Greg Byrne discusses Nate Oats' commitment to Alabama basketball

Before Alabama played in its first game in the SEC Tournament – and before the Crimson Tide’s NCAA Tournament run – Greg Byrne announced a new contract for coach Nate Oats.

Oats’ new deal is six years through March 14, 2030, and he is set to make $5 million in his first season and $7.55 million in the last year of the contract extension. In the first two years of the deal, Oats’ buyout is worth $18 million if he leaves, one of the largest in the country.

One month after the UA System Board of Trustees compensation committee approved Oats’ second contract extension, Byrne discussed the commitment from Oats on The Next Round.

“We believe in Nate,” Byrne said Thursday. “We believe in the job that he’s done. The kids like playing for him. We’ve had a few kids go in the transfer portal in the last few days – we were anticipating that. It’s the world we’re in right now. The way he has developed our program, young men wanna play for him. Kids have a real affinity for him as their coach. 

“He’s ahead of the curve offensively and preaches defense all the time. Recruits his tail off. He and I talked twice yesterday, and a lot of the conversation was about recruiting and where we are right now. 

Byrne continued, “We’re really proud of him, we knew he wanted to be our coach for hopefully the rest of his career and we stepped up. But the thing I love so much about him is I said, ‘Nate, if we’re gonna invest in you at this level, I want you to make that same commitment back to us.’ … I said, ‘Our fanbase wants to know that you are just as committed to the University of Alabama as we are to you.’ And he’s like – you know Nate – ‘Shoot, yeah.’”

In his fifth year at Alabama, Oats led the men’s basketball team to its first-ever Final Four. It was his fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and the third trip to the Sweet 16, but the Tide broke through its glass ceiling and played on the third weekend of March Madness.

One day after Alabama’s season ended with a loss to national champion UConn, news broke that John Calipari was leaving Kentucky for Arkansas, and many believed Oats would be a top candidate in Lexington. Before the national title game tipped off, however, Oats and Byrne both shared statements on social media that reaffirmed the head coach’s commitment.

“Kentucky is probably one of the top two or three jobs in the country historically,” Byrne told The Next Round. “I worked at Kentucky. I was the head of fundraising. We lived there from 2002-06. There is a lot of similarities between Kentucky men’s basketball support and Alabama football support and the focus on the state. 

“Obviously, I didn’t just sit there and say, ‘Oh, I guess the Kentucky job is open.’ Nate and I talked several times, and I already knew the things that were important to him.”

Alabama still hasn’t broken ground on a new basketball arena that was first introduced in 2022. Byrne provided a positive update on where things stand there but also had more details on the more immediate plans for the basketball program, which is expected to include a new off-site facility that is likely to career a lesser $20 million price tag, according to sources.

“We’ve raised a lot of money for the arena,” Byrne said. “Our donors have been really good for it. That is a priority for us in what we have to do. We also are in very challenging, turbulent waters right now. NIL is a reality. We have to pay attention to that.

“If you really talk to most coaches, they’re not gonna be as concerned about the gameday and what that looks like. I mean, they want it to be good, don’t get me wrong. But they’re much more concerned about their classroom, which for a basketball is the gym. So we’ve got some things we’re working on to address in a much shorter timeframe and will benefit our men’s basketball program, benefit our women’s basketball program, too.

“We were able to talk a little bit more about it because during the season, I didn’t bother him a whole lot about that because I want him to be focused on his team. But we had already started talking about that, and we just had a couple more conversations once the news. But he made it very clear to me he wanted to be here, and I think his actions once again back up his words.”

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