So is Saban worth $100m?

Saban will stay at Alabama until he retires from coaching, then become an athletic director. He's already done the NFL thing, so probably has no desire to go down that road again.

And, really, is there a better college football program out there right now? If he went someplace else, it would take several years to build what he already has today.

 

Interesting line of discussion. USA Today has a sortable set of figures on this. Not sure how old the number are - couldn't find a "last updated" date on there - but the schools that take no funding from the school, student fees or the state are Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma, LSU, Penn State, Nebraska and Purdue. Purdue and Penn State are shown to be operating at deficits on the list. Alabama gets $5.7 million from those sources (which the survey refers to as a subsidy), and the Bama athletic department operated with a $27 million surplus for whatever time period it was.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/schools/finances/

I also remember Georgia's athletic department making a donation to the school's general fund in 2009 or 2010, when state budget cuts were forcing higher education institutions to cut academic programs. I'm sure there were other schools where this happened. It got washed over in news coverage because it was about the same time Damon Evans was immolating his career.

 

No way Saban becomes an AD. He'll go to the lake when he's done coaching, if he doesn't drop dead first.

 

Of course, it would be nice if schools actually held their coaches to their contracts ....

 

Regarding the impact of onfield success and applications, sociologists and cultural geographers have long held that such correlation is dubious via research. It's called "The Flutie Effect," and last I read/studied the correlation between the two is not supported.

 

Yeah, I don't see Saban ever taking a AD job, even a dual role where he's more of a figurehead. There's no reason for it.

The only way he leaves Alabama is if he still needs to scratch the NFL itch. I don't think he does, but if the right job opened, who knows?

 

I don't think Saban would have enough power on an NFL team to satisfy him

 

For a guy who thought it was a good idea to attempt that field goal at the end of the Auburn game? I wouldn't go a penny over $97 million.

 

I agree, unless a team is stupid enough to give him absolute power. I would think unless he was willing to go to a team like the Browns, he would never get that in the NFL.

 

Football success creates a shitload of t-shirt alums, but there's no independent study that proves it creates more actual alums.

 

I tend to agree, but man they tout that stuff.
I think it's horseshit to justify athletic spending ... I really don't know/knew many college students who went to a school because they had a kick-ass football team.

 

I'm not saying there's no tail-wags-dog going on here. I'm just saying that this is marketing 101. Alabama's football program has probably never been more visible than it is right now, and it's the most visible thing the university does, by far. I'd submit that that visibility contributes to enrollment growth.