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Michigan holds the largest football stadium in the nation with more than 107,000 seats, and has led all of college football in attendance for nearly all of the last 45 years. Michigan football developed a strong culture of power, toughness and discipline on and off the field, and created not only successful future pro football players, but successful men in all endeavors. The program is the epitome of tradition and success.

Or, once was. And this is where you can see how the fortunes of Michigan football and Rust Belt cities are linked.

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Emphasize the qualities that made the program great, but update them for a new era.

Harbaugh's brand of power football -- a punishing running game, stout defense -- has worked at every level. However, he's tweaked it significantly from power football of old in the '70s and '80s, with formations, motions and principles gleaned from the spread innovators. It confounds opponents. But it's still power -- and that pleases him, the players and the fans that grew up on that identifiable Michigan style.

Utilize your legacy assets to their fullest extent.

Michigan had the foresight and the ability to build a massive football stadium in the 1920s. Doing so, and filling it regularly, was just one step in developing a unique set of legacies that set Michigan apart from other football powers. An outstanding academic reputation, top notch athletic and academic facilities and a full integration of the athletics system into the overall university make Michigan unique, and it sells that quality to recruits.

Make your story national.

A partial list of some of the states that the Michigan satellite camp will visit; Indiana; Ohio; New Jersey; Georgia; Florida; Texas; California; Hawaii. With the exceptions of Indiana and Hawaii, these are some of the most talent-rich high school football states in the nation. Harbaugh and the athletic department have taken great pains to send invitations to high schools near each camp site, and invite other in-state college coaches to participate in camp drills. This, along with Harbaugh's shrewd marketing on social media (454,000 Twitter followers and some of the best subtweeting around) firmly establishes that "something good is happening" at Michigan.

Make attraction -- not retention -- your trademark.

Kinda related to the above, but let me explain where Harbaugh's approach differs. For decades, Michigan relied heavily on players from the Big Ten footprint (i.e., the Midwest), with scattered numbers from elsewhere across the country. As Michigan began its slide a decade ago, there were calls from a segment of Michigan fandom that the Wolverines needed to lock down Midwestern talent to be great again (case in point: Flint native Mark Ingram left the state of Michigan to play football at Alabama, where he won a Heisman Trophy and a national championship). But Harbaugh wants the best, the hungriest, from anywhere, and promises he can make them better. That's the difference between building a walled fortress and a powerful engine.

Don't be afraid to challenge the establishment.

I understand how Harbaugh grates on many. He indeed does appear to be a totally unique personality with an exceptional competitive drive. Hey, maybe he is crazy. But he's used that drive to take on the powerful Southeastern Conference (SEC), home of eight of the last ten national champions and blessed with some of the most fruitful recruiting grounds in America. He's recognized that if he's going to win and win big, he's got to be disruptive.Let's bring this back to cities. These points clearly seem like a winning recipe for Rust Belt urban rebound as much as the restoration of Michigan football among the college football elite.

There's been so much bad stuff written about the Rust Belt over the last fifty years that we often forget what was good. Manufacturing and the jobs it brought created a middle-class economy and culture in the Midwest that other regions wish they had, but that economy and culture is indeed in need of an update. Perhaps the Rust Belt is well suited to addressing the issues of income inequality that are growing nationwide. Rust Belt cities have unparalleled legacy institutions, from excellent hospitals to top universities, and they can provide the foundation for sustainable growth. Decades of derisive commentary about them (and a culture of modesty) make Rust Belt cities a little fearful of blowing their own horn, but the Harbaugh approach shows how it can work in the region's favor. The walled fortress/powerful engine metaphor is apt; retention is not about growth but the status quo. Attraction means your building an engine that requires fuel to sustain it. Lastly, there was a time when Rust Belt cities were the establishment in America, but we must now recognize that the power has shifted south and west. Rust Belt cities cannot be afraid to call out actions and policies that favor one region at the expense of another.

I love Michigan football every bit as much as I love Rust Belt cities and all they represent. It would be great to see them both return to glory -- together.

In my experience, Yankees usually do have this hidden pride that they will someday "return to glory". I find it laughable as economic and population trends continue to prove them wrong, as well as football trends. Who knew they were so inextricably linked?? Maybe our Missouri fans can comment on this to help the poor dumb Southerners understand the eternal hopefulness of the Yankee?