Adapted from The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos by Armen Keteyian and John Talty to be published by Harper Books, August 27, 2024. The Price is an in-depth look at an inflection point in college football where name, image and likeness, the transfer portal and conference realignment have turned the sport upside down.
Written by six-time New York Times best-selling author Keteyian and award-winning national college football reporter Talty, The Price features sweeping coast-to-coast reporting that includes more than two hundred wide-ranging interviews with head coaches, athletic directors, conference commissioners, administrators, politicians, power brokers, stakeholders, thought leaders, agents and media executives at a time of tumultuous change in big-time college football. Those interviews revealed never-before-reported details on major players such as Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, Jimbo Fisher and Lane Kiffin, plus the behind-the-scenes story behind Georgia quarterback Jaden Rashada’s decision to sue Florida head coach Billy Napier in an unprecedented lawsuit.
You can preorder a copy of The Price here.
No sooner had Jim Harbaugh hoisted the national championship trophy than members of his inner circle were advising him to ride off into the sunset.
With good reason. As it turned out, Harbaugh had found himself getting squeezed from both sides — by a process he hated and a place he loved.
In the wake of the Connor Stalions sign-stealing investigation, NCAA enforcement had made yet another sweeping request for Harbaugh’s school-issued and personal cell-phone records dating back eighteen months. In response, Harbaugh’s attorney Tom Mars wrote a stinging email, saying he would need to review 6,199 emails plus texts, and oh by the way, your request is illegal under Michigan employment and privacy laws, “outrageous and offensive and without probable cause.” (And it wasn’t just Harbaugh. The NCAA had demanded similar records from the entire coaching staff only to drop that request.)
In the end, Mars knew Harbaugh would eventually face two Committee on Infractions hearings before what he deemed a hostile crowd and a certain suspension that could cost him half-a-season — or more.
“I will tell you this,” said Mars, “I told [Harbaugh agent] Don Yee and Jim as clearly as I could, more than once, more than twice, that in my opinion if he stayed…
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