BATON ROUGE — Nick Saban is being paid about $5.997 million to coach the University of Alabama’s football team this season.
He is underpaid. Check that, he is grossly underpaid.
Just minutes after Saban’s team held on to its No. 1 ranking, its undefeated season and its goal of becoming the first team since Nebraska in 1994-95 to win back-to-back titles with one of the most remarkable efforts in recent history, Saban was back to work.
“Our players can either take this one way or the other,’’ he said. “The win is either going to affect them in a positive or a negative way in terms of what they do in the future.’’
Almost every coach in the business has what is known as the 24-hour rule: A team gets 24 hours to celebrate a win or mourn a loss.
Not Saban. He has a 24 minute rule. No sooner had AJ McCarron silenced 93,374 LSU fans with a perfectly executed 28-yard screen pass to T.J. Yeldon with 51 seconds left to lift the Tide to a 21-17 win, Saban was back to work.
We can poke fun at his meticulous nature, his Melba toast personality, his sweater vests but make no mistake: There is Saban and then there is a drop-off so severe it’s a wonder he doesn’t suffer vertigo.
Alabama probably wasn’t the better team Saturday night in Death Valley. But it was the smarter team, the more disciplined team and, without question, the more poised team.
Whereas Saban kept to a sound, smart game plan, LSU’s Les Miles made baffling decision after baffling decision:
* A fake 47-yard field goal on fourth-and-12 that fooled no one.
* A subsequent decision to try a 54-yarder, which was way short.
* An onside kick (it failed) after his defense had forced two straight three-and-outs.
* A fourth-and-1 in which it was so obvious that Spencer Ware was getting the ball Alabama’s defense could stop the play blindfolded.
Throw in the mental mistakes committed by LSU, a personal-foul penalty at a crucial point, having to use timeouts because of clock mismanagement issues and that’s how a 17-14 victory in hand turns into a 21-17 crushing loss for the ages.
That’s why Saban has a chance to win his fourth national championship. That’s why he deserves to be paid more than any other coach in college — by far. And he’s not.
Consider the other highest paid coaches:
* Mack Brown ($5,193,500) has won one national title and two Big 12 tiles.
* Urban Meyer ($4 million) has won two national titles, two SEC titles and two MWV crowns.
* Miles ($3.8 million) has one national title and two SEC crowns.
* Bob Stoops ($4.3 million) has one national title and nine Big 12 crowns.
Using our formula (see chart), Saban is working on the cheap. He should be making $4 million more than anyone else in the game.
The 21-17 win at LSU was probably the most satisfying regular-season triumph in Saban’s career. Death Valley was at its loudest and most intimidating. The Tigers may not have been playing smart but their effort was remarkable.
The difference was Saban.
“They can focus on the things they didn’t do and take the next challenge and continue to improve and be ready to play next week and prepare in practice next week or they can say, ‘We’re satisfied for what we did with ourselves,’ ’’ Saban said of Alabama.
Satisfied? Saban won’t let it happen.