Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney raises his arms after winning the Orange Bowl NCAA college football semifinal playoff game against Oklahoma, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, in Miami Gardens, Fla. Clemson defeated Oklahoma 37-17 to advance to the championship game. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Gasparilla Island vacation homeowners Dabo Swinney and Nick Saban will vie for college football's national championship when head coach Swinney's Clemson Tigers and head coach Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide meet on Jan. 11 in Glendale, Arizona.
The Tigers defeated the University of Oklahoma Sooners 37-17 Wednesday in Miami's Orange Bowl game and now have won all 14 games they have played this season. The Crimson Tide, champions of the Southeastern Conference, dominated Big Ten champion Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas late Thursday, 38-0, to advance to the championship game.
Alabama coach Nick Saban pauses next to the Field Scovell Trophy after his team's Cotton Bowl NCAA college football semifinal playoff game against Michigan State, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, in Arlington, Texas. Alabama won 38-0 to advance to the championship game. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
The demands placed upon a college football head coach's time permit Swinney and Saban to spend just a few weeks a year on Gasparilla Island.
A coach at the peak of his career is just another celebrity in Boca Grande, which is to say, another face in the crowd. Notables from the late Katharine Hepburn to Harrison Ford, the du Ponts, the Busches and the Bushes have enjoyed Gasparilla Island because they can wear shorts and deck shoes, putter around in golf carts and not be bothered by the locals.
The laid-back lifestyle of Boca Grande. Staff photo / Harold Bubil.
Swinney is earning $3.3 million this year as Clemson's coach, according to GreenvilleOnline in South Carolina, while Saban, whose main home is near the Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, is college football's highest-paid coach at $7.1 million in 2o14. Modest money on Boca Grande, where it has long been said that "the billionaires are chasing off the millionaires."
Coming Saturday in the Herald-Tribune's Real Estate section, the Market Snapshot series visits Boca Grande.
