In the past 24 hours it seems like Jim Harbaugh went from being the hottest name in sports, to being as attractive as one of Kristen Wiig’s deformed characters on “Saturday Night Live.”

It’s hard to know where the Harbaugh rumors start and where they end, but all of a sudden two teams (the Dolphins and Broncos) that were pursuing him as their next head coach suddenly have no interest at all. On Thursday night, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports tweeted that the Dolphins were sticking with Tony Sparano (the man that owner Stephen Ross was so willing to kick to the curb just days ago) and on Friday morning, the Denver Post reported that the Broncos are bowing out of the Harbaugh race, too.

Whose baby did Harbaugh punch in the last 24 hours to make these teams turn and run for the hills?

The fact that the Broncos have backed out isn’t a surprise. As Rotoworld.com points out, they’ve just been a “backburner” team for Harbaugh all along. But the Dolphins’ about-face is strange to say the least.

Ross, GM Jeff Ireland and new football czar Carl Peterson flew cross-country to talk to Harbaugh earlier this week. There were also reports that Ross offered Harbaugh $7-8 million to coach in Miami, which would have made him the highest paid head coach in the NFL. During this time, Miami’s brass left Sparano hanging (which was a bush league move by the way) while courting Harbaugh.

And now they’re out? Hey Tony, we realized that you were the one for us all along? No, it’s over with Jim…we swear?

It doesn’t make sense.

So now we’re back to square one with Harbaugh: It’s between Michigan (his alma mater) and the 49ers (assuming they haven’t backed out since I started writing this post). And I guess we might as well entertain the idea that he’s going to stay at Stanford with Andrew Luck and I don’t know, win another Orange Bowl or something.

My money would be on him winding up at Michigan but at this point, who knows.

I don’t know if you’ve been able to figure out over the course of the season which team I root for when it comes to college football, but I’ll admit that it’s not Michigan. I do, however, live near thousands and thousands of Michigan fans, and most of my friends root for the Maize and Blue, so I’ve heard a lot of this lately: Fire Rich Rod!!! (Their exclamation points, not mine.)

Ohio State defeated Michigan 37-7 today in a game that really wasn’t competitive past midway through the second quarter. It’s the seventh straight loss to the Buckeyes for Michigan, and it could be the final game for Rich Rodriguez in Ann Arbor.

Let me rephrase that, it should be the last game in Ann Arbor for Rich Rodriguez. Through three years, Rodriguez has won 15 games, six of which have come in Big Ten play. One of those wins came against the top half of the conference — a crazy victory over Wisconsin in his first season — and none of them have come against Michigan’s two biggest rivals, Michigan State and Ohio State.

Those are incredibly damning statistics, and while this team is obviously better than the last two years, there is no way any Michigan fan can claim enough progress has been made over these three years to be satisfied. The defense is awful, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change too much next year, as it will still be young and void of talent at most positions. That can partially be solved with a new defensive coordinator and scheme, but then again, it will be the third coordinator and scheme in four years, which can only cause confusion.

Then there’s the matter of the offense, which has the potential to be incredibly explosive. It also has the ability to completely sputter against good, physical defenses, like it did today against Ohio State.

The only reason to keep Rodriguez around is because of his offense, and I suppose you could make a decent argument that the Wolverines should score a lot again next year as most all of the offense is coming back. But one more year of that system, and the recruits Rodriguez is bringing in to run it will only further create a problem for the next coach, who no doubt will be in the “Michigan Man” mold, and run a power-based, play-action offense that has proven it can work in the Big Ten.

There’s also the thought that Michigan’s most prized target, Jim Harbaugh, has reached his peak at Stanford, and when Andrew Luck leaves for the NFL, Harbaugh could do the same. A Michigan offer could be the one thing to keep Harbaugh in the college ranks, as he’s an alum. But once he goes pro, he’s not coming back to the college game without being fired.

Michigan AD Dave Brandon has a big decision to make, but it also seems pretty crystal clear at this point. He has to fire Rich Rodriguez.