So is Saban worth $100m?

I covered one SEC team, one of the assistants joked that the opener was "the suspension game"

 

I frankly doubt it's true. A bunch of money-men boosters throwing around numbers? That's not an offer sheet, and that's not having to actually sell the damn thing to fans, regents, HS coaches, and the like. Those same money boosters had Texas in six different conferences, as I recall, back in 2010, and Texas stuck in the Big 12.

People don't get how "not great" that Texas job is. It's a lot of ass-kissing. There are a hundred different people to appease. Since the Friday Night Lights is practically a damn brand, you are not the Big Kahuna there you would be in other places. Mack Brown knew that and recruited pretty damn well because of it. He was much better at that job than anyone would like to admit, and Charlie Strong's gonna find out.

 

Ask the Chancellor, President, Board of Directors, AD, and any one who does any of the marketing for Alabama Football if Saban is worth $100 million.......

You will get an emphatic, unanimous yes.

 

Saban is worth $100 mil. to Bama, Texas, probably a few other schools that are dependent on their football program for their financial well-being.

 

Well, I would argue that Saban is worth more to Alabama than he would be at Texas, which has a better overall athletic program.

Given where Bama was when Saban took over and where they are now, it's hard to argue he's not worth almost any price.

 

That's debatable at this point. In addition to football titles in 2011 and 2012, Alabama has won national championships in softball, women's gymnastics, women's golf and men's golf (twice) in the last three years.

Texas won a national title in volleyball in 2012 and a men's swimming and diving championship in 2010, but otherwise hasn't won a championship since 2005.

Yeah, Alabama men's and women's basketball programs suck and their baseball program is nothing special, but they're not just a football school anymore.

 

Not surprisingly, he denies it:

http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2014/07/nick_saban_addresses_reported.html

 

The key words are "were prepared to offer"

 

I remember Red McCombs saying "We'll get him. We have more money than anybody except the Vatican."

That pretty well expresses both sides of it... they have the money and were willing to spend it to get the best college coach working today, and their big boosters are crazy arrogant. Appeasing and ass kissing those guys and the politics around them are indeed a big part of the Texas job. They're also something that Saban does not have the time, patience, or inclination to fool with.

When he took over at 'Bama, there were a lot of people who had been around the fringes of the program for a long time and thought that they were somehow a part of it. Saban walked in, looked around, and anyone who was not employed there got a swift and impartial boot to the other side of the fence, and damn who he was or how much money he had.

 

I don't doubt that someone at Texas had the conversation "What would it take to get Saban here?" and I'm guessing someone threw numbers out in that range, but there's a big diference between having that conversation and actually making the offer.

 

Shots fired from Chip Brown:

https://twitter.com/ChipBrownHD/status/489861420255682561

 

More shots fired:

http://texas.scout.com/story/1422071-enough-with-saban-to-ut-financial-fiction?s=110

Again -- I don't believe it the $12-$15 thing. I just don't. Finebaum doesn't have much credibility with me. It's interesting to watch him on GameDay where, when he spouts off some opinion, the TV staff often has zero reaction. Zero. Not a laugh, not a challenge, nothing. They want no part of what he does.