re: New Highest Paid Coaches List

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Didn't Saban & Kirby get new deals for $11M+?

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2) Nick Saban, Alabama | $10.395 million
While Nick Saban is the most successful head coach in NCAA history in terms of national championship wins, it took him until just prior to the start of the 2022 season to topple his coaching rivals for highest average annual value. However, it wouldn’t last even two weeks of the year before Swinney’s deal bumped him to No. 2.

Signing a new contract in August, Saban’s base salary is $9.595 million per year, which will raise $305,000 per year until 2029, and has a “contract completion” clause written into his deal that nets him another $800,000 every year he finishes a season as Alabama’s head coach each year between 2022 and 2025.

Having incentives written into your contract seems like good business when anything other than reaching the national championship in any given season constitutes a failure. Since the inception of the College Football Playoff, Saban has led his team to seven out of a possible eight appearances in the final four. The last time his contract was worth more than $1 million per win was in 2007, the first year of his tenure with the Crimson Tide.

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3) Kirby Smart, Georgia | $10.25 million
Following a national championship run with a successful season is a feat in and of itself. Yet, it appears that is what Georgia is banking on when they signed head coach Kirby Smart to a massive extension just weeks ahead of the 2022 season. Smart, who led Georgia to the national championship in 2021-22, signed on for a 10-year, $111 million dollar extension that, at the time, made him the highest-paid coach in the country.

Though he would eventually be toppled by his rival Saban, Smart’s deal could ultimately make him the highest-paid coach in the country yet again as his average salary will rise from $10.25M in 2022 to $12.25M by 2029. The 2022 season started off with a bang, with Georgia cruising past Oregon. It appears the Smart-led Bulldogs are certainly on their way to national prominence every year Smart is on the sidelines.

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