Sources: Nick Saban agrees to stay
— -- TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama and Nick Saban have agreed to a long-term deal that will keep the four-time champion coach in Tuscaloosa, a source familiar with the situation told ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit on Friday night.
A second source confirmed the news to ESPN.com's Alex Scarborough.
Saban, who has recently been rumored as a candidate to replace Mack Brown at Texas, is already the highest paid coach in college football at $5.62 million per year after signing an extension in March that kept him under contract through 2020. Details on his new deal remain unclear.
On multiple occasions, Saban has denied interest in the expected vacancy at Texas, repeatedly telling reporters he's happy with his life in Tuscaloosa and "too damn old" to go anywhere else.
"I'm not really at the stage of my career where I'm looking for some other big sort of challenge," Saban said in late October, though his attempt to quash the rumors of his departure ultimately proved unsuccessful. "We've got enough challenges right here to try to work with the players we recruited and try to continue to have a successful program for their personal, academic and athletic success."
The 62-year-old coach has spent seven seasons at Alabama, by far the longest tenure at any one place in his career. He lasted five seasons at LSU before moving on to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins.
Since returning to the college game with the Tide, he's won three national championships and put together a combined record of 79-14. On Jan. 2, Saban will lead Alabama against Oklahoma in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Saban's new deal comes on the heels of several SEC coaches receiving new contracts. Auburn's Gus Malzahn recently agreed to a six-year extension that will pay him $3.85 million in the first year with a $250,000 raise each year after. And Ole Miss' Hugh Freeze just received an extension that raised his salary to $3 million per year.
Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron said Thursday that the coach told him he's staying in Tuscaloosa.
"I messed with Coach, [saying] he's getting too old to start up again somewhere else," McCarron said on ESPN's "College Football Daily" from Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. "He told me he's not leaving. And I know Miss Terry [Saban's wife] well enough; she runs that house. And she's not allowing Coach to leave either. I think he'll be at the University of Alabama for a little while."
ESPN.com's Alex Scarborough contributed to this report.
Related Stories
ABC News Live