Saban Leaving Alabama—and a Huge Financial Legacy

The man who helped reset coaching compensation is retiring. 

Alabama football coach Nick Saban is stepping down after 17 years at Alabama, six of which ended in national championships (He earned a seventh title with his split 2003 win at LSU). As impactful as his on-field success was—and at Alabama, he matched the national title legacy of illustrious predecessor Bear Bryant—Saban was arguably even more influential off the field. 

Saban earned an estimated $120 million over his entire Alabama tenure, including $11.4 million last year, standing as the highest-paid coach in college football for much of that time. In 2022, Saban received a new, eight-year contract worth nearly $94 million, vaulting past Georgia coach Kirby Smart to return to the top of the coaches’ compensation list. Saban and Smart share the same agent, CAA’s Jimmy Sexton.

The Saban deal arrived just a matter of weeks after Smart’s contract and had been set to carry through 2029. But Saban will now walk away from the final six years of the pact. 

Numerous other coaches used Saban as a benchmark to help set their own contracts, including Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Ohio State’s Ryan Day, and Saban’s compensation also influenced the reported $125 million extension Michigan has offered national champion coach Jim Harbaugh. 

Saban was also the highest-paid public-sector employee in the state of Alabama, a situation mirrored by football coaches in several other states—but also the subject of some debate over the years. Saban himself struggled publicly at times with the largess, and in 2017, he said he was “probably not” worth what he was paid. But there is no denying his impact, both on and off the field.