Trev Alberts joins TexAgs Live as Texas A&M Athletics enters busy spring

After 358 days at Texas A&M, Director of Athletics Trev Alberts joined TexAgs Live to discuss the unity of purpose, student-athlete experience and naming rights. With the forthcoming House vs. NCAA ruling, Alberts also delved into the importance of monetizing college athletics.

Key notes from Trev Alberts interview

• It's been exhilarating being at Texas A&M. My wife and I have enjoyed getting to know the community. I loved getting to know the traditions of A&M. It's the unity of purpose. So much of what attracted us here has been validated. The place is different, and I mean that in a really positive way. The trajectory, the momentum of the institution academically and everything that surrounds A&M is different.
   
• When you think of the future of college athletics, A&M is a uniquely positioned university. I am really appreciative of our staff. They are really great people who are fun to work with. I love General Mark A. Welsh III. He's a leader. He's a remarkable individual. It's been a lot of fun, and by the way, we have a lot of good coaches here. It has been a privilege to serve in this role.
   
• There has to be concentrated effort from leadership to say we can see the opportunity in front of us. It doesn't matter if you're talking about a church, a business or TexAgs. Whatever it is, if there is an alignment with leadership or a willingness to lock arms, you won't like each other all the time. You'll probably have disagreements. But if you're willing to lock arms and say, "Why am I here? Am I here for Trev Alberts?” or “Am I here to do what's best for the long run for Texas A&M?" I am confident we have made a lot of progress. General Welsh, Mike Elko and Buzz Williams, we have alignment.
   
• We will be wrong at times, but we are trying to do what's in the best interest of A&M. At the end of the day, why are you here? If it's for Texas A&M, we have a chance to do some really exciting things. You can do amazing things if you're aligned. I'm talking about a very clear and communicative strategy about where we are today, where we want to go and how we get there. Then we unabashedly go and chase it.
   
• When we talk about unity of purpose, that's the reality. We are moving from a vision that, for almost everybody who watches college athletics, is hard to understand. But the way it used to operate is changing. We have a simple choice to either adjust, adapt and be flexible. We can create a strategy given this new reality, or we can sit over here and say that's not really what we are comfortable with.
   
• My job is to educate and advocate as best I can. I do as much as I can. I try to explain as best we can. There are times when you say, "Here's what's happening." It's moving so fast, but I promise you that I live it every day, and this place is going to be OK. But do we want to be fine or take advantage of this disruption and use the Aggie Network to chase greatness? It's a privilege to be a part of chasing it with them.
   
• At the end of the day, we believe in being connected to the student and the academic enterprise. That's never going to change. We believe that the best thing that any player could ever do at Texas A&M is to get a degree from this place. It will have a far-reaching impact on not only their life but those who come after this.
   
• Like anything, this is a business. If you're now sharing 22 percent of revenue with athletes, you become a quasi-pro franchise at the end of the day. I'm focused on us never losing our values. However, we need to find a way to run our business operations well, or we won't have the money to invest in what we need to over here. We always had enough increasing revenue to absorb these costs.
   
• With the House vs. NCAA ruling, this is the first time we had a new expense category that we couldn’t absorb. We now have to pay $22.5 million per year, with four percent escalators each year, and we are reevaluating every three years. We have to optimize our expenses and look at where we can become more efficient. We have to look at how we accelerate commercially our growth. With our new multi-media deal, we can take some pressure off of all that.
   
• The new Playfly Sports deal has an annual average value of $34.3 million. There's a seven-year look-in window that both Playfly and Texas A&M can look at. We took our naming rights off of facilities. You'll see people looking to get corporate sponsors for their equivalent of Reed Arena or something. What the 12th Man has done, the largest Aggie Network, it’s all of you who love Texas A&M.
   
• One of the biggest assets in this deal, and what's so reflective of Texas A&M’s values, is R.C. Slocum. He was the interim Athletic Director, and he has a proposed extension on the table that is a lot different than what we agreed to. He had the wisdom to say the new AD could approve this. He loves Texas A&M, and I want to publicly thank him for having the wisdom and humility he has. We are trying to establish what the brand of A&M is.
   
• In deciding to go with Playfly, the numbers are really important. The amount in the first three years is really important. Signing values are important, and there is the time value of money. We have this new expense category. The NIL strategy, moving forward, is really important. We are trying to find fair market-value deals for our students. One hundred percent of Playfly's focus is on Texas A&M Athletics. Thirty-five percent of their business is with pro-franchises. As we move into this pro-mentality in certain areas, I think that's really good.
   
• The attempt with the handling NCAA vs. House ruling is to bring stability to the industry and then a sense of fairness. These are two overarching north stars at the end of the day. We need stability by having clear rules.
   
• They’re forward with that April 8 date of determining the initial resolution. It's not July 1; that's when they can sign deals to pay student-athletes. On April 8, all NIL third-party deals over $600 will go through the Deloitte NIL Clearinghouse to determine actual fair-market value and valid business purpose. This is a real system. I have a lot of confidence in it.
   
• We had a lot of time to share information with SEC athletic directors. Do we want to be governed, and do we want rules? People say it's unstable, that there is no stability or fairness. So, we asked our coaches if they wanted to be governed. They said yes. We are confident that the House can use it to settle, and it'll be a new day in college athletics. We are emphasizing progress over perfection. And don't be defensive when you say there's a hole that might need to be adjusted. My coaches used to say that you have to be flexible and able to adjust and adapt to what you see on the field. We, as leaders in college athletics, need to be adjustable and adapt. There's a lot of work to do. There are about five or 10 questions the commissioners will have to sort through. But I think the best thing to happen to us.
   
• As part of the House case, there are no roster limits in certain sports. We will have 19 percent fewer student-athletes than we currently have. Imagine the position it puts some of our coaches in. The reason we got sued is we tried to legislate competitive equity nationally through the NCAA. We had 255 student-athletes on scholarships before the deal, and now we have the capability of having 410 on scholarships. We have more male students than female. We can create a strategy.
   
• Texas A&M will be in the rare position to fund scholarships in those roster sports. Very few schools will be able to make that commitment. Some schools and conferences will not increase scholarships, and some will use the whole $20 million cap. What I'm most pleased about, which all of this can change, is Texas A&M's philosophical commitment to retain our sports. Our programs have the opportunity to chase conference and national championships. This is a really good feeling.
   
• I think there is so much that is a part of a coach's evaluation. Of course, I look at results, but I try and go to as many home contests as possible. The first thing I want to do is create the culture within the administration. It is easy to sit back and say, “This coach is not getting it done. Let's get rid of him/her.” It takes time to develop trust between the AD and the coach. All of these coaches, besides Michael Earley, were hired by other folks who have been told by other leaders, “Here's what to do.” The world changed for us, for me. As you're transitioning, stability is important. As you transfer into some unknowns, I think that plays into it.
   
• I want you to know that I don't feel comfortable holding coaches accountable if I'm not confident the administration is running in a way and at an elite level to serve them as coaches. It's easy to sit back and say that's their program. The athletic department administratively is doing its job, and we have to work. I've thought about who's getting what in the revenue-sharing era. The cultural shift is that this coach is making way more than another coach. We are working hard to make sure we have our systems in place to do a fair evaluation.
   
• We are all humans. I could be harder for you to get to know than some of your coworkers. Each coach is different, and we have worked really hard at developing those relationships. We have consistent head coaches meetings. One of the things I've said is that successful organizations believe in radical transparency. What I've tried to do is make sure they know everything. Part of that is our finances. You earn the trust of people by being genuine and transparent. I think it was our first head coaches meeting, we shared a PnL of every one of our sports. There is no way of getting somewhere if you don't know where you currently reside. It’s helpful to listen to the coaches’ understanding of their pain points and try to solve problems for them. We are here to serve our coaches. That's how we achieve the highest levels of trust through transparency and constant communication.
   
• When teams struggle, there's a lot of prayer. After 18 years of doing this, you realize this too shall pass and the seasons are long. There are factors that come into play, and that's worth getting to know coaches. There's no doubt about it: there are weekends where it's like, “Oh, we are killing it,” and then another where we can't win a game. Part of leadership is being able to communicate that we will be OK. We will fall short sometimes, and it will get better. It's what we signed up for. We will keep working at it.
   
• Slocum and Tom Osborne, those two men are a lot alike. Men of extraordinary high character. I watched Osborne and the same for Slocum, they are who they set up to be. They genuinely love ball and love serving young people. They are men of integrity who do the right thing for the right reason. There are decisions that we will have to make here that may not be in my best interest, professionally or personally. But if it's for Texas A&M, it's the right decision.