Alabama Football: On a Bama bargain and Auburn’s reckless spending

For many Alabama football fans (and basketball, as well) there is no closed season on scoffing at Auburn’s never-ending cycle of foolishness. One reason we do it is that making fun of the Aubies is not only easy, it is also deserving.

For a change, this post is not centered on any one bad coaching hire. Not that there are not many to choose from. Rather, it is directed at the group frequently referred to as the ‘Auburn Power Brokers.’ A few have wielded power for decades, and as a result, have often been identified. Names are purposely not used in this post, largely because for Alabama Football it is best the old clique quietly continue to mismanage the Auburn football program from the shadows.

A reminder of the wise use of Alabama football funds compared to the profligate use of Auburn resources came via a recent tweet.

However loose the research is, does not matter. Precise numbers are difficult to calculate, because of multiple sources of compensation. Nick Saban gets a base salary, which is around $300K each year, plus a multi-million dollar talent fee. In addition, Saban can earn and often does earn more from incentives and bonuses.

The bonuses and incentive payments, along with other perks do not appear to be included in the calculations above.

As far as the Auburn numbers, they appear to also be close enough that not even an Auburn fan would bother arguing over them.

The total dollars spent numbers are not surprising. Widely known are the tens of millions Auburn has spent paying guys not to coach.

Drilling deeper provides not unsurprising but still staggering details. Let’s look at what the two programs gained from their investment in head coaches from 2007 through 2022.

Auburn Football: $121.75M spent

• 126 wins and 80 losses
• Five Iron Bowl Wins
• Two SEC Championships
• One National Championship

Alabama Football: $110.99M spent

• 193 wins and 27 losses
• 11 Iron Bowl Wins
• Eight SEC Championships
• Six National Championships

It is also interesting to compare the number of bowl wins. Though the quality of bowl games for the Crimson Tide is vastly different than for Auburn. Counting all the National Championship games and CFB Playoff games as bowl games, Auburn has six bowl wins, while Alabama Football has 15.

An unserious but reasonable conclusion is that Auburn University must not have a Business School, or if it does, it should be shut down. Clearly, the Auburn Tigers do not understand a Return on Investment (ROI) calculation.