Trev Alberts Reacts to Ironic Nebraska-Texas A&M NCAA Tournament Matchup

The newly hired Aggies athletic director shared his thoughts on Selection Sunday.
Trev Alberts Reacts to Ironic Nebraska-Texas A&M NCAA Tournament Matchup
Trev Alberts Reacts to Ironic Nebraska-Texas A&M NCAA Tournament Matchup /

Call it the Trev Alberts classic.

On Selection Sunday, Nebraska and Texas A&M both booked spots in the 2024 NCAA tournament—against each other in the South Region. The No. 8-seeded Cornhuskers will take on the No. 9-seeded Aggies in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday in Memphis in what could be viewed as a revenge game for the ages.

Indeed, Texas A&M lured Nebraska athletic director to take the same position with the Aggies last Wednesday. It was a stunning move considering Alberts’s status as a former Nebraska football star. Alberts had served as the Cornhuskers’ athletic director since 2021 and signed a contract extension to remain in Lincoln through 2031 just a few months ago.

Shortly after the ironic matchup was revealed, Alberts tweeted his reaction, including a shout out to Nebraska men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg and his Texas A&M counterpart, Buzz Williams.

The former Butkus Award-winning linebacker said in his farewell statement to the school, “I truly want to express my gratitude to the University of Nebraska—the school and its fans have been and always will be immensely important to me. Nebraska changed my life, and I’m thankful for the incredible 15 years I spent [in the state].”

Despite Alberts’s blindsiding departure, Nebraska is going dancing for the first time in a decade under Hoiberg in his fifth year with the program. The Cornhuskers (23—10) placed third in the Big Ten standings in the regular season. They reached the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament, where they lost to Illinois.

As for Texas A&M, Alberts will oversee head coach Williams’s March Madness run as the Aggies (20—14) look to win their first NCAA tournament game since 2018 under previous coach Billy Kennedy. 


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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.