Real change can only comes when the people on the inside make it happen. The only individuals who can alter the establishment have to already be established themselves. Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is a perfect example. Yes, he’s weird.
Or you can call him eccentric, zany, quirky, avant-garde, unorthodox. The media make Harbaugh their darling of all darlings, but there are deeper reasons for that. The media talk incessantly about him for more meaningful reasons than just increasing television ratings.
“He’s a breath of fresh air for college football,” said FOX Analyst Joel Klatt.
“I love college football more than anything, other than my own family. I love this sport. It oozes out of me, and I’ve become very passionate about it, but because of that, there are things within the sport that are maddening to me. And part of that, I believe at times we are some of the most archaic, stuffy and stodgy of any of the sports out there.”
Almost worse than baseball, to give you a frame of reference, baseball people will just refuse to budge off of the quote, un quote, old guard.”
That’s absolutely 100% true. No sport moves at a more glacial pace than baseball. You see that in many ways, but perhaps most obviously with its refusal to accept internet media as legitimate media, and instead bind itself with newspapers, an industry that’s…well, you know how newspapers are doing.
College football often acts about as rapidly as a sea turtle moves on land. It took them all the way until 1998 to come up with the Bowl Championship Series, and you know what a horrifying system that was. Only in 2014 did we finally have a real playoff and a true champion.
“Jim Harbaugh questions the establishment. He presses those buttons and he presses those boundaries, and we’re in desperate need of that as a college football entity,” Klatt continued.
It may seem weird to think this at first, but Jim Harbaugh might be a guy to which the lyrics of the Green Day song “Minority” might apply.
Klatt articulated why the sport needs a rabble rouser like Harbaugh
“I believe that college football is in a precarious spot. It’s not necessarily the concussions or player safety issues, but the structure of college football right now is in a very precarious spot because there are lots of threats, whether that’s from a litigious side or whether it’s from a revenue standpoint. We’re in desperate need of a unifying governing body, and he is bringing up subjects constantly, whether it’s on the players’ behalf or the programs’ behalf, that need to be answered by a unifying governing body.”
“We desperately need a college football commissioner, Nick Saban is right, David Shaw is right. All these smart guys, they understand what this sport is and Jim Harbaugh is bringing things to the forefront, forcing these conversations, whether it’s about satellite camps or different types of rules that I hope will bring us to that point, where we have a commissioner.”
“In bringing more of these important subjects to the forefront, we need established questioners in our sport and he is one of them.”
Obviously, the threats to the structure that Klatt refers to relate to one major issue- compensating players.
College football is built upon an archaic model from the 1950s. I never saw any reason to care about the satellite camps then, and I certainly do not care now, but it was still good of Jim Harbaugh to bring it up. It’s not his fault the media turned a total non-story into a major story.
Everything Jim Harbaugh does, from here on out, is going to be amplified to the nth degree. Are the media jumping the gun in anointing Michigan a national title contender and playoff lock? Maybe. I think they could be a year away from actually becoming that. Then again, they’re also my pick to win the B1G. I looked at the Wolverines’ roster and I do think they’ll be victorious in Indianapolis come December.
Fellow FOX Analyst Matt Leinart described Harbaugh as “a very big personality,” and “eccentric head coach, who’s also a fantastic coach as well.”
“It brings more eye balls to the game, it just makes the game more exciting in that they’re relevant again.
“He’s the type of coach that his players love playing for, while people on the outside are probably shaking their head and thinking why is he doing this, but he’s proven to be a winner. I think what he’s done for college football is awesome.”
Former Ohio State star Robert Smith says college football is more exciting when teams like Michigan are good:
“It’s great. He was born in the same hospital as Urban Meyer. He brings excitement, and quite frankly, college football is more exciting when Michigan is good and when the game is really competitive.
“Is he a bit of a strange bird? Challenging worms with and without guns, possibly, but I think it’s great.”
“His type of personality draws more attention to the game, and that’s something that we all love because we have the opportunity to cover the greatest sport at any level, in covering college football.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.