APUPDATED 5:49 p.m. ET: As it turns out, Nick Saban will indeed be the highest-paid football coach in the country in 2012.
According to the amended contract, Saban will be paid a “talent fee” of $5,071,666.66 plus a base salary of $245,000, which means his total base compensation for the 2012 season will be just over $5.3 million.
That total will trump Mack Brown, who was the highest-paid coach in 2011 but will make just over $5.2 million from Texas this year.
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UPDATED 4:26 p.m. ET: The Birmingham News is reporting that Nick Saban will actually earn $5.3 million in the first year of his amended deal, which would in fact make him the highest-paid coach in college football.
We’re currently attempting to figure out from where the $200K discrepency comes.
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Over the weekend we opined that it would be a no-brainer to make the best college football coach in the country the highest paid at his craft as well.
Monday afternoon, Alabama announced something just short of that.
The University of Alabama Systems board of trustees met Monday to consider contract amendments for head coach Nick Saban and seven of his assistants, as well as the contracts of two new offseason coaching hires. And, to the surprise of almost no one, Saban was on the receiving end of a raise coming off another BcS title, albeit not as significant of a pay bump as some would’ve thought was deserved.
According to the terms of his amended contract, Saban will earn just under $5.1 million million in 2012, up from $4.8 million in 2011. Texas’ Mack Brown will remain the highest-paid coach in the game after pulling in $5.2 million in 2011.
Saban, entering his sixth season with the Tide, will receive a $50,000 raise following the 2012 season, followed by annual raises of $100,000 through the life of the contract. The deal would top out at around $5.7 million provided there are no further enhancements.
Saban’s amended contract was also extended by two years, meaning the 60-year-old is now signed through the 2019 season.
We’ll have additional details on Saban’s new contract as well as the amendments made to his assistants as they become available. In the meantime, take a shot at the poll below, and offer your thoughts in the comments section below that.
Mack Brown’s salary is subsidized by funding from the alumni association and football support groups, not the university, so that should take his name off the list.
Your article should only include salaries that are fully funded by the athletic depat and the university.
Also, no one knows if the $5.2M is actually the highest salary, as funded from all sources, because private schools don’t release the salaries of their coaches. When Pete Carroll left USC, it was reported that he was at the $4M+ salary level and who knows what Lane Kiffin is getting, but you can be sure his salary is upwards of whawt PC was getting.
Silly poll. You can make an argument that he should be based on his success. You can make an argument that he shouldn’t be because Texas earns more money (bigger state, bigger fan base). But it’s really a to-MAY-to/to-MAH-to question.
Pretty apparent that he doesn’t care all that much, as long as he is in the ballpark. Giving him the raise he got shows that he is respected for what he has accomplished. He is now making 98% of what Mac Brown is. Close enough as to not be worth wrangling over.
(Cue: the anti-Saban trolls to trot out the “He is evil because he left the Dolphins SIX YEARS AGO and is therefore untrustworthy, unreliable and will leave any day now.”)
@thekatman: Kiffin making $4,005,000. http://college-football-coaches.findthedata.org/q/89/3950/How-much-is-Head-Coach-Lane-Kiffin-paid
Doubt he’s gotten a raise since he was hired at that figure.
@thekatman: I’m not aware of any college football coach of any significance whose salary isn’t paid by various booster groups, Saban’s certainly is.
I believe the 200K is what is actually paid to him by the state/university of Alabama.
and the young men that actually play the game get……………..a free college education.
The …findthedata.org website is misinformed. Lots of erroneous data on that site….. Besides, Kif is paid more than what this site states.
I can’t believe they didn’t give him a lot more than Mack Brown. Saban is a MUCH better coach than Brown! When Saban gets an offer from another school for $6 or $7 million they will wish they had given him a bigger raise. Every school in the country would love to have Saban and would pay whatever it takes to basically assure they win a national championship.
Roll tide roll #sabanation
Is he the best coach or the best recruiter?
@tsimpson50
He is both!
Worth noting here is that Les Miles has escalators in his contract that must make him the highest payed coach in the SEC. So Saban won’t be the highest payed for long.
Well deserved, Nick. Well deserved.
@timh1955,
I don’t think at this point Saban is going anywhere. He said in that press conference that he and his wife have talked about it and they are going to stay at Alabama for the rest of his career ( fingers crossed)! I mean why would he want to leave? He is worshiped here. If other schools started offering him more money I believe the University or the Boosters would give him what it took to keep him. I know that when he left LSU to go to the Dolphins he said he regretted leaving not only college football but the SEC. I know it would make all of our SEC rivals jump up and down shouting hooray if he left us but it looks like he is here to stay. THANK GOD!!!
ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!