Nick Saban is college football’s highest-paid coach AGAIN as Alabama approves his $93m extension
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Nick Saban is college football’s highest-paid coach AGAIN as Alabama approves his eight-year, $93m extension… and his new $11.7m salary eclipses rival and ex-assistant Kirby Smart’s $11.2m annual pay at Georgia
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Following one excruciatingly long month as the Southeastern Conference’s second highest-paid football coach, Alabama’s Nick Saban is finally back on top, thanks to a new eight-year, $93 million contract extension.
The 70-year-old Saban is once again college football’s highest-paid coach with an average annual salary of $11.7 million. Saban was previously earning an average annual salary of $9.7 million.
The school’s board of trustees approved the one-year extension on Tuesday — about a month after Saban’s former assistant, Kirby Smart, inked a new deal with the defending champion Georgia Bulldogs that pays him an average of $11.2 million over the next 10 seasons.
The 70-year-old Saban is once again college football’s highest-paid coach with an average annual salary of $11.7 million. Saban was previously earning an average annual salary of $9.7 million
Smarts Bulldogs beat Saban’s Crimson Tide twice in the 2020 season’s final three weeks to secure Georgia’s first national title since 1980, when current-day senatorial candidate Herschel Walker was still playing for the school.
Besides Saban and Smart’s deals, college football’s other top-paid coaches include LSU’s Brian Kelly (10 years, $95 million), Michigan State’s Mel Tucker (10 years, $95 million), Clemson’s Dabo Swinney (10 years, $93 million), Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher (10 years, $90 million) and Penn State’s James Franklin (10 years, $85 million).
Under Saban, who previously won a national title at LSU, the Tide have finished with the No. 1 ranking six times and have never finished outside the AP’s Top 10.
The son of journeyman coach Lou Saban, Nick Saban is now entering his 16th season, having compiled a record of 183-25 over his time in Tuscaloosa.
The Tide have played in six of the last seven national championship games, going 3-3.
Alabama heads into the season with the No. 1 ranking in both the AP and coaches’ polls.
Saban’s extensions have become almost perfunctory for Alabama, which signed him to a three-year deal in June of 2021 for nearly $85 million.
On Tuesday, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne also received a raise and will now earn $1.49 million this year with raises pushing that mark to $1.91 million by 2028.
Head Coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide talks with Head Coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs before the SEC Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 4, 2021 in Atlanta