Trev Alberts, Scott Frost address reports of NCAA investigation
Hours before Nebraska's offensive coaches and players were scheduled to meet with local media following Wednesday morning's practice, a report broke announcing the NU head coach Scott Frost and his program were under investigation from the NCAA.
Per The Action Network, Frost and the Huskers were being investigated for improper use of analysts and consultants during practices and games last season.
Also, the report accused Nebraska of hold prohibited organized workouts at an undisclosed off-campus location during COVID-19 imposed restrictions set by the NCAA.
Frost and new Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts made an impromptu media appearance following Wednesday's practice to confirm an ongoing investigation.
"We just wanted to acknowledge that there is an NCAA investigation that is currently engaged with our athletic department and our football program, specifically," Alberts said. "We want you to know that we have complied 100 percent with the NCAA and been very collaborative in our approach with them in terms of all of their investigation.
"We will continue to do everything that the NCAA has asked us to do. Our coaches, included Coach Frost, have done a great job and been very accessible in working with the NCAA as we've worked through these allegations.
"This is an ongoing investigation, obviously, so while we would love to provide additional context and details, we simply can't do that at this time."
Alberts confirmed that the investigation's start pre-dated his hiring at Nebraska, and he was informed of the situation shortly after he started in Lincoln.
Alberts was asked whether there was one or multiple NCAA investigations going on but declined to go into any detail.
"I'd love to be able to give some context," Alberts said. "I know you're going to get frustrated when you ask all these questions. I'm just not at liberty to be able to dive into the details of what we're looking at."
Frost also declined to comment on the investigation but said multiple channels of Nebraska's administration approved anything his team did during workouts during the COVID restrictions.
"Everything we did through COVID was done in the best interest of the health of our players in mind," Frost said. "Everything we did was approved by the athletic department administration and campus administration."
Frost also assured that the situation would not distract his team with the season opener at Illinois now just 10 days away.
"No, our players have been laser-focused on Illinois," Frost said. "They're still laser-focused on Illinois. Nothing's going to change that."
The Action Network report included an anonymous source claiming Frost and his staff actively pushed to remove the Huskers' road game at Oklahoma on Sept. 18 from their non-conference schedule.
Frost adamantly denied those claims.
"I've never made one single phone call in regards to our schedule," Frost said. "That's not my job... I love that rivalry. Once our Ireland game got canceled, our schedule didn't make sense. I love where we landed with. Instead of having a Week 1 bye, we have a Week 1 game. There was a lot of discussion about how to adjust our schedule so we didn't play Week 0."