Armour: Jim Harbaugh is best thing Big Ten has going these days

CHICAGO — Jim Harbaugh knows his audience.

Back in Chicago for his first appearance at Big Ten Media Days as the Michigan coach, the former Bears quarterback did what you do in Chicago: He pulled out a Ditka jersey.

Full size, not the Mini Ditka version.

“(I’ll) be proud to wear that,” Harbaugh said, holding it up in the signature scene of the two-day gathering.

The only way he could have played it better is if he’d weighed in on that age-old conundrum, Coach Ditka or a hurricane.

Before leaving Chicago, here’s hoping the other Big Ten schools pitched a few bucks Michigan’s way to help cover Harbaugh’s hefty salary. With apologies to the defending national champions, he’s the best thing going in the conference these days.

The buzz over his return to Ann Arbor is so big it’s spilling over onto the rest of the Big Ten, an espresso-like boost for a conference that only a few years ago was thought to have all the excitement of a bingo game.

“No doubt about it, it’s a head-turning hire,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said. “… If it’s successful for Michigan, I’m sure it will be successful for the Big Ten.”

In this day of CEOs doubling as college football coaches, Harbaugh is a rarity. He’s a personality. Love him or hate him, you can’t help but be mesmerized by him.

Yes, he’s got a long track record of success, as a player and as a coach, in the college and pro games. But he’s so much more than that. There’s his famous family — you may have heard a time or 12,000 that his brother, John, coaches the Baltimore Ravens and his father, Jack, is one of the most highly regarded college coaches.

There’s his dorky wardrobe. His enthusiastic embrace of Twitter, even if it did take him a while to get the hang of it. His adoration for Judge Judy. His demeanor that veers from aw, shucks Americana (see Ditka jersey) to ice cold (Google Harbaugh and Colin Cowherd).

No other coach in the Big Ten, maybe the entire country, could have filled an entire ballroom at 8:15 a.m. on a Friday for what was essentially a 15-minute photo op and cliché-fest. ESPN even carried Harbaugh’s appearance live.

Turns out, khakis are cool.

“I’m not striving to be creating any buzz. Just striving to coach the football team,” Harbaugh said Friday. “Not trying to be popular or anything. Anyone who is popular is bound to be disliked.

“So, just coaching football.”

He’ll never be just any other coach, though. He can’t be.

As much as Michigan needed Harbaugh after seven mostly mediocre years left the Wolverines in danger of becoming an also-ran, the Big Ten did, too. The days of the conference having some of the game’s most iconic names — Schembechler, Hayes, Paterno — were long gone.

The Southeastern Conference was firmly entrenched as the best conference in the country, those seven consecutive national titles confirming what folks in the South had been saying for years. The Pac-12 had cornered the market on cool, and that went beyond Oregon’s flashy uniforms.

The Big Ten, meanwhile, was seen as little more than 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Whether that was right or wrong, the conference was saddled with a smashmouth persona that doesn’t play well with the kids these days.

“It was like the Big Ten was an afterthought,” Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said of the perception when he arrived in 2012.

Meyer, one of the biggest names in the game, helped change that. His Buckeyes ran roughshod over mighty Alabama on their way to the national title last year, dispelling the notion that the Big Ten had size but not speed or style. His Buckeyes are No. 1 in the preseason Amway coaches poll, too.

But Meyer is more in that CEO mold, his appeal stemming from his won-loss record. Harbaugh resonates with fans, compelling them to pay attention the other six days of the week, too.

“I think it’s awesome,” Michigan linebacker Joe Bolden said. “It’s different. It’s new. It’s fun. It gets everybody talking.”

Talk can be cheap. But at a time when schools and conferences are fighting for every spare bit of attention they can find in the crowded sports landscape, the spillover effect from Harbaugh's spotlight is priceless.

Follow columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.

GALLERY: Highlights from Big Ten Media Days