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The Big Ten needs Jim Harbaugh.
Of course Michigan needs him — to fix its fractured program on and off the field, which is why the school has reportedly dished out the biggest offer in college football history — but the conference needs Harbaugh, too, because it needs Michigan to be a power again. And Harbaugh is the perfect man for the job.
Michigan-Ohio State should mean more
The last time the Big Ten’s premier rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State had national championship implications was 2006 — both teams were undefeated heading into a Nos. 1 vs. 2 matchup. Lloyd Carr coached the Wolverines and Jim Tressel the Buckeyes. The Big Ten needs this game to mean something again. And it hasn’t for eight years.
By comparison, for much of the last decade the Iron Bowl has decided if Alabama or Auburn has gone to the SEC title and then usually the national championship. In the history of college football, Michigan-Ohio State is ranked as one of the greatest rivalries of all-time. Lately it has been pretty one-sided, with the Buckeyes winning 12 of the last 15 games since 2000.
Harbaugh could change that. In four years at Stanford, he turned a 4-8 team in his first year to a 12-1 team that won the Orange Bowl in his final year.
It was a dull year in the Big Ten
The Big Ten as a whole had an average year. Four teams finished in the College Football Playoff’s final regular season Top 25, tied with the ACC for the second-lowest amount of teams of all the Power 5 conferences. The Big 12 had the least amount of teams with three, but that conference is a different story.
Nine Big Ten teams are headed to the postseason, which is a positive, though it wouldn’t be surprising if the league went 0-9. Michigan, of course, isn’t one of those teams.
The last two years the Wolverines went to a bowl, they lost to South Carolina and Kansas State. At Stanford, Harbaugh ended an 8-year bowl drought by leading the Cardinal to the Sun Bowl in 2009. Stanford lost to Oklahoma that year, but came back the next season and beat Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl.
In San Francisco, Harbaugh led his team to NFC Championship in his first year in 2011. Before that, the 49ers hadn’t seen the postseason since ’02. In 2012, they went to the Super Bowl.
So in other words, he’s good at turning a fixer-upper into a success story.
Harbaugh would spice up the conference
Michigan hasn’t consistently competed on an elite level since the ’90s when Lloyd Carr won five conference championships and a national title in 1997. Because of the school’s rich history and tradition, it’s almost as if that perpetuates the myth that the football team is really good when it really hasn’t been.
The program tried to get in a rhythm with Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, but those plans failed. It’s dropped the whole “Michigan Man” part of the job description — even though Harbaugh fits that mold perfectly — in hopes of changing an image.
And as a whole, the Big Ten could use more great coaches. Urban Meyer is the only one who has won a national championship as a Division I head coach. If it wants to compete with the SEC on a regular basis, it needs more than one.
And Harbaugh could do it with all the resources Michigan has and would give him. He’d spice up the league. He’s an exciting coach.
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