It pays to be a successful Alabama football coach.
In spades.
Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban will make $6.9 million in base pay this year, the most lucrative coaching contract in the college game. But not long after he won his third national championship for the Crimson Tide in January 2013, the Crimson Tide Foundation purchased Saban's Tuscaloosa home for roughly $3.1 million.
And didn't ask for the keys.
"It's not all that unusual in the world for universities to provide the housing," Scott Phelps, an assistant secretary of the foundation, told al.com. "We want to keep him happy. We think he is the best coach in America."
Nothing like a free house of almost 9,000 square feet to keep someone happy. Phelps said Alabama owned both homes once occupied by legendary Alabama coach Paul W. "Bear" Bryant, and that Saban will be free to live in his home as long as he pleases, even beyond retirement, "in the same fashion coach Bryant did."
Saban got roughly $200,000 more in the sale than what he purchased the house for upon arriving at Alabama in 2007. Records show the foundation also handled the $10,035 property tax on the home last December.
Now, about that pesky power bill ...
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