The Best Coaches in NCAA Football History NCAA football, particularly Division I-A, is one of the most
competitive collegiate sports. Many coaches have had winning
seasons, but only the greatest are remembered by fans. Bobby
Bowden, forty four years after coaching his first college game
and after twenty nine years with Florida State, is the
winningest coach in NCAA history. His Seminoles were ranked in
the Associated Press (AP) Top Five for fourteen consecutive
seasons. His 1999 team was the first ever to go from opening
game to the championship while maintaining their number one AP
ranking the whole time. He is ranked second in most bowl wins.
When he took over in 1976, the Seminoles had won a total of only
four games in three seasons. His career record with the
Seminoles, playing some of the league’s toughest teams, is
278-70-4. Also considered a NCAA coaching great is Joe
Paterno. As he prepares for his fortieth year with Penn State,
he is in second place for all time victories, only behind Bobby
Bowden. He led the Nittany Lions to national championships in
1982 and 1986 and had five unbeaten/untied seasons. Oh, and he
is the one Bobby Bowden is chasing for all time bowl wins with a
record of 20-10-1. If NCAA football was a religion in Alabama, Paul “Bear” Bryant
would be their messiah. He led the Crimson Tide to six national
titles between 1961 and 1979. At the time of his retirement, he
was the winningest coach of all time and also held the record
for most bowl wins. Bear was known as a stern, no nonsense
coach. He once suspended his star quarterback, Joe Namath,
causing him to miss the 1964 Sugar Bowl. But Bowden and Paterno, as great as they are, may never be able
to reach the greatness a certain Norwegian achieved while
coaching America’s most famous Irish-Catholic university. Knute
Rockne has been the subject to countless books and even a movie
that featured a former president, Ronald Reagan, as his most
famous player, George Gipp. Even people that don’t know much
about football or Notre Dame surely know the line “Win one for
the Gipper.” What Rockne could have accomplished will never be
known. He was cut down in his prime, dying in a plane crash at
age 42. But in his short thirteen years at Notre Dame, he
managed to compile a record of 105-12-5, including six national
championships. That is the winningest percentage (.881) of any
NCAA football coach ever. He was also created the unstoppable
backfield known as the four horsemen that led the Fighting Irish
to a 28-2 record. He was dearly loved not only by his players,
but fans as well. Sure, there will be other great coaches in the future of the
NCAA. But no one can ever forget these great men or their
astonishing accomplishments Best Smartphone Software

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
So who is the most powerful coach in sports today? Nick Saban of Alabama according to Forbes magazine (9-1-08 issue). Forbes wastes no time in anoiting Saban as the best of the best and ahead of the rest when it comes to being the most powerful sports coach in our time.
While God-fearing, rabid fans in Alabama recognize that Saban is not God, they certainly think he is a god in the sense that he is a superhuman being who has power over human fortunes, namely the Crimson Tide.
What is unique about Saban’s stature, as Forbes points out, is that Saban’s 8-year, $32 million contract gives him complete and absolute control over every aspect of Alabama’s football programrecruiting, coaching, business administration and public relations. No other coach of any other sport enjoys such an advantage, if in fact it does turn out to be an advantage. Time will tell.
Until success becomes evident, Saban’s contract also has some very special perks, like 25 hours for his private use of a university airplane, two cars and a country club membership, all extras that make his annual compensation package closer to $5 million per year. He can also leave the school at any time without financial penalty, a rarity in big-time college coaching contracts.
His contract remains among the highest after his first year on the job, and his contract is bigger than all but a handful of NFL coaches.
No coach, according to Forbes, can match Saban’s combination of money, control and influence, and that includes all coaches in the professional leagues. Suffice to say that Saban, and his agent, James E. Sexton II, know a thing or two about how to negotiate an exceptional professional contract.
Alabama can afford Saban. The Crimson Tide football program generated $52 million in revenue last year (yes, college football is BIG business), and had an estimated $32 million in profit. Yikes, that is major profit. How would you like to run a business that generates $52 million in revenue and has a profit of 61%.
Taxpayers in Alabama can also relax as well since not a cent of Saban’s contract is paid by student or taxpayer money, it all comes out of the university’s football program budget, which also funds 77% of the athletic department, including nonrevenue producing sports.
It is Saban who has been tabbed to lift the fortunes of Alabama back to the glory years the Crimson Tide experienced under Paul “Bear” Bryant, who won 6 national championships and 13 SEC championships. When Bryant retired in 1982, Alabama’s football success took a dramatic drop in national prestige.
So how much of an impact has Saban had after his first year? Well, the team went 7-6 and beat Colorado in the Independence Bowl. Saban’s first spring practice game drew 92,000 fans (you read it right). The waiting list for season tickets tripled to 10,000 after Saban’s arrival. His recruiting class this year was rated No. 1 nationally by a consensus of tracking services.
Saban is a control freak (Alabama football practices are all but closed, and he personally authorizes all interviews with his players and coaches), but he is also very successful at what he does. He resurrected football programs at Michigan State (from squat to a 9-2 season in 5 years with 4 bowl games) and Louisiana State (a 48-16 record in 5 years, 5 bowl games, 2 SEC titles and a national championship) before arriving at ‘Bama.
University of Alabama’s president, Robert Witt, is fine with everything going on in its athletic program. There have been 100,000 donors to the university’s recent $500 million capital campaign, many of whom are ardent football supporters.
So how will Alabama do this year? Probably very well. With Saban, you either produce on the field or you will be nursing splinters on your backside riding the bench. Nick Saban expects to win, not occasionally, but every bloody time.
That is very hard to do in the SEC, but for $4 million a year you learn to outthink, outwork and out recruit your opponents. Saban has some talent coming, and nothing beats talent when talent shows up to play. Read my other detailed, knowledgeable, interesting articles on college football, including:
“Nick Saban: A Great College Football Coach Who Might Bring Alabama Back to Greatness”
“Evaluating Three First-Year Coaches: Saban, Erickson and Dantonio – Part 1″
“Famous Quotes by Vince Lombardi, Knute Rockne and Lou Holtz During Football’s Bowl Season”
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