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Jim Harbaugh strongly believed that if and when it became legal to pay college football players, Michigan would benefit.
Knowing the significant wealth emotionally invested in seeing Michigan football succeed, the then-Michigan head coach believed the Wolverines would have an advantage over the SEC schools he loved to poke at over the years, from his barn-storming satellite camps tour to comments that all but accused the southern schools of cheating.
Michigan had a long list of wealthy benefactors to choose from including Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and former Mets owner Fred Wilpon.
“He reasoned it could only benefit Michigan if it became legal to share some of the spoils with the athletes,” said Todd Anson, long a Harbaugh consigliere and a Central Michigan University trustee. “That was the impetus for him asking me to form a collective, which I did. Jim even named it for me TWT — ‘The Winningest Team.'”
The goal was to build a privately funded $250 million war chest that would, in Harbaugh’s words, wake the sleeping giant that is Michigan athletics. Anson says he even approached Google co-founder Larry Page, a Michigan graduate, about funding TWT. The world’s sixth richest man ($155.7 billion per Forbes) wasn’t interested in sports and it never gained much traction.
Harbaugh’s dream never came to fruition during his time at Michigan, though he did of course ride off into the sunset with a national championship after the 2023 season, but his belief in the advantages his alma mater would have in this new world have begun to take place.
Page may not have been interested but Michigan reeled in an even bigger fish: Larry Ellison, the fourth-richest man in the world with a net worth north of $200 billion, according to…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-big-tens-weaponization-of-clean-cash-and-lots-of-it-is-shifting-power-dynamics-from-south-to-north/
Author : John Talty
Publish date : 2025-01-15 18:30:00
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