[Goose]

Wasn't his compensation restructured to be more incentive based?
I don't remember the details, but recall thinking this as a reasonable and fair compromise to extend the Harbaugh project whilst appeasing the increasingly unhappy base.
Would Stanford/Shaw consider something similar? Seems like a reasonable compromise solution to me.

Harbaugh only had one more year left on his contract so the cost of dismissing him wasn't exorbitant, giving leverage to Michigan, which it exercised by cutting his guaranteed salary in half while providing him a chance to almost fully recoup via incentives.

True. Allowing Harbaugh to become a "lame duck" would have been a catastrophe for recruiting, so that wasn't an option. They had to either fire him or extend him. It must also be noted that the incentives only get him back to "even" with his previous base. He got no raise, which isn't a good sign. The other side of that coin was that Harbaugh was extended through 2025. Even at the 4M base the time period gave Harbaugh back a pretty good buyout and indicated some significant time period to perform. There was a real fear that 2021 would be as bad or worse than 2020. That also gave Michigan leverage for the pay cut. Fortunately for Harbaugh, he was able to completely turn that around. If he beats tOSU next year, I am pretty sure he could negotiate a new contract. If OTOH next year isn't so good, he is still safe. The incentive laden contract covers a lot of issues for both sides.

[Goose]

Wasn't his compensation restructured to be more incentive based?
I don't remember the details, but recall thinking this as a reasonable and fair compromise to extend the Harbaugh project whilst appeasing the increasingly unhappy base.
Would Stanford/Shaw consider something similar? Seems like a reasonable compromise solution to me.

Harbaugh only had one more year left on his contract so the cost of dismissing him wasn't exorbitant, giving leverage to Michigan, which it exercised by cutting his guaranteed salary in half while providing him a chance to almost fully recoup via incentives.

True. Allowing Harbaugh to become a "lame duck" would have been a catastrophe for recruiting, so that wasn't an option. They had to either fire him or extend him. It must also be noted that the incentives only get him back to "even" with his previous base. He got no raise, which isn't a good sign. The other side of that coin was that Harbaugh was extended through 2025. Even at the 4M base the time period gave Harbaugh back a pretty good buyout and indicated some significant time period to perform. There was a real fear that 2021 would be as bad or worse than 2020. That also gave Michigan leverage for the pay cut. Fortunately for Harbaugh, he was able to completely turn that around. If he beats tOSU next year, I am pretty sure he could negotiate a new contract. If OTOH next year isn't so good, he is still safe. The incentive laden contract covers a lot of issues for both sides.