Nebraska’s Trev Alberts targeted to become Texas A&M’s A.D.

Alberts, the former star Husker linebacker, has been at the helm of the Nebraska Athletics program since 2021, coming to his alma mater after the surprising retirement of Bill Moos. Before taking over at Nebraska, Alberts was the athletic director at the University of Nebraska Omaha for 12 years.

Alberts’ move — expected to happen, according to the Houston Chronicle — comes months after NU lost its system president, Ted Carter, to Ohio State. Carter then filled the OSU A.D. job with A&M’s Ross Bjork, who will take over this summer for a retiring Gene Smith. It also comes less than a year after the retirement of Nebraska chancellor Ronnie Green and a little over a year after Alberts hand-picked Matt Rhule to be NU’s football coach.

A&M, a financially flush program in the SEC, has now pursued Alberts, who at $1.7 million per year is one of the highest-paid athletic directors in the nation.

According to a report from ESPN, Alberts’ presumed deal at Texas A&M will be a five-year contract that will put him “near the top of the SEC and among the Top 10 athletic directors nationally.” 

For context, Bjork was making $1.5 million annually at Texas A&M before his departure for Ohio State. Bjork, at Ohio State, is set to make just over $2 million per year, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Alberts did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Lincoln Journal Star. 

Multiple people within both the University of Nebraska and Nebraska Athletics were surprised by the reports percolating out of Texas.

“Trev has not told me he has accepted the A&M position,” said Chris Kabourek, the University of Nebraska’s interim president.

Nebraska executive associate athletic director Doug Ewald told the Journal Star that Alberts was still considering the offer as of 1:45 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

“The decision is still to be made,” Ewald said.

A source within the athletic department told the Journal Star that Alberts had not called a meeting to address his potential departure as of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

This is not the first time Alberts has thrown his hat into the ring for another position since taking over Nebraska’s athletics department in 2021.

According to sources familiar with the situation, Alberts was a finalist for the College Football Playoff executive director position and also previously interviewed for the vacant Big Ten Commissioner job before the conference hired Tony Petitti last May. 

Just last year, then-NU President Ted Carter opted to double Alberts’ salary and sweetened his contract with a series of potential bonuses in an effort to keep the athletic director at Nebraska in the long term.

The extension, which runs through 2031, doubled his base pay from $853,882 to $1.7 million; provided a $500,000 retention bonus if he stays at Nebraska through September 2025; and an annual bonus of $300,000 for every year he remains in the job through the end of his contract.

If Alberts stays the full eight years, he would be eligible to receive a $3 million completion bonus, as well as performance bonuses if Husker athletes meet academic and athletic goals.

The contract also includes liquidation damage buyouts to be paid to Nebraska if Alberts left before the end date. According to the contract, if Alberts leaves before the end of 2024, he’ll owe the university $4.12 million.

The Nebraska Board of Regents did not need to approve the contract extension, but several regents gave their full support to the measure. Last year, the Board opted to move responsibility for the Husker athletic director out from under the UNL chancellor to the NU system president, giving that position broad leeway to incentivize Alberts to stay put.

Alberts is also currently a defendant in a lawsuit filed in February in U.S. District Court, alleging that he failed to ensure the Nebraska women’s basketball coaching staff, namely former associate head coach Chuck Love, maintained appropriate boundaries with former Nebraska guard Ashley Scoggin.

In the lawsuit, Scoggin accused Love of using his position and influence with head coach Amy Williams to groom Scoggin into a sexual relationship. After the team discovered Love and Scoggin’s inappropriate relationship, Love was placed on paid leave and Scoggin was dismissed from the team.

According to the lawsuit, Scoggin later had a meeting with her parents, Williams, and Alberts, in which she said the university employees “were motivated to avoid scandal and embarrassment” to the women’s basketball team instead of protecting a student-athlete.

The lawsuit states Alberts did not acknowledge it was improper for coaches to pursue sexual relationships with athletes, and there was no discussion about whether or not Love had acted inappropriately leading up to Scoggin being in his hotel room.

According to the lawsuit, Alberts later told Scoggin and her parents that Williams would decide how the situation would be handled, in which the punishment was affirmed. Scoggin said in the lawsuit no investigation was ordered until she started a Title IX complaint on March 11, 2022. Nebraska dropped the Title IX investigation after Love resigned in May.

Alberts would be the second athletic director to leave Nebraska for Texas A&M. Bill Byrne did so in the early 2000s.

» This is a developing story. Check back for updates