Raiders offered Jim Harbaugh more money than Michigan

When Jim Harbaugh accepted a job as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, he reportedly turned down more money from Michigan and chose to jump to the NFL level. The exact opposite happened this time around.

Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports reports that the Oakland Raiders offered Harbaugh more money than what Michigan is paying him.

“The Raiders were interested,” Garafolo said Monday night. “They offered more money than Michigan. Jim Harbaugh left more money on the table to go to Michigan. The Raiders were willing to make him what the 49ers were not willing to make him, and that is the equivalent of a Super Bowl-winning coach.”

And the gap sounds fairly significant. According to John U. Bacon of the New York Times, Harbaugh’s contract with Michigan will pay him roughly $5 million per season plus incentives. He was apparently more worried about his assistants being compensated than he was about being one of the highest-paid coaches in the country.

Jim Harbaugh told Hackett he did NOT want to be the highest paid coach in CFB, or even the Big Ten. More concerned with pay for assistants.

— John U. Bacon (@Johnubacon) December 30, 2014

If the Raiders were willing to pay Harbaugh like a Super Bowl-winning coach, they were probably going to make him one of the highest-paid coaches in the NFL. Pete Carroll, Sean Payton and Bill Belichick are among that class, and they make roughly $8 million per season. We don’t know what the “incentives” are in Harbaugh’s contract with Michigan, but it’s doubtful he will make anything close to that without winning a national championship every year.

Apparently this report could not have been more false. Harbaugh wanted to return to his alma mater in a bad way.