This just season: Alabama football is big business.
The 2015 national champions turned in a cool $46.5 million in profit, according to an analysis performed by Aaron Suttles of Tide Sports. Alabama football raked in $95.1 million in revenue and doled out $48.6 million in expenses for the $46.5 million profit, a figure that, surprisingly, was $7 million below the 2014 number despite claiming the title.
Nearly one sixth of those expenses were spent on one person: Nick Saban. The Tide’s head coach earned $7.969 million in salary and bonuses in 2015, pushing him just shy of becoming college football’s first $8 million man. And he was still underpaid.
Overall, Alabama spent $18 million on its staff, a jump from $15.5 million in 2014, an increase that can likely be explained by bonuses for winning last month’s title game.
Not surprisingly, football carried the water for the Crimson Tide’s entire athletics department. Alabama athletics reported $148.9 million in revenue and $132.3 million in expenses, good for a $16.6 million profit. Taking out football, Alabama’s athletics programs made $58.3 million and spent $83.7 million though, obviously, the department would spend much differently if it didn’t have a football program. But imagining Alabama without a football team is a bit like imagining if Chick-fil-A stopped serving chicken.