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

Alberts, per sources, informed Nebraska Athletics’ staff of his decision Wednesday evening via email, apologizing that he “was not able to communicate these changes to you in person.” The email was sent shortly before Texas A&M announced the hire.

The Journal Star first reported the news of his final decision and departure before Alberts sent his email. 

Alberts, the former star Husker linebacker, had 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.

This athletic director shuffle comes months after NU lost its system president, Ted Carter, to Ohio State. Carter then filled the OSU AD 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.

It is unclear as of now who Nebraska’s interim athletic director will be. 

The news of Alberts potentially leaving Nebraska for Texas A&M leaked out of Texas early Wednesday with a report from the Houston Chronicle saying Alberts had become the top target for the Aggies’ opening. 

The indication that Alberts could leave for A&M shocked many within both the University and Nebraska Athletics on Wednesday morning, sources told the Journal Star.

After the morning news broke, senior administrators at Varner Hall who were blindsided by the news tried to contact Alberts by phone but were unsuccessful, a source told the Journal Star. 

Several calls to Regent Rob Schafer of Beatrice, the current chair of the university board, and Lincoln Regent Tim Clare, who was the chair last year, were not returned Wednesday.

UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett said he had not spoken with Alberts on Wednesday.

Before the official announcement was made, administrators at both Nebraska and Texas A&M during the morning and early afternoon denied that any decision had been made, including NU’s interim president Chris Kabourek.

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

Alberts made $1.7 million per year as Nebraska’s AD. 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 has not returned the Lincoln Journal Star’s request for comment. However, he was quoted in Texas A&M’s news release announcing his hire.

“From my perspective, there has never been a more consequential time in history for higher education and the evolving landscape of intercollegiate athletics,” Alberts said. “Leadership matters now more than ever before. My interest in Texas A&M is not only due to its prestigious reputation but also because of President Welsh’s compelling vision in which, I believe, Athletics can play a small but important role in helping Texas A&M achieve unprecedented success.”

This was not the first time Alberts had been considered 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 120 days ago, then-NU President 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 for the long term.

The 8-year extension, which was set to run through 2031, doubled his base pay from $853,882 to $1.7 million; provided a $500,000 retention bonus if he stayed 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 stayed the full eight years, he would have been eligible to receive a $3 million completion bonus, as well as performance bonuses if Husker athletes meet academic and athletic goals.

The contract also included liquidation damage buyouts to be paid to Nebraska if Alberts left before the end date. According to the contract, if Alberts were to leave Nebraska before the end of 2024, he’d 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.

In the fewer than three years that Alberts had helmed the athletics department at his alma mater, he has been the architect of multiple ambitious endeavors, including the world-record-setting Volleyball Day in Nebraska event at Memorial Stadium and the stadium’s massive renovation project that includes the demolition of South Stadium and modernization of other areas. The expected price tag of that endeavor: $450 million in privately-raised funds.

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.

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.

With Alberts’ departure, he became the second athletic director to leave Nebraska for Texas A&M. Bill Byrne — the longest-tenured Nebraska athletic director in recent decades — did so in the early 2000s.

» This is a developing story. Check back for updates.