For Saban, Alabama Coaches, BCS Could Stand For Big Cash Soon

Remember when Saban was hired and was called the "Four Million Dollar Man?" Well you can up that figure this year.

According to University of Alabama records, Saban, his coaches and members of the athletic administration will have earned some pretty hefty bonuses for this year's successes.

For Saban the following bonuses are:

-$250,000 for winning the SEC

-$200,000 for taking the Tide to a BCS Bowl

-$25,000 for winning SEC Coach of the Year

-$50,000 if he wins a major national coach of the year award, which is likely

That's a cool half million and change and doesn't count the endorsement and commercial deals. It's a lot of money, but no one is denying the fact that he earned it and is worth even more, at least if they're wearing Crimson.

But the money train doesn't just stop at Saban's door. Assistant coaches get rewarded too, based on a percentage of their salary and the same goes for certain administrators too.

Assistant coaches earn a 4 percent bonus for getting the team to the SEC Championship Game and 16 percent for getting them to a BCS bowl game.

This earns Joe Pendry $78,000, and Kirby Smart and Jim McElwain $72,000 each. Even the strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran and administrators like Associate AD Mike Vollmar, Director of Player Personnel Willie Carl Martin, Director of Player Development Jeremy Pruitt get a 20 percent bonus.

Athletic Director Mal Moore will get an 8.3 percent bonus as will Executive Athletic Director Dave Hart. For Moore, this will be a nice $35,000 check and Hart will pull in about $27,000. This represents about 8.3 percent of their yearly salary.

If you think this sounds like a lot of money, this is only a small percentage of what the university will make on the football program and from higher revenues from merchandising that result from playing in these games.

So for the coaches and staff, this has certainly been a Merry Christmas and a prosperous year. Now if they bring home a national title there could be some pay raises in the future and with this team coming back mostly intact, next year could be a very good year too.