Contract extension for Nate Oats includes $18 million buyout, largest in the country

Before any rumors of his naming being linked to other jobs, Alabama was able to lock down Nate Oats and give him a contract extension. Oats will now be in Tuscaloosa for at least six more seasons, with the deal running through March 2030. A deal athletic director Greg Byrne wanted to get done and keep the positive momentum rolling inside the program.

If other schools do decide to make a run at Oats in the future, it’s going to be quite costly. Oats has a buyout of $18 million according to Byrne, the largest in the country. The buyout will remain intact for the next two seasons.

While the number may not seem like a lot considering some of the football buyouts we have seen in recent years, hardly anybody will shell out that kind of money on basketball. Bryne not only locked Oats down but made it incredibly difficult for him to leave in the near future.

From a salary standpoint, Oats will make $5 million for the 2024-2025 season. Alabama will continually give him a pay bump and pay Oats $7.75 million by the final year of the contract. He is officially one of the five highest-paid head coaches in all of college basketball.

Oats certainly deserves the nice contract he is receiving from Alabama after an immense amount of success since being hired. The Crimson Tide is set to compete in its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament, something the program has only done on three different occasions.

Thus far, the Sweet Sixteen has been the ceiling for Alabama under Oats. His other appearance resulted in a Round of 64 loss to Notre Dame. Of course, things can change after being named the four-seed in the West Region on Sunday, hoping to make a push toward the Final Four.

Alabama has brought home several SEC Championships too, winning two regular season and two tournament titles under Oats — occurring during the 2020-2021 and 2022-2023 seasons. Both instances have been doubling up their fellow conference foes.

After those championships, Alabama was named then-program high two-seed by the Selection Committee in 2021 before earning the No. 1 overall seed in 2023.

Oats will now have the opportunity to continue building in Tuscaloosa with a contract extension and a massive buyout supporting him. For at least a couple of seasons, there should not be too many rumors surrounding his name in the coaching carousel.