Guess you saw where Michigan football and the Big Ten resolved to keep their guy, Jim Harbaugh, on the sideline for the rest of the regular season, and Texas A&M paid their used-to-be guy, Jimbo Fisher, roughly $77 million, to leave.
As they would say to Jimbo on “The Price is Right,” “a nice parting gift.”
And this is the world we live in in 2023.
The Maize and Blue accepted the three-game penalty for their leader in exchange for the Big Ten shutting down its investigation into the Wolverines as a result of Connor Stalions’ sign-stealing operation.
Their choices were accepting it, or to challenge any discipline by leaving the conference altogether. Wow! I can see that rattling some cages in the heartland.
Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, though, got exactly what he wanted in punishing Harbaugh in-season under its sportsmanship policy with a slap on the wrist. And the school got what it wanted: Harbaugh back on the sideline for what it hopes is its third straight Big Ten title and a playoff run to its first national football championship since 1997.
A far cry from earlier in the week when Harbaugh was feeding us Michigan is America’s Team line of malarkey. And the students and his players were going to wear sweat shirts with Free Michigan embroidered across the front.
Do you honestly believe Stalions spent a pretty penny and did all this cheating on his own?
The Big Ten wants you to believe all is well and good, by calling the school a “valued member” of the conference. Meanwhile, the NCAA isn’t ending its investigation to determine who else knew about or was involved in the scheme quite so fast.
Definitely, something to keep an eye on going forward with games at Maryland today, and Ohio State in the Big House a couple of days after Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, the Aggies have Abilene Christian today at home, a game they’ll win under their interim coach Elijah Robinson’s direction as they reflect on what Fisher left them with. That’s a 27-21 record in the Southeastern Conference, and who they can pay big bucks to follow in his footsteps.
Among the candidates mentioned thus far (in no particular order) are Dan Lanning at Oregon, Mike Elko at Duke, Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions, Jeff Traylor at UTSA, or Dabo Swinney at Clemson, who’s Tigers won the title in 2016 and 2018.
What about Urban Meyer, formerly at Florida and Ohio State, where he won national championships but is the FOX pre-game show Saturday mornings, or Florida State’s Mike Norvell, who’s Seminoles are currently fourth in the latest rankings, or even Ed Orgeron, who was an assistant at USC for a national championship and coached LSU to the 2020 title against Clemson?
I would think those that make this type of decision had a plan when they fired Fisher on Sunday morning less than a day after the Aggies 51-10 win against Mississippi State.
All are worthy candidates. The search committee is looking for a fit, something like gumbo, a mixture of success, if you will.
Despite what they’re saying now, ruling Swinney out, I think that fit for me would be Dabo and I look for athletic director Ross Bjork to make the decision known by giving him the keys to the cart at the end of the regular season.
Follow Joe on X/Twitter: @joeyballgame
