I have to share a CBS Sports article: Harbaugh-Michigan union to bring Big Ten back into REAL big time This Jim Harbaugh thing goes way beyond Michigan, if you havent noticed. Hes national, no longer just the stuffy National Football League. That impish, spit-eating grin -- that hell-with-everything attitude -- has a new/old collegiate home. Pardon Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany if he high-fives the leagues accountants. Delanys league -- maybe all of college football -- just got a whole lot more interesting. Kaptain Khaki is coming back to campus and its not just a Michigan thing. Not by a long shot, which makes cosmic sense at the moment. A long shot is exactly what Michigans conference has been for a while. If it wasnt the 2011 New Years Day from hell (0-5 in bowls) it was the non-conference Weekend at Bernies (0-5 vs. Power 5 competition on Sept. 13) -- dead on arrival. Never mind that for seven years, no one outside the SEC was winning championships, the Big Ten made it easy to be reminded the league had been shut out of national titles since 2002. Short of -- you know -- actually winning, the league also did a fine job of setting itself up as a piñata. Leaders and Legends gave way to Maryland and Rutgers -- expansion to a couple of football powerhouses. Thank goodness for archival footage. At least there was the conferences glorious past history to help program the wildly successful Big Ten Network. As for the league itself, excellence on the field has been tape-delayed. Until now. Harbaugh to Michigan is like Carson back on The Tonight Show, Breaking Bad back on the air, Rock n Roll back on the radio. It just feels right. The 51-year old coach cant turn the league around by himself but thats hardly the point today. Delany doesnt have to spin this move. Its great. Its glorious. His league has slowly morphed lately from punchline to headline. The conference had a Heisman finalist (Wisconsins Melvin Gordon). Michigan State is in a New Years Six bowl. Theres word of Ohio State playing Alabama in some game or another later this week, but the only number on my mind is 334. Thats the number of days left until Meyer-Harbaugh I. Yes, the Big Ten needed Ohio State-Michigan to matter once again. It needed Michigan-Michigan State to go from fiery to nuclear. (Cant wait for Harbaugh to be injected into Mark Dantonios Michigan invective: Its not the coach, its the program.). Sorry, but Nebraska winning nine and Wisconsin producing another 1,500-yard rusher are nice but they werent enough to distract us from the detritus -- Indiana, Purdue, Illinois and those gripping matchups with the MAC. Harbaugh delivers on all levels. Hey, he could fail. It just doesnt seem likely. An interim AD (Jim Hackett) swung for the fences and hit a moon shot. No matter how this turns out, the Big Ten is better than it was last week. And if Hackett wants the permanent gig, getting Captain Comeback to come back is heck of a bullet point for the resume. An unpredictable personality with a proven track record is about take over an iconic top-five brand. Its not a top five program at the moment -- hasnt been for a while. Thats why Michigan is reportedly paying Nick Saban money (or more) to get Harbaugh. Did I say unpredictable? Just wait. Harbaugh will make quirky blush. At Stanford, he rode his bike to work -- in his Indianapolis Colts warm-up jacket. He met his current wife waiting in line for carry out in Las Vegas. He also refused to make academics an excuse, at Stanford taking a 1-11 program all the way to an Orange Bowl win in four seasons. In the process, he may have pulled off the biggest upset in history. In four seasons in San Francisco, Harbaugh took the 49ers to the playoffs three times, including the 2013 Super Bowl. He spent seven years as an unpaid volunteer coach helping his dads Western Kentucky program while still playing in the NFL. The year after he left to join the Raiders staff, the Hilltoppers won the I-ACC championship. As a first-time head coach, Harbaugh won consecutive conference titles at the University of San Diego. Harbaugh at Michigan is your first kiss, your first car and your first paycheck all rolled into one. Well (likely) never forget this moment. This is almost Saban-to-Alabama big. The past seven years have been among the lowest points in Michigan history. The past seven days may have made up for it for Wolverines everywhere. Part Bo, part brilliant, Harbaugh knows the landscape. Without getting all weepy about it, yes, he satisfies the Michigan Man demographic. He also knows the game. Expect the Wolverines to become tougher, faster -- better. In a hurry. Recruits will flock to him. The Big House will fill up again. The Big Ten will rise around him. Sorry, but the worst thing that could have happened in the Large 14 is Harbaugh staying away and Urban Meyer running away with league for the next decade. The two coaches havent even met on the field yet and it already feels like the beginning of another Ten Year War. Party at Delanys tonight. Harbaugh-to-Michigan wont just help the Wolverines. It also will help Delany sell his conferences media rights to the highest bidders when the leagues contracts come open in 2017. Yup, Captain Comeback is that big a get, that big a coach, that big an impact on the Big Ten. This is so way beyond Michigan, consider the obvious: Can the Jim Harbaugh Network be that far off?
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 14:34:20 +0000
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