Welp, Nick Saban will coach Bama until the end of the world (or perhaps around 2025)

Nick Saban has a contract extension at Alabama, and it only reinforces the notion that Saban’s going to stay in charge of the Tide until the sun melts the Earth, or at least until something like 2025, the last year he’s under contract with the school.

The agreement only extends Saban’s deal by one year. But he had seven years left on his old contract, and there wasn’t any indication that Saban was about to hang up the headset.

Now there’s really no indication he’s going anywhere. When the most successful coach of his time signs an extension with seven years left on his old deal, he’s sending a message that he plans to stay king of the sport for an extremely long time.

“Our family is thrilled to agree to a contract extension with The University of Alabama that will keep us in Tuscaloosa for the rest of our coaching career,” Saban said in a statement.

Saban’s base salary and “talent fee” will go up to $7.5 million this year, and that figure will rise by $400,000 every year of the deal. That probably doesn’t capture all of Saban’s compensation, though. Saban made at least $11.1 million in 2017, but that figure included a $4 million signing bonus, hence the bigger number for that year. (This post didn’t initially reflect that.) Saban’s pay is still set to grow as he stays in the job longer — keeping with a trend of coach salaries absolutely exploding, with Saban at the top of the list.

Saban has been at Alabama for 11 season and won five national titles there. His team hasn’t missed any of the first four College Football Playoffs and probably won’t miss the next one, either. The Tide are winners here. The only people happier might be Clemson fans, who should get at least a brief reprieve from gossip about the Tide eventually hiring their coach.