Does Nebraska Have a ‘Bottom of the Barrel’ Athletics Department in the Big Ten Conference?
Kaleb Henry and Nick Handley discuss the perception of the Nebraska Athletics department, from where football and men’s basketball fit in to how much success the rest of the department is having.
On the latest HuskerMax Today, Kaleb Henry brings up a recent discussion on where Nebraska fits in among athletics departments in the Big Ten Conference. He and Nick Handley look at how far away football and men’s basketball are as well as how much success the rest of the department is having.
Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Kaleb: All right, Nick, I had a conversation online. Let me just read this to you, and then I will just get your reaction before I go into what more of the conversation was. “Based on the online directory for the Nebraska Athletic Department, there are 416 employees, 36 have athletic director in their title. Breathtaking how many salaries it takes to field a bottom of the barrel Big Ten athletics program.”
Nick: Bottom of the barrel.
Kaleb: Bottom of the barrel, Big Ten program. That’s talking about the athletic department as a whole.
Nick: It’s interesting, the context on this, I think, is obviously a bit important because are we talking about performance on the field? Are we talking about administrative decisions? Are we talking about at least the ability to grapple with everything that’s going on with revenue share?
Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule addresses the team during the Huskers’ practice Monday after their flight to New York for the
Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule addresses the team during the Huskers’ practice Monday after their flight to New York for the Pinstripe Bowl. / Nebraska Athletics
I’m surprised to hear that initially. My initial reaction is, “wow, that’s surprising.” Because I like to think athletic departments… when they are able to not only successfully pivot with change, with major change, but to the point that they’re actually ahead of the curve. When they’ve anticipated, they’ve already put things in place to make sure that when everything is coming down and it’s the first day that it’s in effect, that it is as seamless as possible because you have done everything you need to do as an entire athletic department to make sure that everyone is transitioned the way it needs to be so the product on the field doesn’t suffer.
I’ve always been led to believe that’s where Nebraska is as an athletic department. So that’s why I would say I’m surprised. Now, as far as the day-to-day and how things are getting done, I would say I don’t know enough about that to maybe be surprised or to say, “yeah, that makes sense” because – when you have that big of an athletic department and what was that number again? You said how many, how many have a athletic director in their title?
Kaleb: 36.
Nick: That’s a big number. And could that mean a lot of cooks in the kitchen when it comes to your day-to-day decision-making, or is that more normal in college athletics? I guess I would have to maybe look around, especially to your own conference peers in the Big Ten. Is that more normal?
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg holds up the College Basketball Crown trophy after the Huskers beat UCF in the championship game.
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg holds up the College Basketball Crown trophy after the Huskers beat UCF in the championship game. / College Basketball Crown/Intersport
Kaleb: I think the conversation on where we were, a lot of that comes from results on the field. And yes, we’ve seen what football has looked like for at least the last decade, especially since joining the Big Ten. Men’s basketball making one NCAA Tournament in the last decade. But when you look at those two, those are the two big ones across the league.
Now, yes, volleyball here, maybe hockey somewhere else. But those are the two big ones. So those aren’t going well for Nebraska. And if you’re – I just want to make sure I don’t misrepresent what was said. So it was “when you suck at the top two items in your job description, you probably aren’t very good at your job.” Now, my pushback was if we’re talking about results on the field, Nebraska’s athletic department finished 22nd in the nation last year in the Directors Cup standings, third in the Big Ten. Through the winter sports this year, No. 24 in the nation, eighth in the Big Ten.
Obviously, football and men’s basketball not scoring for the Huskers in either one of those. You’re getting a lot of wrestling, just finished national runner up. You had volleyball continuing to make Final Fours. Right now men’s tennis is back into the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in program history; that’s going to be the potential for some points there. Baseball won the conference tournament last year and just a couple of years ago won the conference during the regular season. Men’s track and field has won multiple conference titles over the last few years. We have to get to bowling in there. Soccer, they just had a recent Elite Eight run. We can’t forget Amy Williams and everything they’ve done. They’ve made three of the last four NCAA Tournaments.
Nebraska women’s basketball coach Amy Williams enters Pinnacle Bank Arena for a game against Creighton.
Nebraska women’s basketball coach Amy Williams enters Pinnacle Bank Arena for a game against Creighton. / Nebraska Athletics
There’s a lot of very good things happening in this athletic department, while also staying in the black.
Nick: Yes. Very key there.
Kaleb: The way the whole thing is being run. Now, there is some aspect of that to where I say, “all right, unleash the funnel on spending on some of these things where you can go, okay, you see what other places are spending. Go out, spend them a little bit because you have that.”
But I also know fiscally conservative Nebraska, that’s not necessarily where you’re going to do that. But in the long term, it’s nice to have a healthy department where they are financially. And in part of that being a healthy department financially is that you’re also seeing success from your athletic programs. But If it comes back to football and men’s basketball only, then the appearance from the outside is that things aren’t going well.
Nebraska Cornhuskers athletic director Troy Dannen, football coach Matt Rhule, and 1890’s Matt Davison meet.
Mar 1, 2025; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers athletic director Troy Dannen, football coach Matt Rhule, and 1890’s Matt Davison meet before the game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the first half at Pinnacle Bank Arena. / Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images
Nick: That’s the window dressing, if you will. When you go into a store and what do they always say right there on the window? You’re going to have your most attractive thing that you’re trying to sell, and that’s obviously football and then basketball. We’re talking about the revenue-generating sports. The other revenue-generating sport is more than doing fine in volleyball.
So if you look at where basketball has been and football, this is where I think it’s really easy to lose sight of, and I’m not trying to be a Homer here. I’m not trying to go “rah, rah, sis, boom, bah” when it comes to the athletic department. I’m trying to keep this as factually accurate as I can, but also using the eyeball test.
There is always going to be, when you’re spending money and you are the main revenue generator for the athletic department, that there needs to be a high standard when it comes to wins and losses, when it comes to nine to 10 wins. As we’ve talked about ad nauseum, Kaleb, you and I and previous shows that we’ve both been a part of, that’s always been the conversation is that win total. And it’s dipped. We know that. It’s dipped. And this was not even something that Matt Rule all of a sudden introduced. This was something that he’s trying to fix. But improvement’s an improvement. Nebraska did improve a year ago.
Coach Dani Busboom Kelly smiles after a rally on the court.
Coach Dani Busboom Kelly smiles after a rally on the court. / Amarillo Mullen
Kaleb: If you’re judging it entirely by results on the field or court for football and men’s basketball, yeah, combined between the two of them, you’re bottom half of the Big Ten, if that’s the only way you’re gauging it by the wins and losses for those two sports. If you’re judging the entirety of the athletic department by how does everyone do, you can even weight it. You can weight football more. You can weight basketball more. I get that.
But volleyball is a big deal in this league. And you have the premier volleyball program, even with Wisconsin doing what they’ve done for the last several years, even with the history at Penn State. You have the premier volleyball program in the conference. Softball right now, which we haven’t even mentioned, by the way, is third in the league heading into their final weekend. They host Maryland this weekend. Nebraska is a top-25 team. They’ll get into the Big Ten tournament next week out at Purdue.
You have successful programs. up and down this athletic department, and you’re running in the black. I think there’s a lot to be said there. My argument on where this is, and some of this might come from the fact that I did track and field in college. When I see the constant conversations of all of the men’s programs at Nebraska suck. Okay, well, when you say that, when you say that, and you’re talking about football and men’s basketball, and maybe baseball being down a little bit right now, or when baseball loses the first game of the Big Ten tournament last year, you’re ignoring gymnastics, wrestling, track and field, tennis this season. cross country… you’re ignoring all these things that have not just modicums of success, but have Big Ten championship, Big Ten runner-up, national runner-up expectations with what they do with their programs year in and year out. You’re ignoring those.
Nebraska baseball players dog pile on the field after winning the 2024 Big Ten Conference Tournament Championship game.
Nebraska baseball players dog pile on the field after winning the 2024 Big Ten Conference Tournament Championship game. / Nebraska Athletics
So no, the men’s programs, the top two have not been great. As a whole, the department is extremely healthy. And where I would put it, I would argue that Nebraska is not just a top half of the Big Ten, I would argue Nebraska is a top five athletic department in the league. And obviously a big part of that is how is your football program doing? So that brings Nebraska down a little bit.
But who are the athletic departments as a whole that you would compare to Nebraska? Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Michigan… Sometimes I think we’re too close to it as either Nebraska media or Nebraska fans in that we see the blemishes with the Huskers, especially football and men’s basketball. But if we step back, there are a lot of blemishes all over the dang place. And Nebraska athletics as a whole is very, very healthy. And I would argue a top five athletic department top to bottom in the league.
Nick: And I would add to that, Kaleb, because I think those are all great points. I would add to that, just start looking around. In a lot of those sports that maybe we don’t discuss enough, look at some of those coaches, too. One of my favorite coaches in the entire athletic department is a highly successful one, too, and a guy that I want to go through a wall just on my day-to-day after I listen to him, and Mark Manning. You’ve got this sustained success in a program, especially in a conference, that it is brutal to try to get above the Penn States and Iowas in wrestling. And Nebraska shows out on the national level this year. So there’s still plenty of gas in that tank.
I look at, you brought up Amy Williams. I think the consistency there, I think you’ve continued to see her evolve when it comes to recruiting and in the transfer portal era of making that basketball program better and trying to climb up a notch each year, but at the very least ending their season in the NCAA Tournament.
I look at a lot of the coaches – I can’t go through every one of them right now because we don’t have time for that – but that’s the other part of it is if you’re around these coaches and you get a chance to sit down and talk to them about their vision, these are all people that have a pretty solid plan. It’s just being able to roll with the punches that comes with the uncertainty of 18-22 year olds’ decisions when it comes to recruiting and when it comes to “do I decide to stick around or do I want to go in the transfer portal?” That’s what they’re dealing with. But I like the collective group of coaches that this athletic department has. I like the no BS approach by Troy Dannen.
