Arguably college football's longest-running soap opera is over: Jim Harbaugh is returning to the NFL.
Myriad reports indicate that Harbaugh, the 'Michigan Man' who just led his alma mater to its first national championship since 1997 and who also spent literally half of his final season in Ann Arbor, Michigan, suspended from the sidelines, is returning to professional football to coach the Los Angeles Chargers.
Sources shared early Tuesday afternoon with FootballScoop that Chargers ownership members believed they had reached agreement with Harbaugh, who previously led the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance during his first stint as an NFL head coach.
The move ends what's been a seemingly perpetual, years-long dalliance for Harbaugh and a potential NFL return.
Just two years ago, Harbaugh advanced deep into the interview process with the Minnesota Vikings and sources shared with FootballScoop at that time that Harbaugh believed he would be offered the job.
The Vikings instead hired Kevin O'Connell, who promptly led the franchise to a 13-win season in his 2022 debut campaign as head coach.
The Chargers were among multiple NFL franchises to interview Harbaugh in this cycle; they were deemed perhaps the most attractive due to the presence of franchise quarterback Justin Herbert.
The organization fired Brandon Staley in mid-December after the team yielded 63 points in a blowout-loss to the Raiders that dropped the Chargers's record to 5-9.
Harbaugh's exit from Michigan sees him at once revered by the school's adoring fans and reviled by much of college football.
Harbaugh served a three-game suspension to open the 2023 season that stemmed from allegations of Level I NCAA recruiting violations during the COVID-19 pandemic. That case has not yet been resolved by the NCAA.
He then was shelved in an unprecedented move by the Big Ten for Michigan's final three games of the regular season in a move that stemmed from a still-ongoing probe in the sign-stealing cheating scheme of disgraced and former Michigan football staffer Connor Stalions, who resigned rather than be fired by the school in mid-November.
Same as the probe that has extended into Harbaugh's alleged recruiting misdeeds, the Stalions investigation has continued into a third month. It has ensnared other institutions, saw other Michigan staffers dismissed and remained a focus of both the Big Ten Conference office as well as the NCAA.
But any subsequent punishments Harbaugh might receive for either or both investigation now are moot; 'Captain Comeback' is back in the NFL.
The 60-year-old Harbaugh won 44 games and advanced to the NFC Playoffs three of the four years he served as San Francisco's head coach from 2011-14.