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Colin Cowherd defends Jim Harbaugh, says Ohio State ‘not the academic power’ like Penn State, Michigan

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Colin Cowherd may have his radio show banned in the state of Ohio before too long.

Late last week, Cowherd revealed in an interview with Urban Meyer that he was clueless about the fact that Joe Burrow attended Ohio State before transferring to LSU — and not on purpose. He asked Meyer how Burrow “got out of Ohio” before the former Buckeyes head coach informed Cowherd that Burrow, in fact, started his career in Columbus.

Now, a few days later, Cowherd has taken another jab at Ohio State — whether it was intentional or not. In a longer segment, the FOX Sports radio host was talking about Jim Harbaugh hitting his expected win total on a regular basis.

Cowherd says, based on weather, high school talent, academic strength, he provides a number that each team should hit if the right head coach is in place. That total for Michigan is at 9.5 to 10 — a mark Harbaugh has hit three times in his four seasons with the Wolverines.

Cowherd then admitted that Ohio State is the only school with a cold climate in which he sets the mark at 11. And his reasoning takes a shot at Ohio State’s academic background.

“Their state has a lot of high school football stars and they’re not the academic power, they’re not academically as good as Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan or even Washington,” Cowherd said.

Below is the full clip, posted by The Herd. He begins making his argument around the 2:40 mark:

That’s not going to sit well with Ohio State fans, alumni or current students. Folks at Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin are probably smiling, though.

As much of an argument as Cowherd makes for Harbaugh, it will mean essentially nothing if Michigan comes up short against Ohio State again this season. Nobody will be talking about academics if that happens again.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB