The decision to lock down Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer has been widely derided. Even some Alabama Crimson Tide fans question why such a massive extension would be given to a coach with back-to-back four loss seasons.
DeBoer's previous Alabama contract ran through the 2030 season. The new one goes through the 2032 season. DeBoer's bump in annual salary to $12M plus makes him one of college football's highest-paid coaches. He will now eclipse what Nick Saban ever earned for a single Alabama season.
The most scathing denunciations about DeBoer's new deal label it as fiscally reckless. USA Today's Matt Hayes wrote, "College sports is allegedly on its last financial leg, the five-year NIL era spending spree on daddy’s debit card crushing everyone’s future. The bill has come due, and it’s — here’s that catch-all word again — unsustainable. They’re out of answers, and the only thing left is to expand the College Football Playoff to 24 teams, and jam that debit card in the ATM one more time while ignoring the dwindling balance. Unless, of course, you’re the University of Alabama."
Most troubling about the new deal are the buyout costs. If DeBoer's record further declines and Alabama has no choice but to fire him, the next three years of buyouts start at $67.5M and decline only somewhat to $45M in February 2029.
The buyout dollars indicate that Alabama AD Greg Byrne is all-in on Kalen DeBoer for at least another two or three seasons. A football coach whose team finished the 2025 season unable to score a touchdown in its last game goes from a hot seat to a bonanza extension.
Alabama Football Counter Opinion
Most reviews of Greg Byrne's decision range from illogical to insane. A counter opinion is that Greg Byrne had no choice. Other programs have been interested in luring DeBoer away from Alabama. No doubt they would have offered similar compensation. The risk to annual roster building was too great for Alabama to idly stand pat.
Recent chatter from Alabama football insiders is a case in point. Purportedly, the Elijah Haven camp did not make a final decision on the 5-star QB's commitment until after DeBoer's extension was announced. Elite recruits and transfer players rarely choose programs with iffy coaching continuity.
So Greg Byrne and the Alabama Crimson Tide are rolling with Kalen DeBoer. Hopefully, DeBoer will prove detractors wrong.
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