Nebraska must disclose retention metrics from Scott Frost’s contract, judge rules

A judge in Lancaster County District Court has ruled that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln must disclose metrics in former head coach Scott Frost’s contract that gauged whether he would keep his job. USA Today originally sued for the records and judge Ryan Post has ruled in the new organizations favor, according to Chris Dunker of the Lincoln Star-Journal.

Frost was brought back for the 2022 season, his fifth as the Nebraska head coach, on a restructured contract. He made it a quarter of the way through the season, getting jettisoned after a home loss to Georgia Southern in September.

While certain aspects of Frost’s restructured contract have been known for some time — like his buyout dropping from $15 million to $7.5 million on Oct. 1, 2022 — the thresholds Frost needed to meet to keep his job were not made clear. They should be soon, barring the university appealing the decision to a higher court.

BREAKING: Lancaster County Judge Ryan Post ruled the University of Nebraska-Lincoln must disclose the "metrics mutually agreed to" in former #Husker football coach Scott Frost's contract.

USA Today sued the university for those records.

— Chris Dunker (@ChrisDunkerLJS) October 18, 2022

In addition to suing for details about Frost’s contract, USA Today also sought records for any metrics relating to current basketball coach Fred Hoiberg. As it turns out, the school followed the law but for a novel reason.

Post ruled that Nebraska had satisfied relevant public records laws in not giving USA Today anything because there was no evidence that the agreed-upon metrics had ever been written down.

USA Today “also suggests that a better business practice would be to put the metrics in writing. But it is not for the Court to decide in this case whether the Fred Hoiberg metrics should have been put in writing,” Post wrote in his ruling.

Frost finished his head coaching run at Nebraska with a 16-31 overall record and never had a winning season. His teams were notorious for losing one-score games — the Cornhuskers were 5-22 in games that finished within eight points under Frost.