Scott Frost Files $5 Million Lawsuit Against Nebraska
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The saga of Scott Frost and Nebraska entered a new chapter on Friday afternoon.
Frost filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Nebraska's board of regents in the District Court of Lancaster County, Nebraska. According to the filing, he is seeking at least $5 million in damages after he argues the school withheld liquidated damages payments for 2025 and 2026.
Despite having extended Frost's original seven-year contract an additional two years through the 2025 and 2026 seasons, Nebraska fired him in the middle of the 2022 season on Sep. 11.
According to the filing, Frost argues that Nebraska wrongly included liquidated damages payments set for 2025 and 2026 as taxable income for 2022, yet also "expressly stated that the payments could be adjusted at a later date, without any further explanation." This means that, even though the liquidated payments schedule for 2025 and 2026 was taxed in 2022, Frost would not receive the payments on which that tax liability was based until 2025 and 2026, and even then, it might be adjusted.
This came to pass in 2024, when Frost got a new job as a senior analyst for the Los Angeles Rams in September 2024 and returned to UCF several weeks later in December.
In a letter attached to the filing, Nebraska stated its position was that Frost would not receive any more payments from it, effective Jan. 1, 2025. Frost argues that such a position not only conflicts with the terms of his deal but also the decision to report those payments as taxable income in 2022 and Nebraska's own position on the matter in an email from Aug. 14, 2024, attached to the filing.
According to the filing, Frost is seeking a declaratory judgment "as a last resort and after years of attempting to navigate (unsuccessfully) the problems created for him by [Nebraska], which began only months after he was terminated." He alleged that Nebraska's "evolving positions related to the amounts owed to Coach Frost are muddled, internally inconsistent and transparently self-serving."
The filing provides some context as to Frost's attitude towards his previous employer in the months following his return to UCF, especially during Big 12 Media Days in July. For example, he declined to discuss Nebraska with 365 Sports, saying, "Yeah, I don't want to talk about them or that place." Frost also became the talk of the online college football world on July 8 when he was quoted by The Athletic's Chris Vannini as saying, in reference to what he learned at Nebraska, "Don't take the wrong job."
A court date for the lawsuit has not been set.
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Bryson Turner is a sports journalist who covers UCF Athletics. Turner has contributed to the Black and Gold Banneret, the home for UCF Athletics on SB Nation. He has called the Orlando area home since the age of 8 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from UCF.
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