MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) Alabama coach Nick Saban still reigns supreme over college football – in national titles and annual pay.
The university announced a new eight-year deal Friday 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.
”We are so fortunate to have the best football coach in the country here at Alabama in coach Saban, and we are very pleased that he has agreed to another contract extension,” athletic director Greg Byrne said. ”What this program has accomplished under him over the past decade is truly remarkable, and it goes well beyond the five national championships.
”There is obviously a very high expectation to succeed on the field; however, that expectation carries over into the classroom and the community, and it has shown in the number of graduates and hours of community service performed.”
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.
Then Saban claimed his fifth title with the Crimson Tide in January with a come-from-behind overtime win over Georgia, thanks to a halftime quarterback switch that paid off.
Saban was set to make at least $11.125 million last year, counting a $4 million signing bonus and a $400,000 completion bonus.
The new deal would put him up to $10.3 million in the final year.
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