Why Nick Saban is worth every penny of his $11M paycheck next season

Alabama announced a contract extension for Nick Saban through the 2024 season on Tuesday, and with a $4-million signing bonus, the legendary head coach will be making over $11 million next season.

That's not a typo. The school is actually paying a man $11 million to coach football; a number so astronomically high that he is the highest-paid public employee in the entire state of Alabama.

There is no debate as to Saban's exploits on the field of play, or whether he deserves to be the highest-paid coach in the country. He has delivered four national championships in his first 10 years at Alabama, and trails only Bear Bryant all time.

Success on the field is great, but the real reason Saban is easily worth his salary is the finances off the field.

According to Michael Casagrande of AL.com, Saban's football program brought in $103.9 million in revenue for a profit of $47.7 million in 2016. That figure accounts for a whopping 63.3 percent of Alabama's total athletics revenue.

In the past 11 years, Alabama's athletics revenue has jumped an insane 142 percent from $67.7 million to $164 million. Coincidentally, that increase arrives at the same time Saban showed up on the Tuscaloosa campus.

Saban raising the profile of the entire university through athletic achievement has paid off massively as covered by Monte Burke in his book "Saban: The Making of a Coach." As he notes, in the years prior to Saban's arrival, the school started an athletic fundraising campaign with the hopes of hitting $50 million by 2007. Thanks to the excitement of his arrival, donations soared and the campaign surpassed its target by a whopping $52 million.

It's not just athletics that Saban has had a massive impact on however, as the entire student body has been affected by his presence.

"Just like Nick Saban has recruited five-star athletes, the university is going after the best and brightest students," the school's director of alumni affairs Calvin Brown told Joe Drape of the New York Times in 2015. "We understand that there are young people out there who first view us, or any other institution, through the window of athletics."

According to the school's website, the year 2006 saw Alabama register 23,878 students. Saban showed up prior to the 2007 campaign, and after 10 seasons with the Crimson Tide, that number has soared to over 37,000 students. There may be multiple reasons for this jump in enrollment, but the success of the football team has certainly played a large role.

A 114-19 record with four national titles at Alabama certainly allows Saban to command the top salary in his sport, but when you factor in the finances, it's easy to see why he is properly compensated for his importance to the entire school.