Alabama Makes Nate Oates One Of 5 Highest-Paid Coaches In College Basketball

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 30: Head coach Nate Oats of the Alabama Crimson Tide cuts the net after the Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the Clemson Tigers 89-82 in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Crypto.com Arena on March 30, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

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Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne announced Sunday that the school has extended head men’s basketball coach Nate Oats and made him one of the five highest-paid coaches in the sport.

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“Nate Oats has signed a new contract that will make him one of the top five compensated men’s basketball coaches in the country,” Byrne announced.

The new deals extends Oats through the 2031-32 season.

Oats’s current contract was set to expire March 14, 2030, per AL.com.

Byrne did not give exact numbers, but a top-five salary would exceed $6 million annually, according to USA Today. Oats, 51, was set to. make $6.02 million in base salary and other compensation for this upcoming season, per AL.com.

Oats, who was in attendance Saturday night at the Final Four, has guided Alabama to six consecutive NCAA tournaments since becoming head coach in 2019. Alabama lost in the Sweet 16 to Michigan, which will meet UConn on Monday night for the national championship.

Prior to Alabama, Oats coached at Buffalo for four seasons. He is also a former high school coach.

Oats had been linked to the North Carolina opening, but along with Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd, who was also mentioned for the job, he is now locked up on an extension.

Oats recently said he had “absolutely no reason to leave” his current job for anywhere else.

"They’re doing everything they can to make sure that we’ve got a competitive program," he said last month of Alabama. "And as long as we're able to compete to win championships here, SEC -- national championships, we haven't done that here yet -- I'd love to be the coach to bring us our first national championship. We got to a Final Four. To me, there's absolutely no reason to leave here."

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

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