Nebraska AD Bill Moos retiring after four years with the Cornhuskers

Nebraska will be searching for a new athletic director to lead its athletic program. On Friday, the university announced that AD Bill Moos is retiring, effective Wednesday. The sudden change comes nearly four years after Moos was hired. 

“To understand just how special Nebraska is, you need to spend time here, meet our people, visit our cities and towns and sit in Memorial Stadium in a sea of red on a Saturday afternoon in the fall,” Moos said in a statement. “I step away completely content, knowing that our athletic program is reborn and rebuilt and that it has a solid, stable foundation.”

Moos’ contract ran through the end of 2022. He previously served as the AD at Montana (1990-95), Oregon (1995-2007) and Washington State (2010-2017).

“I have been so fortunate to work as the Director of Athletics at four wonderful schools and have seen a lot but I have never witnessed and experienced the passion of fans like we have at Nebraska,” said Moos, who is 70. “The unflinching support of our programs and of our university is inspiring and unmatched. I have visited every part of our great state and engaged with thousands of Husker fans over the years, and there truly is No Place like Nebraska.”

Hired by Nebraska in October 2017, Moos succeeded Shawn Eichorst, who was fired a month before after five years with the program. Moos’ notable moves included hiring football coach Scott Frost in 2017 and men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg in 2019. However, neither hire has worked out so far. 

A former quarterback for Nebraska in the 1990s legendary coach Tom Osborne, Frost was coming off of an undefeated season at UCF and considered a massive, but natural hire for Moos at the time. However, Frost is 12-20 in three seasons and has yet to record a winning season. All the while, the program is in the middle of a $155 million facilities project. Meanwhile, Hoiberg, who was scooped up by Moos after being fired by the Chicago Bulls, is 14-45 in two seasons. 

On top of two disappointing hires that have yet to pan out, Nebraska’s football program made headlines in the summer of 2020 for its outspoken position on playing football in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, no matter what. “We’re prepared to look for other options [outside of the Big Ten]” Frost said in August. 

Though the Big Ten initially postponed the 2020 season due to Covid concerns, Nebraska got its wish when the conference reversed its decision in September. In a shortened season, the Huskers finished 3-5.