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

Alberts, the former star Husker linebacker, led Nebraska Athletics since 2021, coming to the university following the surprising retirement of Bill Moos.

Before taking over at Nebraska, Alberts was athletic director at the University of Nebraska at Omaha for 12 years.

Alberts 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.” His last day at Memorial Stadium will be Thursday.

The email was sent shortly before Texas A&M announced the hire on social media. Alberts has not returned the Lincoln Journal Star’s request for comment.

NU Interim President Chris Kabourek said Wednesday evening he has already spoken with potential candidates to serve as an interim role leading the athletics office and that he planned to name that individual “very soon.”

“You never hope for this day, and you don’t take pleasure in it, but you’re prepared for it,” Kabourek said in a phone interview. “I always have a list of individuals in my back pocket that, if it comes to days like this, I can get feedback, pick their brains, or gauge their interest.

“We’re going to absorb the chaos and we’ll just move on,” he added.

The athletic director shuffle comes months after NU lost its system president, Ted Carter, to Ohio State University. Carter hired A&M’s Ross Bjork as Ohio State’s athletic director. He’ll take over this summer for a retiring Gene Smith.

It also comes less than a year after the retirement of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green, and a little over a year after Alberts hand-picked Matt Rhule to be NU’s football coach.

About the arrivals and departures to key positions across NU, Kabourek said “proximity of time does not equal proximity of circumstance.”

“Ronnie Green left for a reason, Ted Carter left for a different reason,” he said. “Trev will tell us in due time why he decided to leave.”

But the news break from the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday morning that Alberts had become a top target for the Aggies’ opening blindsided senior administrators and staff members both at Varner Hall and within the Athletic Department.

Administrators in the NU system office were unable to reach Alberts by phone, one source told the Journal Star, while an athletics meeting with Alberts had been canceled.

On Wednesday morning, Kabourek and officials from Texas A&M said they were unaware if Alberts had made a decision on whether or not to leave Nebraska.

Kabourek told the Journal Star Alberts had informed him he was contacted by Texas A&M and had multiple discussions, and said a small team had been dispatched to try and persuade him to stay.

“These type of searches obviously move very fast,” said the interim president who has been at NU for 27 years. “Trev and I had some very candid conversations in the past day or two.

“I wanted to be respectful to let him go through the process of what he needed to go through, and we made every attempt to convince him Nebraska is the right place for him like he said back in November,” Kabourek added.

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.”

Alberts made $1.7 million per year as Nebraska’s AD, which is more than the $1.5 million Bjork was making at Texas A&M before his departure to Ohio State. Bjork is now set to make just over $2 million per year, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

“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 in a news release put out by Texas A&M Wednesday afternoon.

“Leadership matters now more than ever before,” he added. “My interest in Texas A&M is not only due to its prestigious reputation but also because of President (Mark) 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 has been considered for another position since taking over Nebraska Athletics in 2021. He was also a finalist for the College Football Playoff executive director position, according to sources familiar with the situation, and interviewed for the vacant Big Ten Conference commissioner position before the conference hired Tony Petitti last May.

In order to keep Alberts at NU, then-President Carter opted to double the AD’s salary just 120 days ago and sweetened his contract with a series of potential bonuses.

The eight-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 remained 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 met 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.

The university has said it disagrees with Scoggin’s allegations but has not formally responded to the lawsuit.

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.

In a statement Wednesday evening, Kabourek thanked Alberts for his service to his alma mater.

“I’m disappointed to see Trev leave, but I am grateful for his 15 years of service to the University of Nebraska,” Kabourek said in a statement. “Both the Mavericks and the Huskers achieved great things under Trev’s leadership and we wish him and his family all the best.”

Kabourek also said the momentum experienced by Husker Athletics was due to the hard work and dedication of staff, coaches and student-athletes.

“We will not hit pause,” he said. “As I’ve said many times, I’ve never been more excited about the future of the University of Nebraska and the opportunities we have to work toward our vision to compete at the highest levels in all facets.

“I have full confidence we will find a visionary leader who will build on Trev’s great work and keep the Huskers at the forefront in this changing landscape for college athletics,” Kabourek added.