Kalen DeBoer's $60M Alabama Buyout Structure Reportedly Revealed After Loss to FSU

Alabama was the gold standard of college football during the Nick Saban era, but it is 5-4 in its last nine games against FBS competition and coming off a double-digit loss to Florida State in the Kalen DeBoer era. 

As a result, the head coach's buyout has been generating headlines following Saturday's 31-17 season-opening loss to the Seminoles.

"Kalen Deboer's on the other hand, is a monthly payment, equal monthly installments from when it happens through December 31, 2031," Andy Staples of On 3 reported Wednesday.

"When it happens like that, when it's set up like that, it becomes a line item. It becomes something you can plan for, something you can work around. That's why it's different. So you can talk about the amount all you want, but this is Alabama. If they are not satisfied, they will do something about it."

Staples compared DeBoer's buyout to one that is a lump sum, such as the one for Kentucky's Mark Stoops. 

"Nobody is going to pay that amount of money in a lump sum that quickly," he said of Stoops.

The implication is it would be easier for the Crimson Tide to move on from DeBoer specifically because his is not set up like that. And, given the championship-or-bust expectations that surround Alabama every year, he needs to turn things around relatively quickly if he wants to avoid that fate.

It is unfair to compare anyone to Saban, who won six national championships with Alabama and turned it into the measuring-stick team for all other programs with realistic title expectations.

Yet expectations were still high for DeBoer after he led Washington to the College Football Playoff national championship game during the 2023 season before joining the Crimson Tide after Saban's retirement. 

But Alabama missed the 12-team CFP in his first season thanks to losses to 6-7 Oklahoma and 7-6 Vanderbilt. And it was overpowered by a Florida State program that went 2-10 last season to start the 2025 campaign.

Upcoming games against Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and LSU will be difficult tests as well, which means Alabama fans may continue to feel frustrated as the season progresses.