ANN ARBOR, Mich. >> University of Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich put his left heel squarely on the 49-yard line at Michigan Stadium on Friday.
Then, taking a medium stride, he told a group of Rainbow Warriors at the team walk-through, “Hey, look at this, it is exactly 1 yard. The same as at home.”
The point being that for all the trappings of success enjoyed by today’s well-heeled opponent, seventh-ranked Michigan, the field they play on in today’s nationally televised game is the same.
That might be about the only thing that is in this matchup of extreme spectrum opposites, the haves and have-nots.
Michael Jordan is scheduled to do the ceremonial coin flip, celebrating Michigan’s new $173.8 million apparel partnership with Nike. The Wolverines will be the first college or pro football team outfitted in the Jordan brand uniforms and sideline apparel. It is said that Derek Jeter might also attend.
UH, meanwhile, is waiting to see if it will even get a contract renewal from Under Armour for pennies on the dollar by comparison.
The game will be televised by ESPN and Michigan’s share of the Big Ten Conference TV revenue is approximately $35 million per year. UH receives $2.3 million annually for its TV rights.
A study in the Wall Street Journal valued the Michigan football program at $811.3 million, third-highest among college teams (after Ohio State and Texas), if it could be sold on the open market like a professional franchise. UH, in the same study, was valued at $21.36 million, 85th among 116 major college programs.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh received a $2 million contract addendum this summer that will, according to the Detroit Free Press, make him the highest-paid coach in the country this season at $9 million.
UH’s Nick Rolovich is the lowest paid coach in the 12-member Mountain West and his annual salary ($400,008) is just over half of Harbaugh’s new monthly salary.
Michigan will host its 266th consecutive crowd of 100,000 or more. UH hasn’t had a sellout at 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium in eight years.
Four Wolverines are projected first-round picks in April’s NFL Draft.
As for today, Rolovich says, “it all comes down to playing football. That’s what matters.”
