As days go, Tuesday was not one of the better ones for University of Tennessee football.
First came news from the school that UT linebacker William Mohan has been suspended indefinitely after his Sunday arrest for a felony domestic aggravated assault charge.
Let's make it clear that losing Mohan isn't necessarily a devastating on-the-field blow. He wasn't a bad player, especially on special teams. But the Vols can probably get along just fine without him.
The bigger problem for second-year coach Josh Heupel where Mohan is concerned is that it's a distraction. And coaches hate distractions, especially when it comes less than two weeks from the September 1st opener against Ball State.
Still, as frustrating as that news may be for Volniacs, who are constantly paranoid this time of year that even the slightest bit of adversity can bring down the whole program -- and it's pretty much that same way for every Southeastern Conference fan base as the football season fast approaches -- it's what came out of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, exactly four minutes after the Mohan story posted on ESPN's website that completely ruined the day for Big Orange County.
To no one's surprise but every SEC school's chagrin save one, the University of Alabama is not only extending football coach Nick Saban's current contract through the 2029 football season, but also giving him a raise that once more makes him the highest paid college football coach in the land.
Saban's so good he's even won by losing.
Huh?
It goes something like this: Saban has a clause in his contract that if his total guaranteed compensation is less than the average of the top three highest-paid coaches in the SEC or less than the average of the five highest-paid coaches nationally, the university agrees to pay him the higher of the two averages.
The contract also states that he and the university can revisit annually "marketplace trends regarding head football coach compensation."
Alabama's loss to Georgia in January's national title game aside, when you've won the seven national championships that Saban has (six of those with the Crimson Tide), it somewhat makes sense that if UGA head coach Kirby Smart is now making $11.2 million a year after beating Bama, the 70-year-old Saban has still accomplished enough more than Smart to be paid more than the Bulldog boss.
So the school's board of trustees decided that the "marketplace trends" dictated Saban be paid $11.7 million this season and that his amended contract runs through February of 2030.
So by losing to Smart, which encouraged Georgia to handsomely reward its coach for such an achievement, Saban earned a raise for no other reason that the Bama brass believes he deserves to remain the highest paid coach in college football.
As Rod Stewart once sang, "Some guys have all the luck."
And 15 other SEC schools -- yes, we're going to go ahead and add Oklahoma and Texas because they're likely to face Saban at least once or twice before he retires -- are flat out of luck in having a remotely easy path to a national championship for the next eight seasons.
Does this mean Saban's worth $11.7 million? That's a somewhat debatable argument. Not necessarily as highly debatable as whether a moral bum such as Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson deserves $230 million while sitting out most of the upcoming NFL season for gross misbehavior. But Saban's salary could legitimately draw the ire of anyone wanting to rant about our misplaced priorities.
That said, student enrollment at Alabama is up more than 50 percent since Saban first arrived in 2007. Net profits generated by football for the overall athletic department have risen from around $7 million a year before Saban to more than five times that 15 years later. The man's become the Capstone's living, breathing anytime-teller-machine.
There is a lot not to like about college athletics these days and Saban being the highest paid state employee in Alabama could be seen as one of them.
But ask yourself this: Would any major football power in the country not gladly pay him the same or more to run its program?
Unfortunately for the rest of the SEC, Saban said of this latest raise: "Our family is very happy to agree to a contract extension with The University of Alabama. This is our home, and we look forward to finishing our career at Alabama."
In other words, get ready for Tennessee and everyone else in the SEC to be playing for second more times than not until at least the fall of 2030.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.