What I'm afraid of is ridiculous spending on coaches salaries. Saban was already in the SEC and not significantly better than the other top coaches. Earning 2X+ the rest is going to escalate all the top coaches salaries. Of course it would take that to get a good coach to go to BAMA these days. ;-)

The SEC is going to be even more competitive though with SC and UK on the rise and Bama and UT on the rebound. Shula was supposedly doing well in recruiting and Saban is a proven coach. I'm not sure Shula had enough time to prove what he could do in a very competitive league after going through tough sanctions. Did you want Shula fired? Seemed like a Terry Bowden/Bill Curry/almost TT moment to me. I don't believe one season in the wrong direction should end a coaches career and it was even worse for Curry who's only problem was not beating AU for a decade or more including stint at GT.