Does Miami Dolphins Stephen Ross Know What Jim Harbaugh Wants?

Let me preface this article. If you are looking for facts and real inside information here, this is not that kind of article. It’s conjecture, opinion, debatable thought. It’s not a rumor, it’s not fact, it’s only a thought but an interesting one that deserved some discussion, at least to me.

The University of Michigan has offered Jim Harbaugh $8 million dollars a season for six year to coach the Wolverines.  Ross has his hand in everything that goes on with Michigan so it has to be assumed that Ross may have had a hand in pulling that deal offer for Harbaugh.

A good friend of ours on Twitter, @CKParrott, who know a lot about what goes on with the Dolphins, believes that Ross may be working a little internal magic with the Wolverines to gauge some interest from Harbaugh or to knock some potential NFL suitors out of the picture. It makes sense to a degree.

Teams can’t talk with Jim Harbaugh without gaining permission from the 49’ers and then they will have to trade for Harbaugh if a deal can be worked out. College is different. They don’t need permission and they don’t need to be open about it. Right Mr. Saban? The possibilities of Stephen Ross using his Michigan connections to feed a pipeline of information from Harbaugh’s agent to himself is relatively low but if I were Ross I would sure as hell be using anything I can to find out what exactly Jim Harbaugh wants to do.

Harbaugh is in the perfect spot to gain leverage with teams looking to “bid” on him. He controls the contract parameters and whether he stays in the NFL or goes back to college. He can now force the hand of the 49’ers to either release him or trade him to a team he wants to coach for and at a price that doesn’t kill his draft selection numbers or he can simply leave San Francisco with nothing and head to the college ranks again. It’s a case of the 49’ers getting something or nothing.

There is no way to know what kind of influence or information is fed to Stephen Ross by the University of Michigan but it’s also hard to believe that he isn’t receiving something. What is his control if any over the spending of money by the universities athletic department?

Consider this, Stephen Ross has made more contribution to the University of Michigan than any other benefactor. His contributions have totaled more than $315 million. The schools business program has been renamed the Ross School of Business and the athletic facility will soon bare his name as well after a $100 million dollar donation. Stephen Ross has a lot of pull at Michigan.

What happens next is anyones guess but the season is winding down and the Dolphins and 49’ers will need to make decisions on their coaches. Can Ross persuade Harbaugh to come to Miami and if not will he persuade him to go back to Michigan? Seems Ross might win in either case or lose in both cases should Harbaugh opt to stay on the West coast. The question really is can Stephen Ross finally close a football deal?

Of course this is all conjecture that seems to have some solid footing and @CKParrot is a pretty good source for Dolphins information and his opinion is pretty spot on too. This makes for an interesting discussion regardless of where sprouts of truth might lie.