Shortly after Nate Oats' name came up, as it always does when a Blue Blood opens, for the vacant North Carolina job, discussions of a contract extension between Alabama and its head basketball coach heated up.
Three and a half weeks ago, just 24 hours after Alabama's season ended with a Sweet 16 defeat to eventual National Champion Michigan, Greg Byrne teased that an extension for Oats was imminent.
When Oats' name appeared on the UA Board of Trustees' competition committee agenda for Wednesday, the writing was on the wall. We now know the details of that contract extension.
Oats and Alabama agreed to a contract extension that will run through 2032. The extension immediately bumps his salary from $5.5 million this past season to $6.275 million for the 2026-27 season, with yearly increases that will eventually pay him $7.25 million in the final year of the contract.
The most important number, however, is the increased buyout that will be prohibitive, at least for the next two offseasons, for any program to try to poach him out of Tuscaloosa.
Nate Oats' Alabama buyout figure increases again along with his salary
Oats' buyout recently dropped from $15 million to $10 million on April 1st. A year from now, that number was set to fall to $4 million. For the layman: that's the number Oats would owe Alabama if he left for another job, aka what another school would ultimately pay the Crimson Tide if they hired Oats.
With the new contract, Oats' buyout immediately increases to $15 million through March of next year. It would fall to $12 million through March of 2028. It's not immediately clear what the buyout figure is following that, though that will eventually be public record.
Byrne had to do whatever it took to lock Oats up long-term. He's already established himself as the best coach in Alabama basketball history in just seven seasons at the helm. He's led the Crimson Tide to an unprecedented four consecutive berths in the Sweet 16 - and five overall - and the program's first Final Four appearance two years ago.
He remains committed to bringing Alabama its first national championship in basketball, and he remains convinced that the University is going to continue to invest in the program at a level that will make that possible.
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