Nick Saban is college football’s highest paid coach again with extension

Nick Saban is worth a whole lot of green to the Crimson Tide.

Alabama approved a one-year extension and a raise for the 70-year-old coach that will keep him at Alabama through 2029 at a cost of $11.7 million per season.

The new salary comes after Georgia made Kirby Smart the highest-paid coach in college football in July with a contact that pays him $11.2 million per season over 10 years.

Though Georgia beat Alabama in last season’s national championship game, Saban has built the Tide into a powerhouse, with Alabama having made seven of the last eight College Football Playoff National Championship games. Saban has won seven national championships in all (2003, ’09, ’11, ’12, ’15, ’17, ’20), including six with Alabama beginning in 2009. He also has 10 SEC titles on his resume.

“Our family is very happy to agree to a contract extension with the University of Alabama,” Saban said in a statement. “Terry [Saban’s wife] and I are very appreciative of the unmatched commitment the university has shown to this football program and our family over the last 15-plus years. This is our home, and we look forward to finishing our career at Alabama.”

The coach also has a bevy of bonuses he can take home with even more success: $75,000 for appearing in the SEC championship game or $125,000 for winning it; $200,000 for appearing in a New Year’s Six bowl game; $400,000 for appearing in a national championship semifinal game; $600,000 for appearing in a national championship game or $800,000 for winning it.

Saban is also set up to stay among the highest paid collegiate coaches with a contractual provision that agrees to pay him the higher average of the top three highest-paid coaches in the SEC or the five highest-paid coaches nationally.

It’s a list Alabama trustees will have to be watching for some time, as Saban doesn’t seem to have any retirement plans coming soon.

“I love my job. I love it,” Saban told the SEC Network. “I love the relationships with the players, I love the competition, the preparation for the games. I just love it. I wish you all would ask all the other coaches who come up here — because they tell the recruits I’m going to retire — ask them how they know I’m going to retire when all I think about is what am I going to do if I retire, because I love what I’m doing now. So how am I going to be happy not coaching?”