Amie Just and Luke Mullin return to Memorial Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, to discuss the firing of football head coach Scott Frost.
Nebraska could have waited 20 days and saved itself north of $8 million in buying out the contract of coach Scott Frost. Instead, it added to a fortune of payments to deposed coaches and athletic directors over the past 17 years.
NU’s athletic department will pay Frost the full amount of his contract agreement, athletic director Trev Alberts said Sunday. That includes $15 million for the next four seasons through December 2026 — $5 million for each of the first two, plus $2.5 million for both 2025 and 2026 — along with a prorated amount for this year.
Had the Huskers fired Frost on Oct. 1 or later, the final bill would have been roughly $8 million with the buyout halved for the final four seasons. Alberts said there was no negotiated settlement between coach and school.
“The University of Nebraska has a long history of living up to what we’ve agreed to,†Alberts said. “The contract is what the contract is and of course, the university will comply like we always do.â€
Nebraska ate the difference and acted now, Alberts said, because it owed something else to players and fans. Opportunity for current Huskers with nine regular-season games remaining. Hope for a fan base enduring a longer bowl drought than each of the 66 Power Five programs not named Kansas.
A 2020 study by Athletic Director U revealed that no school in the country spent more money paying off football and men’s basketball coaches since 2005 than the Huskers, who doled out nearly $28 million in that span. That included buyouts to football’s Bill Callahan ($3.13 million), Bo Pelini ($6.54 million) and Mike Riley ($6.2 million) along with basketball’s Doc Sadler and Tim Miles and their staffs.
Add Frost’s total and athletic directors who were forced out in that span — Steve Pederson ($2.2 million), Shawn Eichorst ($1.7 million) and Bill Moos ($2,972,044) — and the new bottom line is north of $50 million.
Meanwhile, Nebraska continues construction of the North Stadium athletic training complex at a cost of $160 million. A recently signed Big Ten television agreement of more than $7 billion is set to pay member schools each between $80 and $100 million annually after the deal begins in July 2023. The last pre-pandemic payout per league school was $54.3 million in 2019-20, according to USA Today.
NU in December 2017 agreed with Frost on a seven-year, $35 million contract that paid him $5 million per season until this one, before which he agreed to a salary reduction to $4 million. Had Frost been fired last December following a 3-9 season, his buyout would have been $20.4 million.
The going rate for top-flight college football head coaches continues to escalate. Alabama’s Nick Saban leads the country at $11.7 per year. Cracking the top 10 brings a price tag of roughly $7.5 million and includes two Big Ten coaches in Michigan State’s Mel Tucker and Ohio State’s Ryan Day at $9.5 million each.
Alberts, who declined to discuss financial “outside help†from boosters or donors, said money won’t be a hindrance as the Huskers begin a national coaching search.
“I’m well aware of where the market has shifted in terms of compensation,†Alberts said. “At a place like Nebraska, we’re blessed to be in a position to meet market demand. Certainly resources won’t be an impediment towardshiring the type of coach that we want to lead the Husker program.â€
The rest of Nebraska’s coaching staff — interim coach Mickey Joseph, strength coach Zach Duval and nine assistants — are making $5.575 million this year. All are under contract through December 2023.
Offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, making $875,000 this year, is NU’s highest-paid assistant coach ever. Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander is next at $850,000. Joseph is making $600,000, though it's unclear what bump he'll receive for serving as interim head coach.​
Photos: From Wood River to Memorial Stadium to Orlando and back again, Scott Frost's Husker career