Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne announced a contract extension for Head Coach Kalen DeBoer. The new deal adds two additional years to his previous contract and increases his pay to more than $12 million per year. The negative reaction by some is greatly overblown. Greg Byrne has likely been working on this deal since January, when Michigan was willing to offer essentially a “blank check” to lure DeBoer away from Tuscaloosa. Byrne is widely considered one of the top AD’s in the business, and this move is an example of that.
Organizational stability is critical.
There are few things worse in college football than instability in your organization. The national narrative around Kalen DeBoer after the Rose Bowl has been noisy, ranging from “make or break year” to “hot seat” speculation. The truth is that Kalen DeBoer was in no danger of getting fired following 2025 and, frankly, in no real danger of getting fired in 2026 barring some sort of epic meltdown. The decision makers around Alabama always understood that replacing Saban would take at least 4 seasons to properly gauge the direction of the program…