OK, as always it is up to me to provide context to the entire thing. It is a heavy burden I bear. Just remember: this whole Harbaugh thing is a ruse to get everyone looking the other way because they've got a done deal with Saban, who is leaving Alabama right after the national title game because he's always wanted to coach at the Big House.
I mean, I'm amazed some idiot hasn't said that on the talk show circuit.
Michigan doesn't so much look like Alabama here; they look like Texas last year parading a bunch of names and settling on an outrageously reported salary. The only reason they don't look quite that ridiculous is that nobody beats Texas when it comes to inflated arrogance.
Furthermore, while there are some fair parallels to be made (and B1G has done a pretty good job pointing this out), you really can't compare the situations because Michigan is not serving a crippling set of sanctions that will set the next coach and program back 5-7 years. We messed up in the hiring of Dubious, but by the time Fran came on board it was well-known we were going to get hammered really hard. Fran bolted after seeing what he was hit with and then we had the misfortune of misreading Price and getting stuck with Shula.
Michigan ran off a national title winning coach because he lost to App State, and they've been paying for it ever since. Nebraska ran off Frank Solich right after he went 9-3......and they've never recovered. If they had kept him they'd have been more successful this last decade and the program would have some continuity.