![Florida head coach Todd Golden celebrates their 114-55 win over Prairie View A&M during the NCAA March Madness opening round at Benchmark international Arena in Tampa, FL on Friday, March 20, 2026. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_2708,h_1523/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ReutersImages/mmsport/213/01m16nanz882w2wxb4x1.jpg "Florida head coach Todd Golden celebrates their 114-55 win over Prairie View A&M during the NCAA March Madness opening round at Benchmark international Arena in Tampa, FL on Friday, March 20, 2026. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]")
Todd Golden signed an extension with Florida and now has a contract that would have him in Gainesville through 2032. Golden’s new deal is a six-year, $49.5 million deal that makes him the 4th highest-paid coach in all of college basketball. More significantly, it puts to rest the speculation from this offseason that Golden could jump ship.
Sort of, because there is one notable caveat to his contract that essentially keeps the door wide open if Golden were to ever want to leave Gainesville for the NBA.
Todd Golden signs extension with the Gators that doesn’t keep the NBA away
Golden’s contract increases his buyout should a team like UNC want to try and lure him away from Gainesville. His buyout is a sliding scale from $16 million down to $1 million during his final year.
But if Golden were to leave for the NBA, that buyout is only $3 million, and by 2030 the buyout to the NBA is down to zero. Also notable is that if Scott Stricklin is no longer the AD at Florida, Golden’s buyout to the NBA is immediately reduced to zero.
It’s not a secret that Golden has aspirations to one day coach in the NBA. As recently as May, Golden said:
“I’m never gonna close the door on the NBA. The NBA is an incredible honor. That’s something that I could see down the road.”
And let’s be honest, even $3 million for a buyout is nothing if Golden is the guy that they want. The fact that by 2030 that buyout is almost zero seemingly creates an exit ramp for Golden down the road to channel his inner Billy Donovan. The part about Golden’s buyout dropping if Stricklin were to leave feels like a case of who is protecting who, but that’s a piece for another day.
Florida fans should enjoy Todd Golden while he is still here
If/when Golden does leave, Florida fans can’t really be that upset. He has built the Gators back into one of the prominent brands in all of college basketball, and the old adage of “Flags fly forever” gave the Gators a national title banner that will forever be part of Florida lore.
These next couple of years will probably dictate how his long-term legacy is viewed, but if this year’s edition of the Gators lives up to the hype they have been given, that legacy could be a long-lasting one in Gainesville.
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