Wait, yes you can. It’s a thousand dollars.
That’s how much more than Saban Les Miles new contract will pay him. His new new deal, not the new deal he got in December, but the one he just worked out, states that he will be the highest paid coach in the conference by $1,000. Understand, it doesn’t say that he’ll make $3.751 million, it says he will make at least $1,000 more than the next highest paid coach, which conveniently is there previous head coach, Nick Saban.
For all the blame Bama got for paying Saban 4 million dollars, that isn’t what is radically escalating the salaries of coaches. The real problem is this mentality that it doesn’t matter what you pay me, so long as it’s more than the next guy. I’m not saying Miles isn’t a good coach (he isn’t) but he’s not the best coach in the country or the league. Yes, he won the MNC, but he carries with it the dubious distinction of being the first two-loss team to do so. Congratulations to Les Miles on his new salary. And congratulations to LSU for overpaying for a guy you’ll wish you weren’t so tied to two years from now. If this were the Masters, Auburn would be putting the jacket on you.
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It’s hard to argue against a pay raise for a guy that won a NC. I don’t necessarily agree that salaries are increasing because coaches want more than the other guy. I believe the market dictates salaries as do one’s proportionate worth. It’s really no different than anyone else negotiating a salary.
I agree that market dictates salary as does one’s proportionate worth, but Saban’s salary was proportionate to need, not value. I’m not arguing that Miles shouldn’t get a pay raise. But I’d be surprised if his former contract didn’t already account for that. And under the new contract, if someone moves ahead of Miles, his salary won’t automatically jump up. He has to win the BCS again for that to happen, but if he does win the BCS again, is there even one person–including those that signed it–that thinks his current contract will be anything but moot? He’ll negotiate a completely new contract at that point. So why the unnecessary verbiage stating that he’s the highest paid? It’s nothing more than an appeal to the ego, and in turn, ammunition for the next coach that wins the conference next season.
This need to believe that Miles isn’t a good coach, that his 34-6 record is somehow irrelevant to his coaching success, and that very soon LSU will begin losing 5-6 games a year and start calling for Miles’ termination - this is amusing.
As for his salary, who cares? Once you start making money in the something-point-something range, it’s all just bullsh!t anyway.
All I have to say is if somebody wins a “MNC” they deserve to make more than a 7-6 coach.
Come on, that one was on a silver platter, right?
#4: Funny.
Elsewise, I would add that Saban’s contract value was partly based on past performance, partly based on Alabama’s pride (looky how much we pay!), and partly based on the amount needed to pull Saban out of Miami - particularly after the “no way I go to Alabama” comments. Granted, Saban probably wanted out of Miami pretty badly to start with, but Alabama still needed to justify his leaving somehow.
Personally, I don’t really care about the salary structures much. They’re paid by boosters, not the universities, so the boosters can waste their own money however they wish. And I don’t blame the coaches for getting what people are willing to give them. Further discussion goes political, though, so I’ll cut that thought off right here. But turning it back into the coaching arena, I will say that the Miles contract is a lot more sensible on the surface than the Saban contract. The Miles contract was renegotiated based on past performance for the school in question and based on future anticipation. The Saban contract was based on future anticipation alone; he had done absolutely zero at Alabama prior to signing that contract. Further, the Miles contract merely keeps him up-to-date with salaries established elsewhere; the Saban contract legitimately raised the bar.
But again, other than they’re numbers and therefore fun to play with, I really don’t see what the big fuss is about salaries. Let the boosters have their little status games and let the coaches benefit as much as the boosters allow.
This was written by request because a Bama fan is required to respond as it was Bama who supposedly raised the bar when they hired Saban. I agree with part of what Hooper says, although the part about Alabama pride does not fit with history. Our take has never been look how much money we can spend, it’s always been that we could pay less for more because we’re Alabama. It was low-balling tactics that failed to land us a good coach in the searches that resulted in Franchione and Price. We paid Saban so much because there was no way we could afford to not get him, both in the sense that we were running out of legitimate options and that we needed a coach capable of cleaning up the ridiculous mess that Shula left. Bark all you want about 7-6, but Saban undeniably outcoached Miles head-to-head and beat UT like it was a loaded Spring game. I’m not saying Saban should be the highest paid coach in the league. I’m saying too often, coaches get raises for things their previous contracts already account for, and in this case, he’s won exactly one game since his last new contract. LSU is free to do whatever they want with this, but lets not forget that LSU fans almost unanimously hated him for not being Saban, and then loved him exclusively for not being Saban. And now his contract is indirectly tied to Saban. That’s at least noteworthy.
Crunch, he’s a good recruiter, and he won’t lose 5-6 games a year. But he’s going to continue losing 2-3 a year because of poor game decisions and eventually LSU fans are going to stop caring about Saban and start to wonder why Miles can’t do more with what he’s got.
Ghost, if ever there was someone who would write “All I have to say…” and then be the first to reply to his own comment, it would be you ;)