coaching style was tiresome. Maybe they shoulda removed baalke earlier. Either way you have a good take if all you knew about Harbaughs pro career was that he went to a super bowl once, and lost.
Sandwiched between two NFC championship game appearances, and with a .695 W-L record.
Harbaugh sounds more like Bill Parcells than Billy Martin. He wants to get in and win and move on, rather than maintain, and he may rub people the wrong way, but not as badly, or pathetically, as Billy Martin did.
i mean, no coach is tied to a contract in theory, especially if the desire is to change levels. there is a thing called retirement.
Anything is possible, we’ve been 15 days to slow the spread-ing for almost a thousand days now
Harbaugh deserves more money for winning the Big East at Michigan.
Michigan should tell him to hit the road. Okay, couldn’t get the pro job , so I’ll stay now. He’s just 1 man and there are others out there as good or better.
Name them.
You’re committed to Michigan or you’re not. Make a choice. How can you effectively recruit when kids don’t know if you are going to be there or not?
I think Jim is just going to bide time in Michigan until he can join his brother in Baltimore as the Ravens OC.
Why would he leave Michigan to be an OC? He’d maybe leave to be a head coach
I realize Harbaugh interviewed for the Viking job once. Why are there so many articles written on Pro Football Rumors about a college coach? I know…..I don’t have to read them or comment on them but then nobody would know the curmudgeon I am
Because his extension leaves the door wide open for him to return to the NFL, which is pretty clearly where he wants to be.