i'll have to respectfully disagree with the 80%. in my opinion, applying a basic market analysis to such a question is inappropriate. and the question really goes farther than alabama and the relative economic merits of having saban coach at alabama.
from a philosophical standpoint, can anyone honestly say that any public institution of higher learning should be paying a non-academic or administrative employee 4 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR?. have any of the 80% considered that saban will be making more than the combined annual salaries of several entire department faculties combined? i'd be willing to bet that his annual salary is greater than the combined salaries of every faculty member in every department housed in ten hoor hall combined. that's absurd. but then again, paying shula over 1 million was absurd.
and before you respond that we're selling more hats and ticket packages as a result of his hire, ask yourself whether you would evaluate faculty primarily according to the amount of money they bring to the school. on that point, i'd be willing to bet that saban's annual salary dwarfs the amount of grant monies that are brought in annually by entire schools within the university within any given year.
college athletics have gotten completely out of hand, with marketing contracts, endorsement deals, and highlight reels superceding in many ways the very reason that the university system was created so many years ago.
again, it's not about whether saban gets paid too much. rather, it's about the entire college athletic system being totally out of control.
so yes, saban (and stoops and spurrier and tubberville et al) are all paid too much...obscenely too much, regardless of how much money they bring back to the university.
but, the market rules. so, if the question were posed so as to ask whether, according to a standard market analysis of profit and loss, is he paid too much, then my answer would unequivocally be NO. but since we're talking about someone who is supposed to simply be a part of an academic institution, the only answer i can give is YES...he's paid too much.
but i hope at least that he earns every penny and more...which means that the least he can do is hand us a half dozen more SEC titles and a couple of national titles.
see, i'm not totally crazy.