Jim Harbaugh advocates paying players, deflects talk on future - ESPN

Jim Harbaugh batted away any questions about his future at Saturday's media day session for the College Football Playoff National Championship, instead using his time to advocate for revenue sharing for college athletes.

The Michigan coach said coaches, administrators and television networks are all «robbing the same train» in making money off unpaid college players and hopes the rapid pace of change in the sport can finally make revenue sharing a reality, not just in football, but in all collegiate athletics.

«We've seen a whole conference go into a portal,» Harbaugh said of the Pac-12. «If those kind of things can happen overnight… I don't know how the sausage gets made completely, but there's a lot of smart people that do, that know a lot about revenue sharing, know a lot about how those algorithms and economics work. And the real issue is there's no voice for the players.»

Harbaugh routinely deflected questions about his future — «Future, I'd like to have one,» he said — and snuffed out any NFL questions, dismissing them quickly, such as when he was asked what the difference was in time management between coaching in college and the NFL.

«I don't have that list in front of me,» he said.

But his longest and most considered answers were on the «ever-growing, ever-increasing revenue that it'd be right for the student-athletes, not just football, all student-athletes, to share in.»

In 2012, then-South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said coaches would be willing to give up a small percentage of their salary if the players could get a modest stipend.

That never happened, but Harbaugh said, more than a decade later, that he feels like with change taking place across the sport that there seemed to be more hope.

«If stuff can