(here is something I posted in another thread. I am cross-posting this because it is applicable to this discussion and I'm too lazy to type in another version of the same argument)
Here is Nick Saban's contract.
http://www.hornsports.com/docs/Nick_Saban_Contract.pdf
The only restrictions are that he has to inform Alabama if he speaks to another school about coaching their team, he has to give 30 days notice if he is leaving and if he goes to another school and he can't talk to anyone he was recruiting for a one year period (unless the new school was already recruiting the individual). No buy-out clause.
As for his life's regret, I've heard the quote before about how he handled previous job changes. I promise you that any man who is 62 years old and not in prison regrets what he didn't do in life, not what he did do. Ask anyone who is in the final chapter of their career and one of the final chapters of their life and they will tell you regrets are over passed up opportunities in life, not about what they wish they had handled better in their younger days. Think about it. Do you regret not doing a better job of shagging that girl you nailed the spring of your senior year as an undergrad, or do you regret not also nailing that friend of hers with the incredible rack? It's one thing to be spoken of in the same breath as Bear Bryant or DKR. It's another thing entirely to be spoken of in the same breath as both of them. Few men have that ability to stand alone. The one way to get over any regrets about doing something earlier in your life is to do something later in your life no one even conceived was possible.
I'm not a believer in Saban to Texas. If he was coming here, the whole matter would have been handled much more professionally. The school-girl drama of regents not being able to keep their mouths shut about earlier discussions is an embarrassment. No wonder our entire BOR locked into a drama-queen battle with each other and the Legislature. We need to impeach the whole bunch of them and replace them with competent professionals. It would be a refreshing change.
Bellmont is full of drama, our BOR is even worse and those clowns are trying to get a top level professional to get involved with all the crap? Never.gonna.happen.
We need to find one person who is competent and capable of handling the hiring and firing decisions within the athletic department. Bob Bowlsby managed to hire both Harbaugh and Shaw at Stanford. There are competent people out there who know how to conduct business in a quiet, professional manner. Obviously, Steve Patterson isn't capable of making competent hiring and firing decisions. If he were, we wouldn't have a bunch or drama queens who are unaccountable to the university or the program out with their skirts flapping in the wind squealing with teen-age excitement over Nick Saban.
Some adult needs to take control of this situation and manage the process. We need a clear voice of competence to take control of Bellmont. We need that person to speak in a clear and unequivocal voice and put an end to all the drama. Hopefully this will be the last week of all the teen-spirit scented beliebers writing Nick Saban's name in burnt orange pen every chance they get and dotting the "I" in "Nick" with a big heart. Enough. Its embarrassing. The program deserves better.
I just hope that we return your graciousness in kind. 
