Everything revolves around Nick Saban.

No, really. Everything in the coaching world revolves around Saban. Well, at least at the top of the coaching market.

That notion was all but confirmed last Thursday when Kirby Smart became the third SEC coach this offseason alone to join the $7 million club (that’s annual salary). Smart’s new deal nearly doubled what he made in his first 2 years at Georgia. That didn’t come as much of a surprise after Smart won the SEC Championship and came a properly-executed Cover 2 away from besting Saban for a national title.

So naturally, Smart is now making the big bucks. In fact, here’s the list of coaches who either made at least $7 million in 2017 or will make that much beginning in 2018:

  • Nick Saban, Alabama
  • Kirby Smart, Georgia
  • Dabo Swinney, Clemson
  • Urban Meyer, Ohio State
  • Gus Malzahn, Auburn
  • Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
  • Jim Harbaugh, Michigan

For what it’s worth, Swinney will only make $6.75 million in 2018 because his signing bonus was part of his front-loaded extension that he signed after winning the 2016 national title.

But consider those seven coaches the seven members of the $7 million club. If you’ve been paying attention, they have another thing in common besides their hefty paychecks.

Saban.

Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

It isn’t news that the highest-paid coach in the sport has been and continues to set the market for college football coaches. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith might have said that Fisher’s new $75 million deal with Texas A&M wasn’t part of the program’s restructuring for Meyer’s extension. But you can bet that he and the other non-Alabama athletic directors definitely had the word “Saban” come up at some point in their negotiations.

What I find interesting is the ways in which the Saban factor played a part in determining the price for each member of the $7 million club.

You either beat Saban to earn that money or you convince your boss that you’re one of the few people on the planet who can out-Saban the GOAT for years to come. Easy enough, right?

Smart proved his worth not by beating Saban on the field — at least not yet — but by beating him off the field. Do I think that Smart earning the highest-rated recruiting class of the 21st century and ending Saban’s streak of 7 straight No. 1 classes played a part in those negotiations? Um, yes. Some would argue that if anyone has the potential to copy the Saban model and dominate for the next decade, it’s Smart at Georgia.

Others might argue that it’s Fisher at Texas A&M. Like Smart, he has the fertile recruiting ground and as good of support — internally and externally — as anyone in the country.

Texas A&M athletic director Scott Woodward would have basically given Fisher a blank check to come to College Station ($75 million guaranteed is basically a blank check). Why? Besides the fact that Fisher and Saban represent 50 percent of the active coaches with national titles, that kind of money forced the Aggies to go all in on finally dethroning Alabama in the SEC West. Woodward gave Fisher long-term stability with a fully-guaranteed deal so that he could build the Aggies into the force that Alabama is.

In a way, it’s extremely similar to what Michigan did with Harbaugh. While the outside world continues to speculate about Harbaugh’s long-term future in Ann Arbor, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel would probably chase his first-born child out of town before Harbaugh.

Oh, yeah. Back to Saban.

Harbaugh, like Saban, came back to college after a brief stint in the NFL. The lure, of course, was complete control. Just as Alabama’s administration stepped away and let Saban completely take over, Michigan got Harbaugh to come back to his alma mater under the same premise. He still has that same kind of leash, which explains why his compensation is much closer to Saban’s than his college résumé.

Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The guys who do have the closest résumés to Saban are Meyer and Swinney, both of whom got significant raises following their first College Football Playoff showdowns with the Alabama coach. Meyer got a $1 million raise after Ohio State bested Saban’s squad in the 2014 Sugar Bowl and ultimately won the national championship. One year and one week later, Swinney got a raise just north of $1 million after his squad was a touchdown away from beating Alabama in the 2015 title game.

As expected, both Meyer and Swinney have since gotten raises/extensions, though only the latter has been on Saban’s level the past 3 years.

Then there’s Malzahn. He was a surprise addition to the $7 million club this past December, but in hindsight, perhaps we should have seen it coming. After all, he’s 1 of 2 active coaches with multiple wins vs. Saban at Alabama (Meyer being the other but they were at different schools). Both of those victories resulted in SEC West crowns for Auburn, which meant Alabama was stuck at home while the Tigers competed for an SEC title.

Of course the guy who prevented Saban from winning multiple division titles was gonna get paid. The only question was if it was going to be Arkansas or Auburn signing the check. Auburn earned the right to do so, but you can bet both schools were willing to pay Malzahn elite money because of that second win against Saban.

That’s not the type of commodity that’s worth $4-5 million a year.

Whether they admit or not, Saban-level success is the goal for every elite coach. Winning national titles is obviously worth more money than ever before, which is why the $7 million club expanded so greatly the last year. Alabama football reportedly profited $45.9 million of the $108.2 million in total revenue that it brought in last year, according to AL.com.

Saban is easily the best investment in college football. He was worth far more than the $11,132,000 that he made in 2017. Returns like that make it easier for athletic directors to justify this ever-increasing going rate for coaches.

The bad news is that Saban set an unprecedentedly high bar for his fellow coaches. He’s an outlier for evaluating success, and for far too many coaches, his continued dominance coincides with their job security. So what’s the good news for Saban’s fellow coaches?

They’re gonna make bank trying to reach that bar.