News of Nick Saban’s retirement shocked the college football world Wednesday.
It’s not just that one of the sport’s iconic coaches is walking away, but also that one of its iconic jobs is now open.
Few head coaching positions in college football carry the same mixture of gravitas, cultural platform, financial backing and straight-up pressure as coaching the Alabama football team. Since 1958, only nine men have held the role, including Joe Kines, who was the interim coach for one game in 2006 prior to Saban’s hiring. And of those nine, three are (or, in Saban’s case, eventually will be) in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Here’s a quick look at some of the factors that make the job both exceptional and high-stakes.
The history
Few programs can match the winning tradition of Alabama.
According to NCAA statistics, the Crimson Tide has won more college football games – 965 and counting – than any school in history besides the reigning national champion, Michigan.
The win total is a testament to the program’s consistency and evidence of its sheer dominance. There have been periods of college football history in which Alabama felt near-unbeatable, including recently under Saban’s reign. The Crimson Tide have won 16 national football championships in total, including six over the past 15 years.
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In fact, the program hasn’t had a losing season since 2003, before many of the school’s current students were born.
Alabama’s tradition of winning has fueled other parts of its football history, from legendary moments in national championship games to a bevy of players who have gone on to star in the NFL. The school has had a whopping 70 first-round draft picks to date.
The money
The next coach at Alabama will have several inherent advantages, with the school’s financial resources chief among them.
Alabama’s athletic program generated $214.4 million in total revenue during the 2022 fiscal year, which is the third-most in the Football Bowl Subdivision, according to USA TODAY Sports research. And it spent more money than almost every other school, as well, with $195.9 million in expenditures.
The school’s robust donor base and fundraising infrastructure means that the Alabama football program wants for nothing, whether it be facilities, equipment or assistance with helping athletes capitalize on selling their name, image and likeness.
The job also has traditionally come with a pretty nice paycheck; Saban has long been the highest-paid coach in the game and pocketed $11.4 million in total compensation this year, not including bonuses.
Fan interest and lofty expectations
With a tradition of winning and plenty of financial resources on hand, lofty expectations are inevitable.
In a state without professional sports teams, Alabama football is the main attraction – and, in some ways, an economic engine for both the university and the community of Tuscaloosa more broadly. And that is another piece of what makes this job unique: It’s pressure-packed in a way that other head coaching positions are not.
As a result, coaching Alabama football has a certain sink-or-swim quality to it. Of the program’s eight full-time coaches since 1958, five have been dismissed after four seasons or fewer. The other three won national titles, including Gene Stallings – who spent seven years as the Crimson Tide coach – and Saban, who’s been in charge for the past 17. Paul “Bear” Byant held the job for 25 years – proof that the role, while intense, can also provide remarkable stability.
Other similar programs
Alabama is not the only head coaching job in college football that comes with the dangerous mix of money, history and expectations – nor is it the only one that has been vacant recently.
In the past four years alone, three of college football’s six winningest programs have hired a new coach, including Notre Dame and Oklahoma in 2022 and Texas in 2021. And the winningest program of them all, Michigan, might soon join the list. After leading the Wolverines to a national title earlier this week, Jim Harbaugh has been talked about as a possible candidate for head-coaching jobs in the NFL.
Follow Tom Schad on social media @Tom_Schad
