Alabama Football: Nick Saban Deserves to Be the Highest-Paid Coach in America

Show me the money.

That's what Alabama head coach Nick Saban is saying after the University of Alabama System board of trustees voted to give Saban a raise and contract extension through 2019.  The new contract includes a base salary of $5.3 million next season, and escalators will bring the contract to $5,966,666.67 at the final season of the contract.

That keeps Saban neck-and-neck with Texas head coach Mack Brown on the list of highest paid coaches in the country.  Brown edged out Saban as the highest-paid coach in America in 2011 with a salary of $5,193,500 to Saban's $4,833,333.  Brown's current deal pays him $5.2 million, with annual raises of $100,000 per season through the end of the 2020 season

Bottom line—Nick Saban should be at the top of that list, and it shouldn't even be close.

There is no doubt that Saban is the best coach in the country.  Alabama has won two of the last three national titles and was one bad fourth quarter at the 2008 SEC Championship game away from playing for another crystal football.  

He's won 48 games in the last four seasons, and he built the Alabama program back to a point where a 10-win season—like the one Alabama "suffered through" in 2010—is considered a rebuilding year.

That's not the whole picture, though.  College football is a business, and like any business, the highest-paid executives are judged based on their impact to the bottom line.  Saban's impact is second-to-none—literally.

According to BusinessOfCollegeSports.com, Alabama led all athletics departments in 2010-11 in net income by raking in $31,684,872, beating out Penn State, Michigan, Texas and every other department in the country.  

Texas is the key here.  While the on-the-field results in Austin have been lacking of late, Brown still was an integral part of the development of the Longhorn Network.  While the network has been more of a punchline than must-see TV, it still is a big step for the Texas athletics department.

But Saban succeeds in both aspects, and that's why he should be compensated accordingly.  Football drives the bus, and Saban's success on the field is the No. 1 factor why Alabama is the most profitable athletics department in the country.  

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