Pre offer:
Post Ohio State communications indicated to Jim he would be highest paid coach in Big Ten. Have the largest assistant pool salary. Lots of NIL support and support from University for the program.
First offer:
Getting to the contract. The first contract offer to Jim was a raise in base salary but not high enough to meet Big Ten peers and did not increase assistant coach salary pool and included a large buyout. The notice of allegations from the NCAA were well known, but after the AD was told they were coming anytime, Warde changed his tune and offered that contract. Harbaugh balked at it and felt he wasn't wanted by everyone at the University like he was in 2015. He also doubted the Universities support of him specifically the AD. As a result he hired an agent and started communicating with the NFL as a backup. The details of the first contract were about 8.1 million base with incentives that could get him up to 11 million. Assistant coach pool was 7.1 million with incentives making it get close to 8.1 million. Buyout for coach was around 9 million.
Second Offer:
Now some time has passed and President Ono gets involved. Only then does Warde get moving more. New offer was made with a lower buyout (5 million), base around 9.5 million and incentives getting him to 12 or 13 million, an increased assistant pool salary of around 7.7 million and incentives getting to close to 9 million. Ono personally gave Jim support against the NCAA. Things were trending in right direction and contract was going to be signed. But lack of support from Warde and his antics caused Harbaugh to pause and look at Plan B just in case.