To reiterate, I still see Sexton's fingerprints all over this. Remember, he's not only Nick's agent, he's Gus' agent, and Kirby Smart's agent, but I don't believe he's Mack Brown's agent. So, it is in his interest to do things that might not be in Nick's interests. If he could somehow get one of his coaches the Texas job, and at the same time get one of his coaches promoted to HC, that's a lot of money and power that he gains. I wonder how much leave-way Nick has given him, and what exactly his "end game" is.
As far as Alabama/Battle goes, they had plenty of time to draw up something that should have had everything Nick asked for and then some. Battle's job is to basically give Nick what ever he asks for, and if he's not doing that, he's not doing his job. The #1 priority throughout the entire University of Alabama system right now, should be insuring that Nick Saban has absolutely no reason whatsoever to leave.
As far as Nick goes, I hope he understands how tarnished his reputation would become if he left Alabama. He's a great coach, but what he's doing at Alabama was cementing his legacy as the greatest coach of his era. The odds are dramatically against him recreating what he did at Alabama, at Texas. Three BCS titles? I know he's a great coach, but I don't see him getting three more anywhere, much less if he has to start over in any respect, and remember they're running off a coach that went to the BCS title game twice. Sadly, it's not yet a forgone conclusion that history will view him as a better coach than Urban Meyer for example, and if he leaves Alabama now, he'll insure his legacy is not viewed as fondly as Bear Bryant's. The national impact would be huge. He'd be viewed as everything that's wrong with college football, a coach leaving for millions of dollars at a time in which the players are not paid, he'd be viewed as unloyal, and a liar. He's good enough at his job that he'd recruit well at Texas, and he'd have them in the title hunt at some point, I'm sure. He won't have the chance to retire a Texas legend though, but he can retire a legend at Alabama.
I think the greatest fear is that we Alabama fans are left in a bad position after a gut wrenching loss. Instead of hoping to get revenge against Auburn, we instead are left questioning Nick Saban's motivations during his final games at Alabama. It seemed unthinkable a few weeks ago, but if Alabama really does have an AD that is inept, the future would be uncertain. One bad hire could wipe out most of what Nick Saban has built here at Alabama. Furthermore, there is the ever-present threat of the NCAA lurking, as one never knows what they might do, and if they could conveniently punish Alabama after Nick left town.
I also have to dispel any notions that he can just go to Texas to rebuild there. In order to do that, he'd have to do some demo at Alabama and leave for Texas with some of the rubble. There's simply no way for him to be effective quickly at Texas without bringing at least some of the Alabama players, coaches, and recruits with him. With LSU and even Michigan St. there was enough distance that he didn't have to take a wrecking ball to those programs, but Texas is too close to Alabama, both in stature and proximity. If he really is that guy, if he really enjoys that sort of thing, of course it has to radically alter how I view him because I simply never have viewed him as that sort of guy.
The key to all of that is that Nick can show so very much by staying, and I hope he and everyone else appreciates that. Staying might not be the easiest thing to do, but it's hard to argue that it's not the best thing to do.