Texas rumors didn’t factor into Saban’s raise, says Alabama official

Alabama head coach Nick Saban basically has a license to print money from the school’s coffers. Who could blame Alabama for giving him whatever he wants? He responds with titles left and right, with the team in line to play for its fourth title in five years.

But if Nick Saban and his agent Jimmy Sexton are looking for more money, they sure didn’t show it in recent negotiations. According to Jeremy Fowler at CBSSports.com, Saban’s recent flirtations with Texas didn’t even come up when Alabama officials talked with Sexton last:

The smoke surrounding emails exchanged from Texas regents based on conversations with Saban’s agent Jimmy Sexton probably won’t change that stance, a high-ranking Alabama source said. Alabama’s higher-ups haven’t felt leveraged by Sexton despite the outside interest Saban has garnered in recent years, according to the source, who qualifies past talks with Sexton as productive and civil. The Texas job was not part of past discussions, according to the source.

To recap the timeline, Saban’s agent talked to Texas in January, telling the school it’s the only place the coach would ever consider leaving Alabama for. Saban’s coaching staff then got raises from Alabama three months later.

That should effectively put any Saban-to-Texas talks to rest (if Saban hadn’t already killed them last week). If there were anything to them at all, Sexton most certainly would have brought it up in talks (unless he’s the worst agent ever, and current evidence suggests that’s not the case).

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