Alabama Football

Money, Control, and Influence

Alabama’s football program is projected to generate revenue of $80 million ($35 million in profits) this upcoming season and will finance nearly 80% of the entire athletic department.  With capital like that the University must continue to make the football program it’s major focus or be forced to deal with heavy scrutiny from it’s 100,000 donors and in turn suffer in non-revenue sports like Softball. Alabama has recently won it’s first ever Softball title under Patrick Murphy and given the SEC a hold on the title for the first time in its history as well.  The Softball program has in recent years suffered with annual losses of $600,000 plus in the program and yet they are able to recruit some of the best talent and have some of the sharpest facilities at their disposal. Thank you football donors and alumni!  A $500 million dollar capital campaign is commonplace in Tuscaloosa and is centered on its football team.  Alabama must make sure of one thing if it wants continued financial success as well as athletic success and that is to hire and maintain the most prestigious of all head football coaches.  Enter Nick Saban.  We at Sleeperprep sum up Nick Saban in one word….Swagger.  You can say he is the most powerful college coach in the land and you can even say he is the most dynamic coach in all of sports.  One thing is undeniable, he gets results.  Results mean money and lots of it for a university that is considered the most profitable in the nation.  Names like Urban Meyer and Les Miles are sometimes used in the same sentence when talking football prominence, but they don’t hold a candle to the “Daddy”.  The “Daddy” was once a football star in W.VA and went on to play at Kent State along side Jack Lambert.  He later began coaching within the Bill Bellichick school of defense and that has got him to where he is today, winning games with his defensive prowess.  He runs the ball to open up the pass and dominates games shutting you down.  If that isn’t good enough to call him “Daddy” I don’t know what is.  He controls the football program like no other with perks such as 2 cars, a country club membership, and 25 hours personal use of the university jet.  His contract is bigger than most professional coaches, but none can match the amount of influence and control he has at Alabama.  90,000 plus fans show up to the first spring practices and the season ticket waiting list has grown to over 10,000.  Again I say “Daddy”, actually how about “Mack Daddy”.  None of that means anything without winning and Saban is all about that (How about a national championship).  Winning starts with top notch recruiting especially when you are losing numerous personnel to the NFL every year.  What is top notch recruiting?  It is summed up in 3 words “only the best” and Alabama has a top recruiting class every year where they recruit all the best and get so many commits they have to turn some away.  That is part of the recruiting revolution and Sleeperprep wants you to get the full experience.  Times are rapidly changing and even smaller schools recognize that defensive speed and a four wide attack are vital in evolving this game of college football and trying to keep up with the “Daddy”.