Nick Saban To Texas – 5 Reasons Other Than The Money

Update:  While Saban chose to stay at Alabama,  I still maintain that had UT had their house in order (power hungry alum’s and an impotent AD staff) Saban was theirs to pluck.  The Keystone Cops atmosphere surrounding the Athletic Department set off numerous  red flags which in turn forced Jimmy Sexton to cautiously back away from the offer (reportedly a 100 M/-10yr deal).

1. Room to Breathe: Like the thick air of a hot sweltering Southern night, Nick Saban and his family are smothered by Crimson Tide fan adoration. Back in January 2007, I told a co-worker that Saban would leave Bama within 5 years. His departure wouldn’t be over wins or losses, money, the NFL, or a better job offer. Rather that his departure would be driven by the gravity of his success and the millstone of exaltation placed around the neck of the One who would become the Golden Calf of Alabama’s chosen people. In today’s high tech world, the Bear is AOL and “You have mail!” to most Tide followers – while Saban is all Twitter and #hashtag#. The Saban family has found that the human deities actually become the captive possessions of its worshippers. In Austin, the Saban family will be able to move about freely and breathe deeply without restriction – within the wide open spaces of the Texas hill country.


2. Longhorn Football Isn’t the Only Show in Town: Longhorn football is big in Texas. Everything is big in Texas. However; Longhorn football isn’t the main reason that people journey to Austin for a weekend excursion. Austin is an entertainment hotspot and the second home to Country Music. Saban will be just one of many celebrities living in and seen around Austin, on a daily basis. In Austin, he will be viewed more on the status of a prominent CEO, rather than a football deity.
3. Validate the Claim: Within the second, if not the first year, of the coaching tenure at UT, Saban will win a national championship. He will be the only coach to have won national championships at three different universities. The title of Greatest College Football Coach Ever will be his to claim – without question or dispute.
4. Savior of the B12 Conference: Just introducing Nick Saban as the new head coach of the University of Texas Longhorns will catapult the Steers back into national college football prominence. The Big Twelve Conference Commissioner will hitch onto the Longhorn’s shooting star, expand conference membership, establish a string of national championships, and move ahead of the SEC as the premier college football conference in America.
5. Unlimited Potential for the Saban Family: Money won’t be the deciding factor in Nick Saban’s move. His name on the door will guarantee wagon loads of money wherever he decides to park. But Alabama can’t buy the cultural, economic, or political influence which will surround the Saban family in Austin. There are 52 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Texas – two in the Austin area. The entire state of Alabama headquarters just one Fortune 500 company. Texas is relevant on a national level –economically, politically, financially, culturally, and academically. And while Alabama is a nice place; they can claim none of those attributes. In the nineteenth century, Texas was a republic. They have a storied history of independence; the same type of independence which Saban demands in his working environment. Today, Texas would still thrive as a republic. The state has the people, resources, and attitude to govern itself, without outsider intervention. In this environment, the Saban family would establish lifelong ties to prominent centers of influence, people outside the world of college football – relationships under which the family would prosper for generations.

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