Alabama raises A.D. Greg Byrne's salary above $2 million, among highest in college athletics
In seven years at Alabama, athletics director Greg Byrne has his sixth raise and contract extension.
This one, naturally, is the most significant to date.
Roughly two months since hiring Kalen DeBoer as replacement to Nick Saban atop Crimson Tide football, Byrne has agreed to a new, seven-year contract extension that was formally approved Monday by the University of Alabama's Compensation Committee.
Byrne, who made more than $2 million with performance bonuses in the past year, will average almost $2.1 million per year in this deal, which is set to top out with a final-year salary of $2.305 million. He begins earning his new salary July 1; he receives a prorated increase from now through the end of June.
The seven-year pact includes yearly escalators of at least $100,000, unless it is again restructured; its total value is approximately $15 million and would increase based on bonus incentives. Byrne earned several hundred thousand dollars in bonus compensation across the previous year.
There are buyout penalties should Byrne leave for another athletics director's post in a "Power 4 Conference," but Alabama stipulated it would waive the buyout figure if Byrne departed to become a conference commissioner.
Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte is among college athletics' highest-paid administrators; his new deal from last summer guaranteed Del Conte an average annual salary of $2.75 million and pushed him above $3 million in guaranteed pay in the latter years of that deal, which was set to run through 2030. Those figures do not include performance bonuses.
Tennessee's athletics head, Danny White, also is among the nation's top-paid leaders; he received a reworked deal last year that lifted his pay to at least $2.2 million and also included a rolling guarantee that extended the contract to a sixth year.
The news on Byrne's new pact came as Alabama officials also revealed the salary for DeBoer, his entire assistant coaching staff and also the renegotiated contract of basketball coach Nate Oats, whom Byrne said agreed to an $18 million buyout should he leave the Crimson Tide for another college job in the next two years.
