The highest-paid coach in college football is walking away from the game early into a new $93.6 million contract.
The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me,” he said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to his wife. “We have enjoyed every minute of our 17 years being the head coach at Alabama as well as becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa community.
“It is not just about how many games we won and lost, but it’s about the legacy and how we went about it. We always tried to do it the right way. The goal was always to help players create more value for their future, be the best player they could be and be more successful in life because they were part of the program. Hopefully, we have done that, and we will always consider Alabama our home
After 51 years in football, Alabama head coach Nick Saban has called it quits, ending an illustrious career that earned him nearly $150 million (before taxes and agents’ fees) on the sidelines, according to Forbes estimates.A seven-time national champion with 297 career wins (five were vacated because of NCAA violations), Saban has perennially been one of the top earners in college football. He collected $124 million at Alabama alone, according to data from USA Today, as well as around $25 million, by Forbes’ count, from other coaching stints that included LSU, Michigan State, Toledo and the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. That total exceeds the career prize money of other sports greats such as Tiger Woods ($121 million), Roger Federer ($131 million) and Rafael Nadal ($135 million).
That number could have been even higher had the 72-year-old Saban kept going. Sixteen months ago, he signed an eight-year contract extension worth $93.6 million that would have kept him with the Crimson Tide through the 2030 season. The deal, which carried an average annual salary of $11.7 million, reinstated Saban as the highest-paid coach in college football. He had very briefly lost the top spot to his former disciple Kirby Smart, who signed a 10-year, $110 million extension with Georgia a month earlier in 2022.
