Bill Moos walked away from his post as Nebraska's AD 18 months before his contract was set to expire, but the school is paying him as if he'd worked until the buzzer.
Moos's last day was Wednesday, but the Huskers paid him for the last half of 2021, all of 2022 ($1.775 million in all), plus $1 million of the $1.25 million had he worked to the end of his deal, plus $197,000 in academic performance bonuses and assorted employee benefits.
From the Lincoln Journal-Star:
Moos was not owed any of his $1.25 million deferred compensation payment for a voluntary retirement, but would have been owed a prorated portion of it if he would have been fired without cause from his position. The fact that NU ultimately paid him $1 million — considerably more than the prorated $875,000 he would have been owed if fired after working 42 of his 60 contract months — along with his full remaining salary shows clearly that the sides negotiated how to get Moos out of the position without calling it a termination.
Moos did not indicate any hard feelings between he and the university in the timing of his departure. The man is 70, and 2021 marked his 40th consecutive year in college athletics.
If Nebraska wanted Moos out a year and a half early, his recent comments don't indicate his arm needed much twisting.
He told the Journal-Star on Wednesday he'd been thinking about retiring for a year and a half, and successfully navigating the department through the pandemic marked an appropriate stopping point for him.
But in December Moos said, "I have every intention of fulfilling the contract."
Maybe he was just trying to get the media off the scent. Maybe he was pre-negotiating with Nebraska. Maybe minds changed in the six months between that quote and his retirement. Maybe it's all of the above.
Either way, the last person worried about Moos's departure is Moos himself. He's got $3 million reasons coming his way not to.