Why is a former head coach suing Nebraska for $5 million?

Why is a former head coach suing Nebraska for $5 million? originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Former Nebraska head coach Scott Frost has filed a lawsuit against the university and its board of regents, claiming he was hit with a major tax bill for money he never actually received.

The lawsuit, filed in Lancaster County District Court, centers on how Nebraska handled Frost’s buyout after firing him three games into the 2022 season. Frost finished his tenure at his alma mater with a 16–31 record.

According to the filing, Nebraska told Frost in December 2022 that it planned to count the projected value of his 2025 and 2026 buyout payments as income on his W-2 for that year. Frost argues that move was improper and left him with a $1.7 million tax liability for money that had not been paid.

Frost says those future payments were guaranteed under his contract and could not be reduced or taken away. However, he also claims the university said in the same email that the payments could later be adjusted, without explaining how or why.

Frost is seeking at least $5 million in damages and wants a judge to rule that the offset provision in his contract expired on Dec. 31, 2024, the same date he says his employment officially ended. He also argues his contract did not require him to find another job to reduce what Nebraska owed him.

The case is another reminder of just how big of a business major college football has become. Coaching contracts now read more like corporate agreements, with buyouts, offsets, tax implications, and legal fine print worth millions of dollars. Decisions made in a front office or accounting department can carry massive financial consequences, long after a coach is fired.

After leaving Nebraska, Frost worked as a senior analyst with the Los Angeles Rams in 2024  and recently completed his first season back at UCF, where he previously coached. The Knights went 5–7 in 2025, including a 2–7 mark in Big 12 play, as he began his second stint with the program.