Saban breaks bank with salary at ’Bama
Alabama coach Nick Saban still reigns supreme over college football — in national titles and annual pay.
The university announced a new eight-year deal yesterday worth at least $74.4 million, which would appear to make Saban again college football’s highest-paid coach based on annual salary.
The agreement runs through the 2025 season, boosting his average annual pay to $9.3 million if he sticks around for the duration.
“Our family is thrilled to agree to a contract extension with the University of Alabama that will keep us in Tuscaloosa for the rest of our coaching career,” Saban said in a statement.
Saban gets a one-year extension with a sizable raise for the 66-year-old coach, who has led the Crimson Tide to five national championships over the past nine seasons.
Ohio State’s Urban Meyer is set to make at least $7.6 million this season. Texas A&M gave Jimbo Fisher a 10-year, $75 million deal. Both Auburn’s Gus Malzahn and Georgia’s Kirby Smart are scheduled to make $7 million annually under seven-year deals, and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh also pulls in $7 million a year. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney falls just shy of that mark under his new deal .
Saban and fellow Alabama icon Bear Bryant are the only major college football coaches to win six national titles, including Saban’s 2003 BCS crown at LSU. Alabama is 125-14 over the past decade with five Southeastern Conference championships.
Saban’s salary will increase to $7.5 million this season and go up by another $400,000 in each subsequent year. He also gets an $800,000 signing incentive this year and would receive the same amount for completing each of the next three seasons — 2019, 2020 and 2021.
He had received an eight-year deal worth at least $65 million in May 2017.
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