Saban’s Salary

Now that Nick Saban’s contract is official, I would like to address a topic that still seems to come up every now and again.

It seems that when the amount of Saban’s contract was first brought up, most outside of Alabama found ways to criticize it. We’ve heard the criticism of paying a coach $4 million a year in a state that ranks in the 40s in national education. They claim it sends the wrong message about priorities in this state. Even the President of the United States seems to think that we’re using tax payer money to buy Saban.

Let’s get something clear: SABAN IS NOT BEING PAID WITH TAXPAYER MONEY. HE IS NOT TAKING AWAY ANY MONEY THAT IS EARMARKED FOR EDUCATION. HIS SALARY IS FUNDED SOLELY BY THE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT. In fact, his base salary is $200,000+. Most of his money comes from doing radio shows, what little advertising he  may do, and public speeches.

The Alabama athletic department is able to fund itself based off of ticket sales, ad revenue, licensing agreements, etc. Maybe if Mal Moore were in charge of financing the entire University there would be a conflict of interest, but he isn’t. In fact, not only has Coach Saban donated $100,000 to a scholarship fund, but the University also received a $1,000,000 donation from the athletic department not too long ago.

There are some who say it reflects poorly on our state society to pay a football coach that much when the education system struggles for funding, regardless of where the money comes from. If they really feel pained to see such a difference in dollars, then maybe they should work the corrupt politicians that have been mishandling education dollars for years. They’re the main reasons for improperly funded schools and educational programs.

Yes, I would love to see more money put into the educational system. But first, I would like to see the original amounts promised used properly. Because then I’ll know that the schools will actually be receiving more money.

Back on topic. Saban contract = not a bad thing. (profound isn’t it?)

Inside…Hawai’i Football? Yes, Hawai’i Football

So I was watching TV late last night, working on an html project for a filler elective, when I noticed the Hawai’i football team was on tv. It was for “Under The Lights” on FSN and they were preparing for their trip to Tuscaloosa. Some of the things Head Coach June Jones, DC Jerry Glanville, and the players were doing for preparation were interesting. The time before, during, and after the game caught my interest the most.

In fact, here is a Hawai’i blogger that has a post of the video. (I don’t think it would be wise for me to put a 40 minute video on my page for loading speed purposes).

Pre-Game / 1st Half

• Jerry Glanville states that Alabama doesn’t have anything going but one offensive play. (He was probably right knowing Shula’s offense). They really aren’t that high on Alabama’ s offensive packages. But, they seemed to work against Hawai’i (a team not known for their defense).
• Before the game, Glanville seemed to believe that they were going to take full advantage of Andre Smith playing since he was a freshman. If I remember correctly, I don’t think that happened.
• Alabama is able to score thanks to dodging and breaking tackles.
• June Jones looked depressed in the locker room during halftime.

2nd Half

• June Jones feels like they are getting hosed by the refs, but when he challenges it gets overturned. He even complains about the headsets they were given.
• Since the show is obviously about Hawai’i, they only showing Hawai’i making plays.
• The show makes it look like Hawai’i only has two coaches: Jones and Glanville. I would like to see some of their other coaches talk.
• Alabama is still able to score 10 points, but they really didn’t do much offensively for the last 14:00 of the game.

Post-Game

• Hawai’i was a tough offense for sure. But, they should not have been in the game as late as they were in my opinion.
• The brief moments of seeing Coach Shula really showed nothing important. He just said hello and nodded his head while June Jones spoke about how nice the new endzone looked.
• It was VERY obvious that Jerry Glanville did not know his defensive player’s names. He just referred to them by their numbers.

This probably wasn’t an extremely informative post, but I thought it would be nice to see some of the stories behind that game. It could be worse though, I could have been live-blogging the NBA Finals.

Two Odd Things

No words are needed to describe how incredibly silly this picture looks. This is for NBA Live I think:

I guess it make sense to have the two time college national champs in your game, but I still can’t stand to see these guys everywhere I go. I just hope that Noah leaves the game of basketball as fast as he came into it. He can take Brewer with him too while he’s at it. Read the story here.

In other news, The Piedmont Gazette is back doing their usual satire. I may actually start reading the Gazette more often. They now have an Auburn story up as well. Also, if you are e-mailing these people be careful, they will put up your full name if you give it to them in their letters section. I must admit, the Jimmy Barnes story made me laugh.

The San Antonio Spurs won the 2007 NBA Championship tonight. This isn’t an odd thing for Robert Horry, who now has his 7th ring. Congrats Rob and the Spurs.