Nick Saban Tale of the Tape: Jim Harbaugh

A couple of days after the 2024 National Championship Game was played a major announcement was made that shook college football to its core, Nick Saban was stepping down as Alabama’s head coach.

Consequently, Jim Harbaugh had the distinction of winning Saban’s final game, when Michigan topped Alabama 27-20 in overtime at the Rose Bowl, which was also a College Football Playoff semifinal during the final year it was a four-team tournament.

The Wolverines went on to win the National Championship Game 34-13 against Washington, which was coached by Kalen DeBoer, who a few days later replaced Saban at Alabama. Harbaugh subsequently left Michigan for the Los Angeles Chargers for his second stint in the league (San Francisco 49ers 2011-14).

Unlike Saban’s coaching retirement, his departure had been largely expected following numerous issues that had him butting heads with the NCAA, Big Ten and even Michigan.

Just before the season kicked off, Michigan announced a self-imposed three-game suspension for Harbaugh due to having impermissible contact with recruits and players while access was restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the opponents for the games were East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green, which the Wolverines beat by a combined scored of 96-16.

However, late in the 2023 season the Big Ten announced another three-game suspension for Harbaugh resulting from a sign-stealing scandal, for which the coach again denied being involved. Michigan still went undefeated and won its first national title since 1997, and Harbaugh was officially credited with 12 wins during the 15-0 season.

In August 2024, the NCAA announced a four-year show-cause order for Harbaugh stemming from the recruiting investigation, but the sign-stealing case remained open. In 2025, Harbaugh was issued an additional 10-year show-cause order, while two of his assistant coaches and the director of player personnel were issued show-cause penalties.

Michigan was sentenced:
• Four years of probation.
• Financial penalties: $50,000 fine, plus 10 percent of the budget for the football program.
A fine equivalent to the anticipated loss of all postseason competition revenue sharing associated with the 2025 and 2026 football seasons.
A fine equivalent to the cost of 10 percent of the scholarships awarded in Michigan's football program for the 2025-26 academic year.
• A 25 percent reduction in football official visits during the 2025-26 season.
• A 14-week prohibition on recruiting communications in the football program during the probation period.

However, Michigan was allowed to keep its national title. Fans can argue how much the championship was tainted by the scandals.

Note: Statistics for both coaches are through Nick Saban's final season in college football, 2023.

Tale of the Tape: Nick Saban vs. Jim Harbaugh

Category, Nick Saban; Jim Harbaugh

Seasons                                   28; 13
Consensus national titles       7; 1
Top 5 finishes                         13; 4
Overall record             292-71-1; 118-46
Winning percentage            .804; .720
Losing seasons                     0; 3
CFP/Bowl record                19-12; 4-7
CFP/Bowl percentage          .613; .364
Conference titles                  12; 3
Conference record     175-47-1; 81-32
Consensus All-Americans   52; 12
First-round draft picks          52; 10

Record against ranked teams 104-48; 26-26
Winning percentage against ranked teams .684; .500
Record against Top 10 teams 48-25; 10-18
Winning percentage against Top 10 teams .658; .357

Ratio: National title seasons: One every 4.0 seasons; 13
Ratio: Consensus All-Americans: 1.86 every season; .92
Ratio: First-round NFL draft picks: 1.86 every season; .8
Average wins vs. ranked teams: 3.7 every season; 2.0
Wins over top-10 teams per season: 1.7 every season; .8

Tale of the Tape will regularly appear on Alabama Crimson Tide On Si/BamaCentral through the 2025 and 2026 college football seasons. Christopher Walsh is the author of the 2014 book "Nick Saban vs. College Football: The Case for College Football's Greatest Coach."