Michigan football: 3 takeaways from first national title win since 1997

1. Jim Harbaugh can ride off into the sunset -- if he wants

The rumor heading into the national title game was that Jim Harbaugh was on a number of NFL teams' short list of head coaching candidates and he's flirted with the league for the past few offseasons. There's a good chance that we just saw him coach his last football game as the University of Michigan.

If he wants.

Obviously, if he wants to come back, he has a lifetime contract waiting for him. He's come a long way since that 2-4 season in 2020 when everyone wanted him fired and he's earned the right to coach at Michigan until he doesn't want to coach anymore. But he could also take that next step and head off to the NFL and no one would be mad at him.

If he were to lose in the national title game to Washington as the favorite, Michigan fans would probably crucify him, stating that he could never get over the hump, but now he has free reign to do whatever he pleases without consequence.

Plus, the NCAA has been after him for this cheating scandal and now would be the best time to just win a title, be crowned a hero in Ann Arbor, and ride off into the NFL sunset like he wants to.

We'll see if he actually follows through. He has nothing left to prove.