LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts received a contract extension Tuesday to double his salary and keep him in position to lead the Huskers through 2031. Here’s what you need to know:
- Alberts will be paid a base salary of $1.7 million that jumps to $2.1 million in 2026.
- He had been paid a base salary of $800,000 annually as part of a three-year extension signed this year that was set to expire in 2026.
- Alberts is credited with the hiring of football coach Matt Rhule and helped orchestrate the Volleyball Day in Nebraska event in August, at which the school shattered the record attendance mark for a women’s sporting event by playing a match in front of 92,003 fans.
- Alberts entered Nebraska into a 15-year, $300 million multimedia rights agreement with Playfly Sports, and he has overseen plans to renovate Memorial Stadium — a $450 million project that will begin with preliminary work in early 2024.
Terms of the deal
Alberts, the 53-year-old former Butkus Award-winning linebacker at Nebraska, will receive a $3 million completion bonus if he stays through the end of the contract term. An additional $500,000 bonus for staying through September 2025 remains in his contract, and he will receive a $300,000 retention bonus for each year that he remains at Nebraska thereafter.
Ted Carter, the outgoing Nebraska system president who is leaving at the end of this year to take over at Ohio State, announced the deal, citing Alberts’ successes in Lincoln since he was hired in July 2021.
Why this is important for Nebraska
Alberts provides needed stability for Nebraska athletics as the school progresses through the first months with a new chancellor, Rodney Bennett, and prepares to lose Carter. Carter has served as an important figure for the athletic department. He aided in the hire of Rhule, who received an eight-year, $74 million contract 12 months ago.
“Today’s college landscape is complex and ever-changing,” Carter said in a statement released through his office. “We need exactly the right person leading Husker athletics forward. In Trev Alberts, we have found that leader.”
Carter said in the statement that he believed Alberts’ caliber of work and his character would make him an “attractive candidate anywhere.”
“But I am thrilled to tell Husker Nation that Trev is here to stay.”
What does Alberts’ leadership mean in Lincoln?
He landed Rhule, in whom Nebraska has placed trust to direct the football program out of a long dry spell. Rhule, 48, points to Alberts as a primary reason for the coach’s attraction to the school. With the Big Ten set to expand to 18 teams next year and league-provided television revenue on the increase under a deal that began this year, a new level of urgency has arrived for Nebraska football to grow more competitive.
Additionally, the upcoming stadium renovation represents the largest construction project in the history of the athletic department. The south end of Memorial Stadium will be replaced after the 2024 season. Alberts directed a fan survey in 2022 to kick off planning for the project. His insight into the vision for the stadium and involvement with donors in securing funds for the renovation are essential.
Required reading
(Photo: Steven Branscombe / USA Today)
