Your Tax Dollars at Work: Oats & Hart New Contracts Now Official
At a Friday meeting of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, the contract extensions of men's basketball coach Nate Oats and women's soccer coach Wes Hart were officially approved.
Oats is made one of the ten highest paid basketball coaches in the country and the fourth highest in the SEC by the new deal that locks him down through the 2028-2029 season.
The deal is not a "lifetime" contract. Lifetime contracts have become increasingly popular with elite basketball coaches in recent years and are structured to automatically renew the deal for a given period at the end of each season.
$305,000 of Oats' salary is base pay and the rest of it comes in the form of a "talent fee" that is paid from athletics department revenue.
Oats can be bought out of his contract, but it wouldn't be cheap. The first year would require a $12 million buyout, $10 million in year two, and $7 million in year three. However, Alabama fans probably don't have to worry about that as Oats said in a press conference he feels that his daughters have had to move around enough and that his family really likes Tuscaloosa.
Hart, the women's soccer coach, also earned himself a new deal. Hart will now be paid a base salary of $235,000 per year. That's an increase from $162,000 per year. The new deal also extends him all the way through the 2027 season as opposed to the 2025 season. Hart will also now be the fourth highest paid coach in the SEC for his respective sport.
Hart took Alabama's women's soccer to unprecedented heights this past season. Three players (Riley Mattingly Parker, Reyna Reyes, and Riley Tanner) were drafted to the NWSL and the team was undefeated in Tuscaloosa. The Tide also scored more goals than any other team and Felicia Knox led the nation in assists. On top of all of that, the Tide made it all the way to the semi-finals of the NCAA women's college cup.