Joel Klatt draws line in sand about why Jim Harbaugh, Michigan enhanced Big Ten football

Joel Klatt draws line in sand about why Jim Harbaugh, Michigan enhanced Big Ten football originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

>The Michigan Wolverines are a few years removed from the Jim Harbaugh era, but as Fox Sports' Joel Klatt sees it, it is much different.

>The Wolverines' 2023 national title win against the Washington Huskies shouldn't necessarily be forgotten, Klatt said. Rather, it should be used as a blueprint for how the Big Ten operates at the highest level of college football today.

>"And number two is: you’re always going to target who’s at the top of the conference, and their brand of football is going to influence the way that you build your roster," Klatt said. "It certainly happened in the SEC when Alabama was ruling the SEC with Nick Saban and the physical brand of football that they played."

>Klatt, who praised the way the Wolverines capped off arguably their best season in program history, was left confused about why Harbaugh doesn't get more credit for turning around the program over a decade. Including the well-documented sign-stealing controversies, the Wolverines began a run of dominance in the Big Ten that has carried the conference forward into today's college football landscape.

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>To Klatt, that means something.

>"And there was a little bit of an homage to what Jim Harbaugh in Michigan did," Klatt said.  "And it was such a physical line-of-scrimmage brand of game that they said the entire conference had to go that way. And so now, the entire conference is better in that spot than they have been in previous years.”

>Since the Wolverines positioned themselves at the top of college football, the Ohio State Buckeyes and Indiana Hoosiershave since followed suit. A common theme followed both: in the trenches, both teams were simply physically superior.

>Entering this fall, the Big Ten is still top-heavy. The Wolverines look a little different, both at the quarterback and head-coaching spots.

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>But, even so, the expectation of excellence on a conference-wide scale remains the same.

>And the Wolverines re-defined it with their own spin, paving the way for where the Big Ten sits today.

>Should the trend continue, the league will likely be in a good spot for years to come.

>By September, a new chapter in conference history will be established.

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