Wednesday Insider Info!

I needed some time to confirm some information and check a couple of facts that I received earlier this week (on Monday) and I was also, frankly, hoping that one of the major news sources would break this information earlier so that your own MMQ didn’t have to put this out there, I would just be a follow along blogger.  I hate blogging things like this only to have them either not materialize or come out differently to what I heard – even though this is from an incredibly reliable source.

However, seeing as how the situation at Texas is taking longer than expected to resolve, your MMQ has received information, from a source who must remain nameless, that the University of Texas Longhorns have already offered Nick Saban a total compensation package offer of

$10.5 Million

to coach the Texas Longhorns Football Team.  That’s a double digit annual salary - the first ever for ANY collegiate coach and the most ever offered by an athletic department.  Some of that is salary, the television/radio show contracts and some of that is ownership rights (?) to the Texas Television Network.  Don’t ask me, I have no idea how an individual can have ownership “rights” to a television network or what kind of compensation that involves.  It makes sense that he would receive something for a Texas Longhorns Football Show, but the ownership rights to the television network part, I don’t get as I thought the University held exclusive rights by contract per Big 12 rules. 

I was also told that while Nick would really like to end his career in Tuscaloosa, those close to Saban say that Texas represents a fan base that is more in line with what a “Career Destination” coaching position should be and does not have the day to day, week to week and year to year pressures of coaching in the SEC.  The Saban camp is currently asking Texas for increased compensation for the assistants and staff that Nick will bring with him from Tuscaloosa.

So, while it may or may not come to fruition, the offer is definitely being considered in the Saban camp.  The sources also stated that Alabama recently offered Nick a contract extension (worth $5.62 million annually – that confirmed via ESPN), just for coaching and a total compensation package over $7M.  However, no other extensions were made to the assistants – from the source I spoke with Monday.  The Alabama contract has not been signed and the Saban camp is waiting for the final offer from Texas before deciding how to proceed. 

The fact that Mack Brown is either going to resign or get canned is moot in this dialogue. 

We’ll see what happens!