Move Over Saban, There's a $6 Million Man in Okie Land

When Nick Saban was lured away from Miami to resurrect Crimson Tide football, he was lured by a contract that was said to be the richest ever offered to a NCAA football coach. Whether that remained true before this season, I'm not sure, but Saban's guaranteed base salar y, before bonuses, of $3,750,000 puts him ahead of Mack Brown, who is the Big XII's highest paid coach, when bonuses are not included. Brown's base salary is $2,900,000.

It's the bonuses, however, that separate the truly well paid from just the run of the mill high paid and when it comes to including one year pay from all sources, it's going to be hard to beat Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. Stoops' base salary is $2,775,000 and he has earned an additional $350,000 in performance bonuses so far this year with, of course, one big game left to play. A win in the BCS Championship Game is worth an additional $250,000. In addition, tonight Stoops will earn a bonus of $3,000,000 for having served as coach at Oklahoma for 10 years. That brings Stoops' total pay for 2008 (without the bonus for the BCS win) to $6,110,000. Bob Stoops, college football's first $6 million man.