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Jim Harbaugh takes the lead on Michigan NIL: 'There are others who aren't staying idle'

Chris Balasby:Chris Balas•06/13/23•

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Jim Harbaugh
(Photo by Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports)

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh started his ‘NIL tour’ in Chicago Monday night with what attendees called an impassioned plea for help making U-M’s NIL one of the best in the country. Harbaugh met with donors and fans at the event and stayed late to answer questions, making it clear how much he loved being at U-M.

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In fact, he realizes how the program is humming right now, and he’s ready to take it to an even higher level. To do that, he emphasized, Michigan has to be the leader in legal opportunities for the players in what’s become a free for all, pay for play model elsewhere.

“There are other people that aren’t staying idle,” the Michigan coach said in his address. “We can sit here and go, ‘hey, we’re Michigan. Let’s just be idle. We’re in a great spot!’ Other people are not idling right now.

“Once you put yourself in their shoes, I think of these guys as my own kids … if it’s your own kid, they’re going to go to college, yeah  you’re going to get them a car, right? So they can go do an internship. That’s something we want to give our players. We don’t want them eating the ramen noodles. We want to be able to feed them. We want to be able to put them in position where they can drive and get where they need to go, just like we would do with our own kids … make sure they are staying in a nice place.”

Linebackers coach Chris Partridge and Champions Circle and Valiant’s Jared Wangler also spoke, among others. The stated goal was to add $12 million to fund the program initially, though many believe they’ll eclipse that. Having Harbaugh out front certainly helps the initiative.

One thing made very clear, per those in attendance — the Michigan contingent is 100 percent committed to making this the best NIL program in the country. Again, there was a major emphasis on transformational, not transactional. They won’t do pay for play, but are working on ways to get all players on the team compensation (including walk ons), and this is a way to expand the roster through compensating walk ons without burning scholarships.

All who spoke on behalf of Michigan NIL, both at the podium and afterward with potential donors, emphasized that the most important thing is roster retention — keeping players who have proven themselves on the team. As noted, there are some now not being compensated at the level their peers at other schools are. With Harbaugh and his staff’s efforts, it seems that’s about to change.

Visit The Fort, our premium message board, for more tidbits from last night’s Michigan NIL event …

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