Jim Harbaugh Aims To Give Student Athletes 'A Seat At The Table'

On Thursday, Michigan Wolverines football head coach Jim Harbaugh penned a letter to the football community, which included proposals for changes he'd like to see made to collegiate and professional football.

Most notably, he proposes that college football players can declare for the NFL Draft whenever they choose (instead of having to wait until after their junior year), and they could return to college if not picked within the top 224 picks of the draft. The proposal also guarantees that a college would pay for a player's education after their professional career is over, if they left early for the pros.

Friday evening, Harbaugh joined Jon Jansen on the In The Trenches podcast to discuss further.

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On why he chose to write the proposal: "Well, many young men and their families perceive college football is preventing them from earning a living as a professional football player, and that’s not an unreasonable perception, given the rules that are currently in place.

"The idea of this was to write it from the perspective of student-athletes and their families and what’s best for them. And what’s best for them is to make decisions for themselves, but also put them in a position where it can be a win-win-win for the student-athletes and their families.

"I kind of think of it this way: When rules are made, it seems like the ones making the rules are the ones that get to have their cake and eat it, too. I’ve been in college football, pro football and the way that rules are set up, it’s great for the NFL. The rules are such that they get to have their cake and eat it, too. It’s great for colleges. They have their cake and eat it, too.

"I wanted to put a proposal together that lets the student-athletes and their families be the ones that have their cake and eat it, too."

On why the time was right to release the proposal: "To have a discussion about it. There’s a lot of smart people. With COVID-19 and with what’s going on right now, there’s people with time to think about this and plan long term, so that’s what I’m excited about, and I hope that it generates discussion. I welcome that, want this to be talked about and let all concerned parties weigh in on it and give their opinion.

"For people that care about football, care about intercollegiate football like we do here and others, those who care about student-athletes, their families and love and care about them — let’s have a discussion and talk about it. We’ve got the time to do it right now."

On how his experiences as a college and pro player and coach have shaped his views on the matter: "Well, I’m sure it has shaped it. I have the experience of both playing and coaching, and coaching in college and pro, but others have, too. I’m not the only one. This is an opinion, and I’m fired up to hear from others who coach at the collegiate level and coach at the pro level and have other guys that have played, like yourself [Jansen], Desmond Howard. There’s so many that really can have an opinion on this — coaches, commissioners, athletic directors. All of those voices that know this stuff and care about the futures of youngsters, like my dad that’s here on the podcast as well. You want to see them have their shot at a pro career, a college career and also get their education, as Bo [Schembechler] would say, get that degree in the back pocket. That’s what we want to see."

"I was watching Isiah Thomas. He talked about his pro career, and then he went back to college, he got his degree and he got his master’s. That’s as good as it gets. It doesn’t get any better than that. You want to see that opportunity for everybody. Get your degree, and if it comes like it did for me in five years in college and then a pro career, that’s fine. But, it may be good for somebody else to start college, play their pro career and then come back to get his degree. Just having those options and putting somebody’s career and their education and their fate in their own hands, and not dictated timelines by rules."

On how his proposed changes would help the game of football: "It’s fact-driven. Somebody could declare for the NFL Draft, and then if they’re drafted in the first 224 picks, they go play professional football. If they’re not, then they have the option to sign a free agent contract or they have the option to come back to college and have their eligibility and be able to play and work themselves the next year into a position of being drafted.

"So, that puts more of the decision-making where it should be — with the player and his family — in my opinion. There’s a lot of statistics. Even right now with the underclassmen — they call it underclassmen — declare for the draft. And that’s after three years. Each of the last draft over the last five-six years, about 30 percent of those third year players do not get drafted, and they also — most likely — have not earned their college degree. So, that puts them in a position that is not a good one for either perspective of having a pro career or getting their degree."

On how he would respond to those that say players aren't ready to go pro until after three seasons of college: "That’s an interesting conversation right there. I have heard people say that, but the flip side of that … like this statistic — and I put this in my proposal — it’s a pretty well-known fact that the average pro career is between three and four years. That’s the average career. So, if you say a player has to play three years or four years in college, then you could make the argument that the average football career is somewhere between six, seven, eight years, right?

"There’s a physical component to the game of football, as we all know. You could be saying, ‘OK, you have to play the six, seven or eight years that is the average for a football player. You have to have three of those unpaid in college.’ That’s the way the rules are right now. What if the individual is physically, mentally, emotionally developed to where he can play his average of eight years — six or seven of them as a paid football player? That’s a career decision for that young man.

"... That’s not the way of our world right now — other people making decisions for what’s best for me or you or your son or somebody else’s. That might have been the way of the world decades ago, but it’s not of my opinion the way of the world right now. People should be able to decide for themselves what’s best for themselves."

On if his proposal places a higher value on earning a degree: "No question about it. I do really believe that. That’s my opinion, that somebody has the dream of playing professional football and they go have their career and then when that career is over, knowing that you had the opportunity to get your degree, I think the person’s going to be much more motivated. I think they’re going to be more motivated post-NFL career when that dream has been seen, it’s been followed through and now they know they gotta get on with their life’s work. And how valuable that degree is going to be then. That degree can be devalued in somebody’s eyes when you’re compared to, ‘Look how much money a professional football player and professional athletes in general.’

"And the other thing that probably shouldn’t be lost in this entire conversation of, ‘Well, this may not be good.’ This is what’s taking place in all of the other sports. If you look at tennis, golf, hockey, baseball, basketball — pretty much all of them, right? Anybody who has a professional league, there’s no rule that’s in place where they have to be three years removed from high school before they can pursue their professional aspirations."

On what takeaways he wants people to have from his proposal: "Voice at the table. This isn’t something that I’ve just thought about for the last year. This is years in the making. And that’s something that we’ve talked about. Having a voice at the table. I think the NFL has a voice at the table; there’s no doubt that the NCAA has a voice at the table and athletic administrators and coaches have a voice at the table, school presidents have a voice at the table. Student-athletes and their families, that’s why this proposal was written — to give them a voice at the table.

"This is not a one-and-done proposal. If you really read through a proposal and especially proposal 2, it’s not one-and-done. Whatever year somebody goes pro, they’re not done. There’s still a college education and a paid for college education and making sure that the youngsters themselves get the college education. They’re not done. They’re not done. This is a commitment to the youngsters and their families that they’re going to have their college opportunity, and if they’re good enough, they’re going to have their pro opportunity, and then the opportunity is going to be there again to get that college degree."

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