Great article from mlive re Harbaugh and the business side
Sep 18, 2019, 10:37 AM
of keeping a coach that can't win games that matter, yet makes so much money for the University that they might never be able to cut ties with him. Even the boosters interviewed here seem to care more about the money than the trophies
The linked article is very good. I think it gives a fairly complete picture of who Michigan is. Harbaugh and Michigan have financially successful over Harbaugh's tenure and no one at Michigan is complaining or calling for Harbaugh's head.
The Michiganders I know and have read about love to talk about 'The Michigan Way' in the same sort of way Tarheels once talked about Dean Smith and the Tarheels. Michiganders love to assert they hold the ethical high ground, they are a hard school, they require jocks to go to class and further that it is hard for jocks to get into U of M. They love their school's lofty academic standing. I think the Michiganders are about as far off base in assessing their own athletic honesty as UNC was, but that is another story.
I don't think THE MICHIGAN WAY has anything to do with Harbaugh. The MICHIGAN WAY has been constant throughout my whole life and I'm closing in on 70. THE MICHIGAN WAY and the legend of Michigan as an ultimate blue blood has nothing at all to do with winning titles. Since I was born in 1950, Michigan has only won 1 (ONE) consensus Natty. The wolverines have shared a title or two back in the days when there were many different polls and rankings but if you go looking for AP or UPI or BCS or CFP titles, Michigan has only 1 title.
U of M makes a lot of money. They have made a lot of money for decades. They have never been worth much at winning titles in the last 3 score and ten years. That's a long long time to live on memories of the way way way back and to tell yourself you're a blue blood with 16 Natty's to your credit.