Let's have a look at Saban's college coaching record.  In his 11 years as a college head coach, he has 2 seasons with less than 3 losses.  His stay at MSU was mediocre with his only really good year coming in his last which he used to get himself the LSU job.  He did a nice job of turning around an LSU program that was ripe for a turnaround.  He won the SEC in his 2nd year with the upset of UT right before the eyes of Lulu and Junior.  He followed that up by losing 5 games in 2002 - if he does that in his 3rd year at Bama he will be unemployed.  He bounced back with another SEC championship and a piece of the MNC in 2003 but followed that up with a 3-loss season that included getting blasted by UGA and losing to Iowa on a last-second pass in the Citrus bowl while rival Auburn won the Sugar Bowl and captured the Golf Digest, Eufala Times, Kiser Score, and Mudduck National Championships..  His 2-year NFL record was an uninspiring 15-17.  By looking only at his win/loss record, I'm not sure I see the resume of the highest paid coach in college football.  I think he is a good coach that gets his players to play hard and will do some good things at Bama.  However, in his last 12 years as a head coach I only see one season that will meet the expectations that Bama fans will have for a guy that they are paying $4million a year.  From a recruiting standpoint, Bama does NOT have an advantage over LSU in spite of what they think. In fact, LSU has a significant natural advantage over Bama in that they have a home state with abundant talent and no significant in-state competition.  It is a good hire for Bama and it will certainly spice up the league.  But undoubtedly Bama overpaid for what they will be getting and I think that was largely due to the fact that they were getting desperate to avoid further humiliation.

1990	Toledo	9-2	7-1	None
1995	Michigan St.	6-5-1	4-3-1	Independence
1996	Michigan St.	6-6	5-3	Sun
1997	Michigan St.	7-5	4-4	Aloha
1998	Michigan St.	6-6	4-4	None
1999	Michigan St.	9-2	6-2	Citrus^
2000	LSU	8-4	5-3	Peach
2001	LSU	10-3	6-3^^	Sugar
2002	LSU	8-5	5-3	Cotton
2003	LSU	13-1	8-1^^	Sugar^^^
2004	LSU	9-3	6-2	Capital One
TOTALS		91-42-1	60-29-1
^ Saban resigned on November 30, 1999, Citrus Bowl coached by Bobby Williams ^^ Includes win in SEC Championship Game ^^^ BCS National Champions