Chaos has erupted in the college football world in a number of respects: Auburn has shocked everyone, escalating from being unranked in the preseason to being National Championship participants, Ohio State broke its two-season win streak, directly removing themselves from the BCS Championship picture, and Florida State's star quarterback and Heisman-hopeful, Jameis Winston, was found innocent in the conclusion of his dragged-out and agonizing rape case. However, above all these, ostensibly insurmountable anguish has broken out in college football's unofficial headquarters, Tuscaloosa, AL, as speculation that head coach Nick Saban will leave the Crimson Tide to coach the Texas Longhorns in Austin, TX has arisen.
Coach Saban is informal royalty in the state of Alabama. Under his tutelage, the Crimson Tide has won three of the last four National Champions and has brought in the nation's most highly coveted recruits.
The University of Texas' head coach, Mack Brown, used to be to Texas what Coach Saban is to Alabama. Though his pedigree is not as impressive as King Saban's, having only won one BCS Championship in his fifteen-year tenure with the Longhorns, he had always produced a top-five team that competed in prestigious Bowl Games.
This was, of course, until 2010, when the Longhorns would endure three consecutive losing seasons and fall from an empire to a conference punching bag. Naturally, Texas' athletic boosters are not thrilled about Brown and his Longhorn's descent from greatness, and many have requested for new leadership of the football program.
In response, UT's athletic director, Steve Patterson, saw fit to offer Alabama's Nick Saban a $10M-per-year contract (compared to his current $5.62M annual salary) to come to Austin to coach the Longhorns. There are reports of text messages between Saban and Patterson, along with accounts of Coach Saban's wife, Terry, house shopping in Texas' capital.
While Longhorn fans wait in anticipation for Mack Brown's replacement (with their fingers tightly crossed that it is, indeed, Coach Saban), Crimson Tide loyals are outraged at this prospect, and demand that the Alabama athletic program raise his pay to keep their King in Tuscaloosa.
Because I am an ardent Texas A&M fan, this fiasco directly impacts my fellow Aggies and me, but unfortunately, we face a lose-lose situation. If Coach Saban remains the Crimson Tide's head coach, Alabama will continue to reign supreme over the SEC and likely prevent my Aggies from experiencing any real success, and if he transfers to Austin, UT will likely become Texas' premiere football program again.
I personally prefer the latter, seeing as this would free up the SEC in some regards and would allow Texas A&M to thrive, absent of the Crimson thorn in its side. However, I think Coach Saban will stay in Tuscaloosa. Save being bored with his current empire and seeking to start over (much like how I feel when I beat the NCAA Football video game), he has no real reason to leave--and will have Hell to pay if he does. The man is already a multimillionaire, and is most likely looking at retirement if he plans on going anywhere. Additionally, much like Lebron James' shift from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat, if he moves to Austin for the money, his perceived winning-is-everything mentality will be forever tarnished.
And we all know how coaches feel about their images.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/12/10/texas-longhorns-football-coach-mack-brown-status/3959029/
I was living in Austin during the 2010 defeat. I'm not a huge college football fan, but it did seem like there was a notable sense that things were on the decline. On another note, that Auburn victory was so incredible that it even made it's way to a not particularly avid fan like me!
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