he was hired to be LSU's coach, Nick Saban promised Chancellor Mark Emmert the Tigers would win a national championship in five years. He delivered on that promise.There's always a story behind a headline, and for Stan Jacobs, it recalled the day in 1999 he had a ringside seat at the first meeting between Mark Emmert, LSU chancellor at the time, and Nick Saban, Michigan State football coach, in the days before the chancellor and the football coach changed jobs.

With a game remaining in the '99 season, Gerry DiNardo had been fired as LSU coach, and the hunt for a successor was under way.

"It was a hectic time, obviously, " recalled Jacobs, a former LSU basketball letterman who was then, and is now, a member of LSU Board of Supervisors and chairman of the athletic committee. "The final game against Arkansas would not be played for two weeks, and I was part of a group that already had interviewed two coaches. Both of them were hush-hush interviews."

One day the group was talking to Butch Davis, coach of the Miami Hurricanes, at a small airport in south Florida. The next day they had flown to Chicago to meet with Minnesota Coach Glen Mason at a Chicago hideaway.

"Butch Davis was very impressive, '' Jacobs recalled. "He did say his goal some day was to coach in the NFL. Glen Mason didn't come across nearly as impressively. I remember flying back to Baton Rouge after the Mason interview, and Joe Dean, our athletic director, gets a call that Mason had released a story about meeting with us. So much for hush-hush. No doubt Mason was simply using LSU to get a raise at Minnesota."

At the time, Nick Saban wasn't on LSU's radar screen. This changed when Gil Brandt, former personnel boss of the Dallas Cowboys, called Saban, urging the Michigan State coach to "look into the opening at LSU."

It triggered a chain reaction. Saban dialed Jimmy Sexton, his agent in Memphis. In no time, Sexton was making a local call to a longtime friend and business associate, Sean Tuohy. Tuohy called Joe Dean, who called Sexton, asking him to set up an interview.

Two days after LSU closed its season with a 35-10 victory over Arkansas under interim coach Hal Hunter, the LSU delegation arrived in Memphis, at Sexton's home.

"I'll never forget the yellow legal pad Saban had with him, " Jacobs said. "He was full of questions. It was like he was interviewing us. He had spoken to Bill Arnsparger, who had coached LSU for three years. He wondered why LSU had gone so long without winning a national championship. Joe told him so had Florida until they hired Steve Spurrier.

"Saban got right to the point. He said he would have a much better chance winning a national championship at LSU than he would at Michigan State. It went on for three hours. Finally, Saban is saying, 'At LSU, I'll win an SEC championship in three years and I'll win a national championship in five.

"Suddenly, Mark Emmert is looking at Nick Saban, he's telling everyone in the room, 'I want you to be the next head coach at LSU.' Next thing you know, the chancellor is calling Joe Dean aside. He's telling him to work everything out with Jimmy Sexton. He's saying, 'ask him how much he wants. I don't want any negatives.' "

As it turned out, Saban and LSU agreed to a five-year contract worth $1.25 million a year, a deal that included a base salary of $250,000, $550,000 for radio, TV and Internet appearances, with additional guarantees from a shoe contract and apparel deals. Picking up a chunk was the Tiger Athletic Foundation.

It was a contract that made Saban the best-paid coach in the SEC and placed him among the top three in the country.

Mike Foster, who was governor at the time, asked Jacobs, "Do you people know what you're doing?"

Mark Emmert, the man in charge, had no doubt.

"The way the chancellor handled this told me two things, " Jacobs said. "He's a decisive leader, and he's not afraid to take prisoners or risks. At LSU, he developed a loyal following. He connected with donors, also with the academic side as well as students. I'm sure he'll do the same thing when he's dealing with chancellors."

Jacobs feels, as leader of the NCAA, Emmert will "be good for the big conferences because he has a feel for what the market dictates. When it comes to a question that will always be a topic of conversation, a football playoff, Mark will let the presidents speak."

As Stan Jacobs reflects on the search that produced Nick Saban, he shakes his head on what could have been, assuming Saban had not become a candidate.

"My guess is, if Butch Davis did not express a genuine interest in coaching in the NFL (he wound up leaving Miami for the Cleveland Browns), " Jacobs said, "he would have been offered the LSU job."

Davis is now the head coach at North Carolina, Les Miles' opening opponent in the 2010 season.