Texas A&M is finalizing a contract extension for their Athletic Director, Trev Alberts, not long after locking in head coach Mike Elko for the long term. Alberts took over for Ross Bjork not long after Mike Elko was hired, following the Mark Stoops fiasco that eventually led to Bjork's departure.
With the recent instability at top-level leadership in the Texas A&M University system, this is a sneakily significant move for the Aggies on several levels. When former University President General Mark Welsh resigned earlier this fall, there was a bit of an undercurrent of worry about what this might mean for the longevity of tenure for some of the top coaches at the university.
The alignment between president, AD, and football coach is paramount for long-term success at any university, and before Welsh's dismissal, it looked like the Aggies had that well in place. Alberts had made no secret of his admiration for General Welsh, and so the worry was that once that domino fell, Alberts may be on the way out too— creating an unstable environment in the athletic department that could eventually lead to prized coaches heading out the door.
Texas A&M positioned for long-term athletics dominance by extending AD Trev Alberts
This extension mollifies many of those anxieties. Alberts wouldn't have signed it if he was intent on heading elsewhere, so this is quite good news for Aggie fans.
Alberts has acquitted himself quite well since arriving in College Station, despite some Aggie fans' skepticism about the former Nebraska linebacker. He navigated the Aggies to an industry-leading media rights deal with Playfly and has been forward-thinking in the best way about the coming revenue-share era of college football.
While many athletic departments have been in a win-now mode that will leave them out in the cold when some of the structural changes come home to roost, the Aggies have been maneuvering behind the scenes to be a leader in this new era. Alberts has been key to that, so keeping him is huge.
This isn't even to mention the stellar relationship he has with the head man for Aggie football— something that is no doubt a big piece of why Elko signed the extension. In his presser, Elko mentioned the institutional commitment to the program as a big part of why he knew he wasn't going elsewhere, and Alberts is clearly the face of that.
This move positions the Aggies well for long-term success, and it quiets a lot of fears that A&M fans have had. We could be entering a golden age of Texas A&M sports right now, and this is just the beginning.