



View photos





Is Nick Saban on his way to becoming the first $10 million coach in college football?

Let the jockeying begin.

The simmering Saban lust of thousands of burnt orange backers has been unleashed by an Associated Press report Thursday, which confirms that Texas high rollers contacted Saban's agent last January. Commensurate with that is the fear and insecurity sparked in Alabama, where threatened fans might be willing to sell kidneys and children to raise whatever it takes to keep their coach.

Or they could send Harvey Updyke after Bevo. Guard that steer, Silver Spurs.

We'll have to see how it plays out, of course. This is September, with a lot of unpredictable football to be played. Fortunes may yet rise and fall and alter the course of things. And it's true that super agent Jimmy Sexton represents a ton of coaches – so maybe the call didn't relate to the king.

And the king himself threw some cold water on the story on his radio show Thursday night, saying in regard to Texas, "I'm too damn old to start over somewhere else."

Of course, Saban has denied interest in a job he wound up taking once before – namely Alabama. And with public support crumbling around Mack Brown and the near certainty that Texas wouldn't go after Sexton's B-List clients, we could be approaching a potentially epic bidding war between two bluebloods for the best coach in the game.

Saban currently is making $5.6 million a year at Alabama – a king's ransom. But a Texas program that leads the nation in football revenue could probably drive the pay scale into territory scarcely even imagined in college sports. And if the Longhorns job opens and such an offer came, you know Alabama would counter with anything and everything it had.

The Saban-to-Texas fantasy has played out in the minds of Bevo backers for years – probably ever since Saban's first great Alabama team beat Brown's last great Longhorns team for the national title.

Since then, the longing has intensified. Saban has kept winning at a ridiculous rate, adding national titles in 2011 and '12. Meanwhile, Brown has lost the magic, and Texas fans have lost their patience.

View photos

Apparently, some high rollers decided last January to try to turn fantasy into reality. The AP says University of Texas regent Wallace Hall had a phone conversation with Sexton a few days after the Crimson Tide walloped Notre Dame to win the national championship last January. According to the report, former regent Tom Hicks, brother of current regent Stephen Hicks, also was on the call.

Story continues