Nick Saban by Vasha.JPG

Nick Saban's new contract with Alabama will pay him $6.9 million a year, plus incentives, and runs through Jan. 31, 2022. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- So just how serious was Texas about prying Nick Saban away from Alabama?

"Dead serious," the SEC Network's Paul Finebaum says in his upcoming book, "My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Still Rules College Football," which Finebaum co-wrote with ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski.

According to an advance copy of the book obtained by AL.com, Longhorn boosters were willing to offer Saban a signing bonus worth up to $15 million and a total salary package of $100 million-plus over the life of the contract.

Paul Finebaum's book comes out Aug. 5.

"Texas was dead serious about trying to money-whip Saban," Finebaum and Wojciechowski write. "Depending on whom you talk to -- Bama big hitters or Texas big hitters -- the Longhorns were prepared to give Saban somewhere between a $12 and $15 million signing bonus and a salary package worth $100 million (plus performances)."

Saban put the Texas rumors to rest in December, when he agreed to a new contract that will pay him $6.9 million a year plus performance incentives. The contract, which the University of Alabama Board of Trustees approved last month, runs through Jan. 31, 2022.

In January, Texas hired Louisville's Charlie Strong to replace Mack Brown as the head coach of the Longhorns. Strong's contract will pay him $5 million a year, plus bonuses, over the next five years, according to multiple reports.

Finebaum, who is in Birmingham this week for SEC Media Days in Hoover, declined to comment when reached today by AL.com.

His book comes out Aug. 5. Finebaum will attend a kickoff event for the book the night before at the Books-A-Million store at Colonial Brookwood Village in Homewood.

To read more stories by Bob Carlton, go here.

UPDATED at 8:28 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, to clarify headline.

UPDATED at 9:23 a.m. CDT on Thursday, July 17, 2014, to correct misspelling of Gene Wojciechowski's last name.