Nick Saban Was Worth Billions To Alabama
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It’s no secret that Nick Saban ran the Alabama football team like a business.
He continuously pressured the school to reinvest athletic earnings in better facilities, like the $288 million Alabama football facility, knowing that details made all the difference in a pre-NIL world. Saban also allowed NFL scouts behind the ropes at every practice, providing players with a draft grade at the end of each season. And Saban even convinced Alabama to take out (and pay for!) loss-of-value insurance policies on the team’s best players, enabling them to play each season (and bowl games) without the threat of injury.
This long-term thinking is part of why Nick Saban was so successful.
Seven National Championships. Eleven SEC Championships. He produced 123 NFL Draft picks who have combined to earn $2.26 billion. And the craziest state might be that Saban had more players drafted in the first round (44) than losses (29) at Alabama.
Saban was paid handsomely for this success, earning $130 million in salary over 16 seasons at the University of Alabama. There were other benefits, too, like when a non-profit foundation run by Alabama boosters paid off the mortgage on his $3 million home in 2013 or the free access to country clubs, cars, and private jets baked into each of his coaching contracts in Tuscaloosa.
Some of that might seem excessive. College tuition in the United States has increased 750% since 1963, after adjusting for currency inflation. And Saban’s $11.7 million annual contract consistently made him the country’s highest-paid public employee.
But the more interesting part is how the University of Alabama became a financial powerhouse under Saban, leveraging its athletic success into national recognition.