Nick Saban will not replace Mack Brown in Texas and will, as he said, stay put in Alabama, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit first reported.
Saban agreed to the contract extension, which included a pay raise, Friday night, marking one week since it had reportedly been offered to him. The extension is through 2020 and his salary is now somewhere between $7 million and $7.5 million.
"We are very pleased to have this agreement completed," Saban said in a statement. "Terry (wife) and our family are very happy in Tuscaloosa. It has become home to us. This agreement allows us to continue to build on the tremendous success that we have enjoyed to this point -- successes that have transcended the football field. We are excited about the future and the University of Alabama is where I plan to end my coaching career."
Saban has led the Alabama Crimson Tide to three National Championships and an overall record of 79-14. He has coached several award-winning players and many more who have gone on to the NFL Draft.
"This agreement is a strong indication of our mutual commitment to building on the foundation he has established," Alabama athletic director Bill Battle said in a statement, calling Saban "the best in the business."
Rumors began to swirl mid-season when Texas Longhorns head coach Mack Brown was reportedly at risk of losing his job. At the time, Saban's agent, Jimmy Sexton, told Texas officials their program is the only one his client would consider leaving Alabama for. Saban and his wife have denied allegations through and through that they would ever leave Tuscaloosa for another football program.
Saban's new contract is the latest of a flurry of pay raises, including Auburn offering Gus Malzahn a six-year extension that increases in value every year, Ole Miss extending Hugh Freeze's tenure and Texas A&M beefing up Kevin Sumlin's contract.
Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, currently in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, said recently while in Buena Vista, Fla. he knew Saban was not going anywhere.
"I messed with Coach, [saying] he's getting too old to start up again somewhere else," McCarron told ESPN. "He told me he's not leaving. And I know Miss Terry [Saban's wife] well enough; she runs that house. And she's not allowing Coach to leave either. I think he'll be at the University of Alabama for a little while."
McCarron, a senior this year and headed to the NFL Draft in the spring, and the Crimson Tide will play Oklahoma Jan. 2 for the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
