Nebraska Shrugs Off Bonus Flap Booster Club Donations End Up In Staff Pockets

Boosters have donated millions of dollars over the years to University of Nebraska football, whose powerhouse teams are revered by some of the country’s most sports-crazed fans.

So, when a letter surfaced indicating that some of the money was actually going to athletic department staff and country-club memberships, several boosters got angry.

The apparently unusual practice - many other schools don’t do it - also raised questions about the use of college athletic funds in general.

“Nobody knew this was going on except the booster club’s board of directors. It’s a scam!” said Lincoln lawyer Don Bowman, a 30-year member of the Touchdown Club who released the letter to the media.

The letter, from associate athletic director Don Bryant to the Touchdown Club’s treasurer, authorized more than $79,000 in booster donations for bonuses to 22 athletic department employees. Recipients ranged from athletic director Bill Byrne to several office secretaries and retired staff members. None of them were coaches.

An additional $41,000 in donations were used to pay for country-club memberships for 11 coaches and seven staff members.

“They keep pushing us for more money and now, lo and behold, we find out they are using that money to soften Byrne’s pocketbook,” said Bowman, who refused to say how he got the letter.

Byrne defended the bonuses, saying his staff’s salaries are low compared with salaries at other schools and that the gifts help keep quality employees without using the university’s money.

Byrne, who’s received at least $4,000 annually from the Touchdown Club since 1993, said booster-club bonuses have been around for almost 40 years at Nebraska. However, many boosters say they didn’t know about the practice until the letter surfaced in January.

The bonuses may concern some boosters, but NCAA officials say they are not a violation.

“If a booster club gives money to a coach independently then that can be a problem, but with athletic directors and their staff, it’s usually not our business,” said David Berst, the NCAA’s group executive director for enforcement.

The Touchdown Club, the largest of Nebraska’s 17 booster clubs, has about 3,700 members who pay $250 each in annual dues and sometimes contribute much more. Football fans were required up until this year to join the club in order to get season tickets. The group donated more than $1 million to the university in the last fiscal year.

Much of the money goes toward team equipment, and boosters get a higher priority for good season tickets based on the amount they give.

School bonuses are often part of coaches’ contracts, but it is not clear how many athletic department staff members receive them.

Responses from some other universities, however, indicate that Nebraska may be alone in using booster money for staff bonuses.

At Florida and Florida State, for example, some of the athletic department employees are eligible for bonuses, but they get them from the universities, not boosters, the schools said. At Notre Dame and Penn State, staffs don’t get bonuses at all, officials said.

Nebraska has doled out more than $1 million in school bonuses to coaches and athletic department staff since Jan. 1, 1994. Booster clubs have contributed an additional $880,567 in staff gifts during that time.

“It has been the culture at Nebraska for a long, long time that the athletic director and his staff members receive bonuses for their work,” Byrne said.

“They are using that money to keep good people here and ensure success in our athletic programs,” he added. “That’s why they call them booster clubs.”

The Touchdown Club bonuses outlined in the letter were given last year after the Cornhuskers won their second straight national title.

Byrne, whose base salary is $122,570, has received $100,357 in bonuses from the school since 1995. That amount does not include a $9,916 cash gift and $2,750 country-club membership from the Touchdown Club.

What also has raised eyebrows among boosters is that Bryant, the associate athletic director, sits on the Touchdown Club’s board of directors. He can’t vote but has served as the group’s executive secretary for 20 years. He received the club’s highest bonus last year, $10,142.

“I didn’t ask for any of it,” Bryant said. “I merely accepted what the university and the Touchdown Club thought that I merited.”