Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats on contract extension, salary boost: 'I don't want to go anywhere'

This was no leverage play.

This was a coach who was happy where he was, and got a contract extension that was performance-based. More than anything else, Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats emphasized that on Friday in remarks about a new contract extension that keeps him at Alabama through the 2028-29 season. In fact, he isn't even aware of whether there was interest in him from other programs.

Between that and the family ties he's established in Tuscaloosa, the decision was an easy one. Oats' compensation was raised to $4.5 million for next season (2023-24), and will escalate annually to $5.512 million in the final year of the contract.

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"We got the extension done, and I'm super excited. I didn't want to leave here. (Daughters) Lexie is a freshman here, Jocie is in eighth grade, Brielle is in fifth grade. We've moved enough. We wanted to be here. (Director of Athletics Greg Byrne has) been a great boss to work for. Dr. (Stuart) Bell has been a great president to work for," Oats said. "We've wanted to stay here, we're having a successful season. It's great to have the players we have. The extension is done, we're not going anywhere. We didn't want to go anywhere. So that just puts to rest all the rumors, it helps in recruiting, and it helps bring some stability to the program. We can get back to concentrating on basketball games moving forward."

Now in his fourth season as Alabama's coach, Oats team has been dominant (19-3, 9-0 SEC) and could be headed for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. A key reason for the success has been a highly rated freshman class that included Brandon Miller, Jaden Bradley and Noah Clowney, who have played key roles in the Crimson Tide's success. Freshman reserve Rylan Griffen has made an impact as well, and Oats said the new contract should help sustain continued recruiting success.

"Everybody wants to put in their two cents out there and people try to use it against you in recruiting. Obviously it's been brought up in recruiting. 'Is he going to be there or not?' I've been asked that by recruits. The answer is real easy now, I'm not going anywhere," Oats added. "The buyout is big for a reason, because I don't plan on leaving for anywhere. I was a high school teacher not very long ago, so I'm not paying a $12 million buyout. ... We want to continue bringing in top-10 recruiting classes, and this is a statement (to recruits) that we'll be here the entire time they're here.

As for interest from other schools, Oats said he was aware of none.

"One good thing about having an agent is I don't take any calls from any other schools. I basically told my agent to get it worked out here, I don't want to go anywhere. So I don't even know if anybody called, and he didn't let me know if they did. So we really didn't have any talks with anybody else to be honest. There's not that many jobs open right now anyway," Oats said.

Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.