By Jess Nicholas, TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief
Dec. 6, 2013
The University of Alabama and head coach Nick Saban are close on terms of a contract extension that would lock Saban to Alabama well into the next decade, sources told TideFans.com on Friday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source told TideFans.com that Alabama and Saban have agreed in principle to terms on a deal. The contract would be for multiple years and would include a raise from his current deal, which pays him around $5.5 million annually. While exact figures were not yet known, the raise was described as “significant” and is all but certain to make Saban the first college football coach earning more than $6 million per year.
Word of the deal began to emerge earlier Friday, as Rodney Orr of TiderInsider.com reported via a tweet that the two sides had agreed to a deal but that rumored salary figures of $7 million to $8 million were not accurate.
An official announcement would not likely be made until after the conclusion of the SEC Championship Game. The Southeastern Conference has historically frowned upon major announcements coming out the week of the league’s title game, unless the announcement involved one of the teams in the game itself.
The subject of Saban’s contract with Alabama has been the source of much media speculation over the past two months, driven mostly by reports from Texas-based media that Saban would leave Alabama for the University of Texas at season’s end. Mack Brown – who is currently the second-highest paid college football coach behind Saban, at around $5.4 million per year – has not announced any intentions to retire after the season, but multiple Texas sites have alleged Brown will either retire or be forced out of the job. While Texas president Bill Powers publicly denied Thursday that his school had even contacted Saban, a writer for the website InsideTexas.com was reporting a deal for Saban to succeed Brown was already in place.
Meanwhile, both Nick Saban and his wife Terry Saban, in multiple reports, repeatedly denied any contact with Texas, with both insisting Alabama would be Saban’s last coaching assignment.
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