Scott Frost’s amended contract prevented Nebraska from firing him over NCAA violations

Scott Frost had to win six games in 2022 to get a contract extension and his $5 million original salary back.

That much, Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts divulged Tuesday night about the metrics Frost and Alberts agreed to last November, when Alberts chose to retain Frost for another season while reducing his salary to $4 million.

What the half-page metrics document, received Friday by The Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star, also revealed is that Alberts agreed not to fire Frost for NCAA violations he committed in the mismanagement of a special teams analyst during the 2020 season. Frost received a five-day show-cause order from the NCAA due to the violations, which related to the analyst doing work not allowed by the NCAA.

The metric document indicated that Frost’s violation were not “grounds for adequate cause” for firing. In other words, Nebraska could have fired Frost, but it would have had to pay the full buyout to do so, without trying to reduce or eliminate the amount due to the violations.

A Lancaster County judge ruled this week that Nebraska had to release the metrics document after USA Today sued the school to procure it. Alberts divulged the first half of the document on his monthly radio show.

“It really isn’t a huge secret,” Alberts said. “What I wanted from Scott — and we talked about it a lot — was incremental progress.”

While he accepted the lower salary, Alberts said Frost wanted the metrics document in writing.

As it turned out, Frost never got close to finishing the 2022 season. NU lost to Northwestern in Ireland and two games later lost Georgia Southern. Alberts fired Frost the following day, paying him a buyout of a little more than $16 million.