Was listening to the ticket this morning and will admit I only caught the last half of a discussion of the topic of new athletic director Troy Dannen and what his plans are to work with the 1890 group. I'm unsure how much they talked regarding Trev's situation in the first part of their discussion but it was apparent from the discussion they were aware of some issues Trev was involved in.
So in all fairness to this response, I'll say the rumor forum is the perfect place for this and the timing of it based on local media already hinting at it and the time since Trev left. I'll add the people I have talked to about this are getting bits and pieces so I/we are connecting the dots here for you to either believe or not believe. Feel free to add to the story with your own dots.
Lets start out by saying on the surface Trev's departure caught a lot of people by surprise. We really struggled with how a Nebraska native could just up and jump from Nebraska to Texas A&M for no reason. Short of a reason, we as fans could understand, we speculated. Traitor, Liar and Fraud were among the most popular speculations. The truth of the matter is that behind the scenes it was anything but a rosey relationship. Ted Carter ran pretty good interference for Trev that eventually dwindled with his departure.
One of the biggest issues was relationship between Trev and a certain booster. I'm not going to give his name but most everyone will figure it out. The biggest issue is managing 1890. Trev wanted more control of it to include relocating 1890 from the 3rd floor of the new Hausman high rise on q street to an on-campus venue. This booster has been funding Matt Davison and the 1890 staff off their own payroll and for all practical purposes didn't believe it was real smart to make any stronger connection of the collation to the University for NCAA rules purposes. The optics just don't look good. Now this by itself isn't the whole reason for the strayed relations between this booster/BOR but it was one example given to me by a middle manager at this Industry owned by said booster. This booster was vocal behind the scenes wanting Trev gone.
Now to add to the story, the original contract that Trev signed the four months preceding his departure was primarily put together by Ted Carter and allowed Trev a lot of control with very little accountability. I believe there was a certain amount of buyer's remorse after the Amy Williams lawsuit came out. Don't underestimate how critical and dangerous this lawsuit is. Trev's departure might facilitate this being settled out of court as he could be the one falling on the sword. There is certainly some basis for exposure on the University side. The biggest thing for me is the Practice player imitating Coach Love to gain access to a room key and female players following him into the room to video the two of them together. I personally believe the first thing Trev should have done is called the police. This appears like a University cover up by not reporting it.
None the less, it was rumored to be that Trev had an issue with not feeling like he was getting enough support by the BOR. While most people speculated it was regarding fund raising, many insiders felt he had asked for more support and having his backside on the lawsuit and didn't receive that. To the point he felt it could be used as a reason to fire him. Because of this, its speculated when the A&M job came up, he jumped at the opportunity partially because of job security.
Now the weird thing to me that I can't fathom is how on earth did we get a new athletic Director hired with a pretty sophisticated contract put together and agreed upon in 6 days. Especially without an immediate supervisor above this position. I can understand his supervisor, the president, maintaining a short list but the people above him already having someone on their mind? This doesn't add up. Government doesn't move that fast. Unless it was expected.
I personally believe both Trev and his bosses, The Chanceler, the BOR and some influential boosters knew this relationship was strained and both were looking for a way out. I was never a critic of Trev's for his departure and I'm not a critic of what the people on top were trying to do to separate from him. It was a strained relationship that wasn't going to have a happy ending.
Interesting.
I feel like having 1890 on campus would have been a problem, if not now but in the future, when it comes to NCAA rules. I don't know enough about how the collectives work at other schools, but the general idea of a collective is that it is a separate entity from the school (even though everyone knows they do the schools/boosters bidding).
No one is ever going to have a 100% approval rating, especially in a position like his. I could see how Carter leaving, though, would put a strain with no one above him to deflect to or run interference.
I doubt Trev left solely because a President hadn't been put into place. I think there are a variety of reasons. The lawsuit, I'm sure, loomed heavily. I also think he has bigger aspirations than simply being an AD. With him applying for B1G commissioner and chair of the CFP, he might have learned that his resume is still pretty thin. By moving to a school with more financial resources, he can add some nice juicy bullet points to his resume.
The situation with the lawsuit, from what I have read, is kind of murky water. It's obvious the assistant in question should have been fired, but the finer points of the relationship they had quickly turned into a "he said, she said". The bigger question will be how much due diligence the athletic department did in the investigation. With something of this nature, you can't afford to just sweep things under the rug for this very reason (a lawsuit). If he knows he didn't handle things correctly, he definitely could have realized it might be grounds for termination and that he might be better off surviving it if he was employed elsewhere.
In the pain everyone experienced with him unexpectedly leaving, I think many were quick to romanticize or demonize Trev's time at Nebraska. He definitely did some good: got rid of Frost (didn't have much choice there), hired Rhule, Volleyball Day, keeping Hoiberg when others were calling for his head, among other things. That said, it isn't like he did things other ADs can't. Nebraska can be fine, or even better, without him. Doesn't mean we will, but it is definitely possible.
