The topic of college football assistant coach pay comes up this time every year around here. The annual contract refresh for Alabama's came Monday with a bit of a discount thanks to buyouts from previous employers.

Still, the bill is just short of $6 million for the 10 on-field assistants. That doesn't include the $585,000 for strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran.

It's also a good time to look back at home much this whole world has changed since the Crimson Tide won its first national title under Nick Saban way back in 2009.

Even adjusted for inflation, the salaries for Alabama assistants have doubled.

In 2009, it cost $3.1 million in today's dollars to pay Alabama assistants.

After the buyout discounts end, the Tide assistants will make $6.92 million.

Obviously, a lot has changed since the dawn of Alabama's five-title run in a nine-year span. Most notably, a 10th assistant was added for the 2018 season. That accounts for $550,000 of the $3.8 million jump from 2009.

Of the nine assistant jobs available in 2009, five have seen the salaries at least double.

The biggest changes came in the coordinator roles. Kirby Smart and Jim McElwain, both of whom went on to SEC head coaching jobs, made $360,000 in 2009 ($416,515 adjusted for inflation).

The two new Alabama coordinators were internal promotions for assistants who weren't up for head coaching jobs. Mike Locksley is getting $1.2 million to lead the offense while Tosh Lupoi is getting $1.1 million for the defense. That's 2.8 and 2.6 times the 2009 salaries, respectively.

What's also notable is the current coordinators aren't making the most the school's paid for those positions. Smart made it all the way to $1.5 million in 2015 -- more than triple the 2009 pay -- while Lane Kiffin made $1.4 million in 2016.

Both got head coaching jobs the following seasons and Smart is now making north of $7 million a year at Georgia.

One position hasn't seen quite the cash infusion. Current offensive line coach Brent Key is making just $29,052 more than Joe Pendry made in 2009.

Overall, from 2015-2020, Alabama is on the hook for $35.7 million in assistant coach pay. That doesn't factor in the annual raises that follow each season for returning coaches.

That's just slightly less than the $36.01 million paid/contracted to be paid in base salary to Nick Saban over that span.

That adds up to $71.75 million for 10-11 football coaches' base pay in a six-year span.

Alabama football accounted for $108.2 million of the $174.3 million of the school's athletic revenue reported to the NCAA in 2017.

Coach 2009* 2020 %change Change Off. coord. $416,515 $1,200,000 288.1% $783,485 Def. coord. $416,515 $1,100,000 264.1% $683,485 D-line $289,246 $750,000 259.3% $460,754 LBs $376,020 $650,000 172.9% $273,980 Secondary $271,891 $350,000 128.7% $78,109 TE/QB $335,526 $875,000 260.8% $539,474 Sp. teams -- $550,000 -- $550,000 WRs $260,322 $525,000 201.7% $264,678 RBs $289,246 $425,000 146.9% $135,754 O-line $460,948 $490,000 106.3% $29,052 Total $3,116,229 $6,915,000 221.9% $3,798,771

* Adjusted for inflation.