Alabama announced the terms of Nick Saban’s new contract at the school, and the numbers are unsurprisingly eye-watering.
While Saban’s base salary remains the same, the Alabama coach’s talent fee got a big hike in his new extension, which runs through the 2028 season. In 2023-24, Saban will become the first college head coach to make eight figures annually when his salary jumps to $10.3 million. The final six years of the deal are all over $10 million, topping out at $11.5 million in 2028-29.
Including scheduled contract-year completion payments, this will be Saban's recurring basic pay from school (8 years, $84.8 million):
2021-22 contract year: $9.5 million.
22-23: $9.9M
23-24: $10.3M
24-25: $10.7M
25-26: $11.1M
26-27: $10.7M
27-28: $11.1M
28-29: $11.5M https://t.co/w2Wad432XQ— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) August 2, 2021
In total, the compensation over the life of the deal lands just shy of $85 million. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney will eventually get to $10 million annually under the terms of his current deal, but it won’t happen until 2027.
If anybody deserves it, it’s Saban, who has made the Crimson Tide program a guaranteed annual contender. He’s won six national championships at Alabama, and it would be a surprise if he doesn’t add at least a couple more before this contract expires.
The 69-year-old Saban has hinted that this new contract may end up being his last. If it is, he’ll go into retirement quite secure financially.
