Texas A&M University President Mark A. Welsh III introduced Trev Alberts on Monday as the Aggies' new Director of Athletics at a welcome event inside the Ford Hall of Champions.

Following, Welsh and Alberts took questions from the media at a press conference inside the Kyle Field Media Center.

You can watch the event and the press conference below, with full transcripts available. A one-on-one interview with 12th Man Productions' Will Johnson is available by clicking the image at the top of the story.

(transcripts courtesy ASAP Sports)

Gallery: (3-18-2024) Welcome Event for Trev Alberts, 3/18

TREV ALBERTS WELCOME EVENT

ANDREW MONACO: Howdy. Welcome. To the 12th Man that is here, thank you for being here. To the distinguished guests who are here, we thank you as well.

Thanks to the Texas A&M University Board of Regents members. Thank you all for being here. To the Texas A&M Athletics Director search committee, thank you for your exemplary work through this entire process. To the 12th Man Foundation board members, thank you also for being here and all that you do.

And to the Texas A&M athletic staff, all of you that make this such a special place, thank you, all, for being here this afternoon.

It is my pleasure to welcome to this podium the President of Texas A&M, President Mark A. Welsh III.

GENERAL MARK WELSH: Howdy. Thank you, Andrew [Monaco]. I'm going to get ready to move this thing up a little bit. [laughter]. One of the remarkable things about our new Athletic Director, can you see why he was successful on television. First time I actually met Trev [Alberts] in-person, I was a little bit shocked, because it was like looking in a mirror. [laughter]. Uncanny resemblance.

Thanks to all of you for being here today. It is really a thrill to have you. Like Andrew, I would like to welcome our regents for being here and thank them for their support during this entire process.

I would like to tell you that our Chancellor wished he could be here today. He is the biggest Aggie fan of all, but Chancellor John Sharp has other requirements out of town today. So he could not be with us this afternoon.

And then there is this smoking brunette in the front row who I noticed can't take her eyes off of me. If you haven't met my wife Betty, she's sitting right here. Stand up and wave, Betty.

My wife is awesome. And I'm now in trouble.

This is a great day for Texas A&M University. Because we're adding a remarkable talent to our university's senior leadership team. It's a great day for Aggie Athletics, I think, because we're adding a tremendous leader to lead the charge here in the department. And it's a great day for Aggie athletes because we are bringing onboard an inspirational role model who has walked in their shoes and done it exceptionally well.

But before I introduce him, I need to add a couple of thank yous for today. And I'm going to reiterate one of them Andrew mentioned, and that's to the athletics department, senior leadership and staff for keeping things on an even keel the past few months and assuring that our winter and spring sports coaches and athletes had everything they needed to thrive, despite the turnover at the top of the department.

Thanks to each and every one of you. You are not quite as awesome as Betty, but you're close. And we really appreciate you.

To our donors and Travis Dabney, our CEO, and the other members of the team of the 12th Man Foundation, thank you for bringing the heat every day as the best combination of passion, philanthropy, and world-class business leadership in college sports -- period. We are really, really lucky to have you here and supporting this program.

And on behalf of the entire Aggie family, I need to publicly thank someone who is the epitome of the 12th Man for his willingness to once again step in when the university needed him. We are eternally grateful for his service and dedication to Texas A&M, which now spans 50 years. To our interim Athletic Director, Coach R.C. Slocum. Thank you, sir.

I think a two-man standing ovation is awesome, Coach. It was a great effort.

And finally, and this is not insignificant, I need to actually thank specifically the members of our search committee. As I call your name, would you please stand for a second. Mr. Dave Dunlap was the Chair of the search committee. Dr. Paul Bautista. Dr. Susan Ballabina. Mr. Chris Cooper. Mr. Joe Fields. Coach Jim Schlossnagle and Coach Joni Taylor were the other members. And folks, you were spectacular.

Coach Taylor, congrats on the big dance. We can't wait to see you beat Nebraska. Thank you, guys.

Dave's leadership and the incredible work the team did to screen, review, and interview candidates were the major factors in finding us the absolute perfect candidate to lead Aggie Athletics.

I should also mention that Dr. Chad Chatlos of Turnkey ZRG was superb in providing support to the committee in terms of athletic search firms. And Chad, I would like to thank you publicly as well.

And now it is my distinct honor to introduce Trev Alberts to the Aggie community for the first time formally. As a young man from Cedar Falls, Iowa, he was a pretty solid football player at the University of Nebraska. He was a consensus first team All-American linebacker. In fact, his senior year, he won both the Butkus Award and the Lambert trophy as the number one linebacker in the country.

His jersey number, 34, was retired by Nebraska football in 1994. In 2015, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. And in 1994, he was the fifth pick in the first round of the NFL draft. This guy wasn't a pretty successful college athlete. He was a spectacularly successful, legendary college athlete.

He played three seasons with the Indianapolis Colts before injuries forced his retirement. And then he stayed in sports, but shifted gears a little bit. And from 1996 to 2009, he served as an analyst on college and professional football broadcasts for ESPN, CNN/SI, CBS Sports network, and others.

He returned to college sports in 2009 as the Director of Athletics for the University of Nebraska Omaha. He spent nine years in that job. And then took the same job for the past three years at Nebraska's flagship campus in Lincoln.

As an athletic director, Trev raised millions of dollars for state-of-the-art facilities. He created strategic plans where none existed. He took the university's athletic teams from Division II to Division I, which is not an easy transition. He introduced new teams and programs. He shut down teams and programs. He sent teams and individual athletes to the NCAA tournaments.

He made the hard business decisions required to keep his department moving forward. And he developed a reputation as an AD who worked tirelessly to stay in touch with coach, staff members, and student-athletes under his care. He consistently devised creative strategies for student-athletes to achieve even greater success in the classroom.

At Nebraska Omaha, over his nine years, that translated to an average student-athlete GPA of 3.3 over 18 straight semesters. And for his last three semesters that average GPA was 3.5.

He also knows the business of athletics. The ins and outs of NIL issues, fundraising, multimedia, and concession contracts valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. The highs and lows of hiring and firing coaches; the imperative of building a strong team; and the need to connect your department to the greater university and be a valued part of a much larger team.

We interviewed a lot of great candidates. So why Trev Alberts and not one of them?

All the stuff I just mentioned was part of it. But so was the fact that I believe Trev has a profound understanding of collegiate sports from multiple perspectives. And I think he embodies the spirit of college athletics.

He also lives his life in a way that will resonate with Aggies and with Aggie student-athletes. Our core values are already his core values. He lives a life of faith. He loves and respects his family. Takes you about 30 seconds to figure that one out. He treats people like they matter to him. And he leads with courage.

He also fully understands, better than any of us, I suspect, that college athletics is a changing landscape. And that we need a dynamic, a thoughtful, an innovative, and business-oriented leader to guide us through that landscape.

And that doesn't intimidate him at all. In fact, I think the challenges energize him, and that energizes me. But don't kid yourself, down deep, Trev Alberts is still an All-American linebacker. I suspect he would love starting most days by meeting somebody in the A-gap. I'm just hoping that's never me.

The competitive fire still burns in this guy. You'll feel it when you talk to him. And that should energize Aggies everywhere.

Trev will be the first to tell you that his family is the foundation of any success he's enjoyed. And we are very fortunate today that most of his family members are here this morning. His wife, Angela, is sitting right here in the front row. Angela, would you wave at the crowd for me?

Trev and Angie have been a team through almost his entire professional journey and we are really, really lucky to get this kind of a team coming into our family.

His son Chase is also here. He's an officer in the United States Army. Chase, would you wave to the crowd?

His daughter Ashtynne is also here. She's living in Nashville, working for Ernst & Young and pretty accomplished volleyball player herself.

Trev and Angie's daughter Breanna could not make the trip but we look forward to meeting her and grandson, Walker John, in the very near future.

Congratulations to each of you for the success your family has enjoyed. And thank you for graciously sharing your husband and your father with us. We do recognize and appreciate the sacrifices you've made to support him over the years. And we promise you, he's going to enjoy this part of his journey. And so will you.

I hope you know this, but just to be sure, all of this -- plus the other 543,000 members of the Aggie Network -- are now part of your family too. And we got your back. Thanks for being here.

I had my first official meeting with Trev this morning. And I really only told him three things. I told him, first, that he doesn't know it yet, but this is the opportunity he's been waiting for his entire life. And we're going to prove that to him.

I also told him to make Aggie Athletics the number one department in the country. And to do that, I told him number three -- beat the hell out of everybody. [laughter]

I'll tell you two more things now, Trev. First one is congratulations. We are really excited to have you. And the second one is welcome home.

Ladies and gentlemen, our new Athletic Director, Trev Alberts.

TREV ALBERTS: Thank you, General Welsh. Howdy. Thank you very much.

What a privilege, what an honor, what an awesome place. I want to thank you all for being here. This is really remarkable. And I want to thank whoever put in all the work to set this all up, this is really well done. So thank you for doing that as well.

I want to thank the Fighting Texas Aggie Band. How good are they, huh? And I saw Miss Reveille was here as well. Thank you so much. That's pretty awesome.

I just can't begin to tell you how honored that our family is to be standing here and being with you today. This is an elite institution that has unlimited potential. And the more I dug into everything about Texas A&M, the more I can see why all of you love this place like none other. So again, we just want to thank you for the incredible opportunity to be welcomed to Aggieland here.

Four things I want to do today. I'll try hard not to take too much time. But I want to go through a few thank yous and I hope you bear with me a little bit. I do have a few people I want to thank.

I want to talk about what drew me and our family to Texas A&M. I'll introduce our family and I think you'll understand why we were drawn to Texas A&M as I introduce them. And number four, I would like to talk a little bit about what you can expect from me and our department.

So if you think about what are some of our goals and hopefully what will define who we are, maybe four things that are really important to me. Some of these things aren't unique or new. It's what I believe and what I've been taught. And I'd like to share them as well.

First of all, I would like to thank the University of Nebraska. I've had an affiliation with my alma mater for a very long time. And I'll always be a Cornhusker and I appreciate so much what the University of Nebraska has done for me.

I also want to thank Coach Tom Osborne. Coach Osborne saw something in a little guy that not a lot of other people saw. I wasn't highly recruited, but he saw something in me. And other than my father, one of the great leaders and dear friends of mine is Coach Osborne. So I want to thank him.

I want to thank the staff at the University of Nebraska. I want to thank the coaches. They have accomplished some uncommon things, and we did it together, and it was pretty remarkable. So just so grateful the University of Nebraska changed my life. I'm just grateful to have the education and the athletic experience that really helps to define who I am. So I want to thank the University of Nebraska.

I want to thank Chancellor [John] Sharp and the system leadership of Texas A&M University. It's critically important. So I want to thank all them for all that they do to support all of us and our student-athletes.

I also want to thank the search committee. Chris Cooper, David Dunlap, it was so fun to get to meet you guys and I'm looking forward to learning from you. And thank you for your partnerships. And for the rest of the committee that I didn't get to meet in person, I want to thank you as well for this process.

I want to thank the regents that are here. Regent Sam Torn, [James R.] "Randy" Brooks, Jay Graham, I want to thank you. Thank you for your leadership at Texas A&M University. This is really important. I've been a part of several universities, obviously, and the universities are only as good as their leadership. And trustees who take this university under their wing and care enough about it to invest their time, energy, and resources in it is really important. So thank you for doing that. And appreciate that.

I want to thank the 12th Man Foundation. Travis, I think that's Travis [Dabney] back there. Hello, Travis, nice to talk to you the other day. The 12th Man Foundation, I'm learning a little bit more, but clearly really critical to our success. Thank you for what you do. I can't wait to partner with you and do some great things together. Thank you for making this place so special, Travis.

Thank you to the 12th Man, the Corps of Cadets, the Yell leaders, thank you for what you do for making this place special. A special thank you to Coach [R.C.] Slocum. I have a lot of respect for Coach Slocum and I can tell you Coach Osborne has a lot of respect for Coach Slocum as well.

I watched your teams. And those teams were tough. They hit people. They were the most physical team on the field. They were fundamentally sound, and they never quit. Boy, I hope that describes our football team. Because football teams that do that, they win more than they lose, don't they?

So thank you for your leadership. And Coach Slocum will always be involved at whatever level he wants to, as long as I'm here. So appreciate all that you've done for this university, sir.

Finally, I want to thank General [Mark] Welsh and his wife, Betty. I want to tell you that I would not be here today if it wasn't for General Welsh. I've said this many times, and anybody who knows me at all knows that leadership is really, really important to me. It's critically important.

The general kind of hinted at some of these things that are coming across the pike in terms of athletics and intercollegiate athletics, even higher education. And you think about all of these challenges. Leadership now is going to be more important than ever before. And I've had the great privilege of being around great leader and not-so-great leaders. And I can tell you leadership is really going to matter.

So in the process, when this job was sort of opened and I had people reach out and I started taking a look at it, I was like: Wow, general, four-star general is the president of the university. So I started watching a lot of videos.

My goodness. This guy's the real deal. I think it was the April 2002 Muster speech that I really enjoyed and the heartfelt speech and referencing your father. My father can't be here today as well, but similarly, had the same relationship with my dad.

But he talked a little bit about all those corny things that still matter at a place like Texas A&M. And those corny things still matter to me too. So I would just say thank you to General Welsh. Thank you for your leadership. And I'm really looking forward to working with you and learning from you and following you.

So beyond leadership, which obviously is really important to me, what else drew our family to Texas A&M? Really just a couple things. First and foremost, my mother and father grew up farm kids in northeast Iowa. I grew up working on a farm. Walking beans and detassling corn. Have you had the privilege of detassling corn, anybody? It's not great. We had Alberts detassling. We learned how to work.

So our family has always been connected to the dirt. We've still own our family farms. We've grown that family farm. We don't physically farm it anymore, but we still have our farms. My wife, Angela's, family, her mom and dad are still farmers in northeast Indiana. So we will always be connected to agriculture and agriculture has been really, really important. And I know it's really important to this university as well.

And secondly is the military. Didn't have a whole connection to the military until more recently. But our son, Chase, is a recent graduate of West Point and I started to really understand and learn about the military and patriotism and all those things that make our country so great.

So Chase and his wife, Cassie, and our grandson, Walker John, they couldn't be here, but his experience in the military has been meaningful to us. And our daughter, Ashtynne, she lives in Nashville. She's an accountant and a CPA at Ernst & Young. Played volleyball at Clemson. She's engaged in May. And he's a West Point graduate too. So all of a sudden, we have all kinds of military in our family and we're excited about that.

And our youngest daughter Breanna, who is not here, she's a sophomore at Clemson. She's an architecture major. And it's spring break. So she had that very difficult decision to make: Do I go on a trip with my friends or do I go watch Dad's press conference? She made a wise decision, and she's not here. [laughter]

So but she did promise me that she will come to Texas A&M if she can get in and get her Master's in architecture here. So those are our three children.

My wife was mentioned. My wife of 28 years, Angela. She's my best friend and partner. And you'll soon learn, she's the smart one in our family. So she went to Indiana University and an Indiana Law grad. And she's the backbone of our family. She's what holds us together. So I'm just so grateful to our family and for all of what you mean to me and for the support. Looking forward to being Aggies with each of you.

As I mentioned, my father (Ken Alberts), he can't be here. And his wife, Maggie, they are already amongst the biggest Texas A&M fans. I'm already getting text messages and about wins and all kinds of things across the department. So really thrilled about that.

So I want to walk through four or five things and what I'm hoping that, after a while here and working with the Athletic Department and we look back, here will be some of the things that I'm hoping will help define what the culture is and what we want this place to be. Here's what you can expect from us.

Number one, we're going to be a really hardworking athletic department. At the end of the day, and I say this all the time, but we're in the competition business. That's what we do. We get defined by wins and losses. So we have to have a willingness to work.

And at the end of the day, there might be people that have more ability or whatever, but those who are willing to pay a bigger price than the other guy got a pretty good chance. And that's what I was raised on. So we're going to work really, really hard.

And by the way, that's going to start with me. We're not going to ask anybody to do something that we're not willing to do ourselves. It's pretty easy sometimes in administration to sit back and watch the coaches and say: Well, we'll see if they're successful. The Athletic Department administration must match the coaches' effort and student-athlete effort. So I'll be confident that the Athletic Department will be defined as a hardworking athletic department.

Number two, we're going to work really hard to create a unity of purpose. Something that's really, really important to me. At the end of the day, there might be people with more talent, athletic departments have have more talent or even coaches, but those that are unified; that have a clearly communicable strategy and vision for the future, those are the departments that will ultimately be successful.

So expect transparency from me. I say this all time: There will never be any secrets in the Texas A&M Athletic Department. There will be full transparency. Full transparency around our financials with our staff and our coaches. At the end of the day, in my opinion, great organizations have a level of discipline and accountability across the board. So that's what we're hoping that we'll be able to bring. And again, that starts with me. We won't ask anybody to do anything that the leader isn't doing himself.

So we ask our student-athletes, we ask them to be disciplined and accountable. Well, we need to have that ourselves. So our coaches and our administration will be defined by our ability to create unity of purpose and discipline.

Number three, you can expect us to make mistakes. I promise you we won't be perfect. I'll make mistakes. And we'll own them, we'll apologize, and we'll try to fix them. At the end of the day though, we're not going to be paralyzed in fear. So many times, I think, we're going to do stuff. We're going to try stuff. Because we have to.

And I'm aware of some of the things that are being done here outside of the typical athletic department. I think that's awesome. Thinking creatively, entrepreneurially, trying things, doing things. Really engaging with our fan base will be really important. But rest assured, we'll probably make mistakes. So I apologize in front.

I'll also tell that you I know there's a lot of traditions here. I love them all. I want to embrace everything about Texas A&M. Please give me a little grace and mercy if I screw it up or do some things that you're like: Well, that's not how we do it here. Give me a chance. I'll learn it, I'll fix it, and we will embrace it. But we will make mistakes.

Number four, we're going to be willing to adjust and adapt. As General Welsh said, there's massive change that's happening in our space. And our ability to recognize that and be ahead of that and be comfortable making that change will be absolutely critical to us moving forward.

Now more than ever before, we run a business. And I know that's really uncomfortable in our space, because that's not why a lot of us got into this, right? But we're going to run a business. And we're going to run as clean and disciplined of a business as we possibly can. But rest assured, we will never compromise our values in support of student-athletes because you can do both, I promise you. You can do both.

Just like I said we're in the competition business, it doesn't just mean we're competing to win on the field or in the pool or on the court. There's no reason at a place like Texas A&M that you can't win at everything. You can win in competition. You can win in the classroom. Graduation success rates, APR. You can win in terms of community service and all those things that are really important to all of our values.

So we're not going to compromise our values. I would tell our staff all the time: Nobody in this room would have a job if it wasn't for student-athletes. So they'll still be our focus. We're going to serve them. We're going to honor them. And at the same time, as best we can, we're going to run a business. The student-athlete experience will matter here. And the better business we run, the better experience they're going to have.

And finally, we're going to be a part of the greater campus community. This is really important. I understand what the role of the athletic department is. It's really important. It's the front porch of this great institution. We're the brand investment of Texas A&M University. So we need to do things the right way.

But at the end of the day, everything that we do here, number one, will be with General Welsh's approval and recommendation. But it will also be done that no decisions that will be made in the Athletic Department won't be made with the greater campus good and our community in mind.

Our job is to elevate the institutional profile of Texas A&M University. And ultimately, serve this community and then the state of Texas and beyond. The reach of Texas A&M is pretty remarkable. So we're going to work really, really hard to be connected to our campus.

So those are just four or five little things that we're going to try to do. We won't do a lot of talking. We'll just do a lot of working. And we'll work hard to create a family within athletics. We're going to value and care everybody. Everybody is going to have an important part, no matter who they are -- if you're the Athletic Director or whoever set these chairs up. If everybody is operating at an elite level, we have a chance to do something really uncommon.

And finally, as you think about the future, no matter if it's in higher education or wherever intercollegiate athletics goes, I don't think there's any possible scenario that I can envision where Texas A&M University isn't going to be at the forefront of helping to define what that future looks like. And that's got to be awfully exciting for Aggies all across the world.

So thank you, again, on behalf of our family. We're so grateful to be welcomed into your family. And we look forward to interacting in the future. Gig 'em.

TREV ALBERTS, MARK A. WELSH III PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. What was it about Trev [Alberts] that stood out from the others?

GENERAL MARK WELSH: There were a number of things. I think the thing that stood out to everybody who was involved in the interviews, first of all, was his business sense. And we think that was one of the requirements that we kind of put a box for when we began the search.

He looks at things a little different than a lot of the other athletic directors looked at the business of college athletics and how it needs to adjust in the future. I don't think anybody knows what the right answer is yet, but he's certainly willing to explore the possibility. And the discussion we had with him on that side impressed everybody on the interview.

Q. To that point, where do you kind of start to see college athletics going? And what is about it his presentation that impressed you with his knowledge of where that was going?

GENERAL MARK WELSH: The first thing that impressed me was when he was the Athletic Director at the University of Nebraska Omaha, he picked up some mentors from the business side, especially some of the board members who worked for Warren Buffet's company. (Berkshire Hathaway).

And one in particular became kind of his mentor on the business world and how things work in the business world and how do you develop options from a business perspective to solve problems in any type of an organization. And he talked through his thought process in that regard. We thought was an exceptional discussion and applicable to where college sports stands today.

I don't think any of us know where it's going, but the only inexcusable for thing us right now is to do nothing to adjust to wherever it goes. Something's got to change. And we need to be at the front end of that change, not chasing it. And that's one of the things I really liked about Trev [Alberts] and his conversation. He's willing to make those hard decisions and take the risks that may be involved in keeping us moving forward.

Q. You were mentioning that there is a lack of clarity in college athletics right now. But during your conversations with candidates, what were some of the things that the search committee tried to emphasize in terms of sounding them out? What were some of the key areas that you were focused on?

GENERAL MARK WELSH: I think most of them were asking specific questions that wouldn't surprise anybody here: What do we do about NIL? How does this affect athletics departments potentially in the future? How would you adjust to those kind of eventualities?

Nothing startling in terms of the brilliance of the question-askers. It was more the way he responded differently than most others in terms of his answers. His answers were very thoughtful.. It was certainly not: Well, we just need to raise more money. It had everything to do with fiscal responsibility, discipline within the department, managing your budgets all the way down to team levels.

There is, of course, clearly a need to develop more revenue. How do you do that without increasing costs at the same time? It was just a very thorough and complete answer to the question. And it just really made him stand out from the other candidates.

Now, that wasn't the only great thing we liked about him. I believe he has a presence. I think that's important. I believe he is a very credible spokesman in the NCAA and among other Power Five athletic directors. I think we want that here at A&M. We want someone who can speak knowledgeably and confidently and credibly about the issues.

And the other thing that we really liked about him is that he is a very humble guy. He is very family-oriented. Very team-oriented. He talked at great length about building teams within the department, about building relationship with coaches, about helping coaches move their teams forward, analyzing success and failure and figuring out how to move on from there in a better direction.

He was just very thoughtful in a number of different areas. And we were looking for a leader who was fiscally responsible and had proven it in the past; who had the business chops to look at the problems that are emerging these days from a different perspective; and who was able to bring a department together and move it in a direction as a team.

And he checked all those boxes for me.

Q. When you look back at the search committee, do you remember how many candidates you interviewed for the position? And did you have a certain timeline when you want to get this job finalized?

GENERAL MARK WELSH: We didn't have a specific timeline. We wanted to find the right person. We were told from the beginning by the search firm that was supporting us through the process (ZRG Partners) it would probably take two to three months if we wanted to take our time and look at all candidates that were available.

I don't know how many total candidates actually were screened by either the search committee and/or the search firm. But we gave the search firm a very specific list of attributes we were looking for. And they did some screening with that. Our search committee did some additional screening. And then our search committee did the initial interviews. I believe there were 10. That number may be off by one or two. I was not part of those interviews. I was able to interview five candidates in the next round of interviews.

Q. Leadership is something that was mentioned a number of times over there. Throughout your discussions with Trev [Alberts] throughout the hiring process, whether he asked you or you were talking to him about A&M's leadership, what are the specific things you were telling him about how you guys have been working, and especially in your first few months as president?

GENERAL MARK WELSH: Well, not just me. He was interviewing with David Dunlap, who has been a great leader in business; a great leader here for organizations like the 12th Man. Chris Cooper was in the interviews with him. Chris Cooper helped lead the charge, the Chairman of the 12th Man Foundation.

He had a chance to meet people who have moved A&M forward in many different ways. And we just talked about what A&M was capable of. Talked about the people who come out of this university; the people who live and work here and help prepare our students, including our student-athletes, to go chase their dreams.

He had a chance to visit with one of the members of our Board of Regents, just to get to know a Regent. So there wasn't this mystery about what a regent is versus what a trustee is at the University of Nebraska. And a chance to ask some questions about how do the Board of Regents operate? What is the decision-making process at the university? All questions that I think were well thought-out and well-founded.

And I think what we saw with Trev was pretty consistent across that entire group -- and that's somebody who was honest. He was straightforward. He told us why he wanted to know the answer to the question. He asked follow-on questions when it was appropriate. And when we asked him, we got the same honesty in return.

By the end of the process, you would have told me I was crazy if I didn't hire him.

Q. So this may be a weird question, but did it take any convincing because of his long history with Nebraska? How did that part of the negotiations go?

GENERAL MARK WELSH: You'll have to ask Trev [Alberts] that part of the question. I'm sure it was hard. He's got pretty deep roots at the University of Nebraska. And his DNA is probably all over the place. And so I'm sure it was a very tough decision for he and his family to make the decision to leave.

I do believe him when he says he sees the opportunity here. I think we all see the opportunity here. This ought to be a place athletic directors come to die. The very best ones ought to want to be at Texas A&M. And our Athletic Department ought to be exceptional all the time in every sport in every way. And I think he sees that potential as well.

That's the only thing I've ever said to him: Don't limit your thinking about what can happen at Texas A&M until you come take a look at it. Come meet the people who live and work here. Meet our student-athletes. Meet the community that supports them. And then realize that whatever you thought the limit was, just erase it and draw one much, much higher than that -- because this place is capable of incredible things.

Q. Were you surprised when the committee came to you with Trev Alberts' name? Was he even someone you thought would even be available? And how did you find out that someone that is deeply rooted in Nebraska is even available for this job?

GENERAL MARK WELSH: Surprised isn't the right word for me. I was excited that he was interested. One of the things we found out throughout the search is that the job is really attractive to a whole lot of people. There were a lot of really talented people interested in coming to Texas A&M and taking on this challenge.

I think that Trev being interested was just exciting to me, because I knew of him. I actually have friends who have spent a lot of time in Nebraska and are graduates of the University of Nebraska. I heard them talk about him, both years ago as a player and now as Athletic Director. And I knew what his reputation was.

So I was excited that he was willing to even consider the possibility. And after interviewing him, I got a lot more excited, because he's a pretty impressive guy.

ALAN CANNON: Ladies and gentlemen, the new Athletic Director at Texas A&M, Trev Alberts. Trev, do you want to start with an opening comment?

TREV ALBERTS: Good afternoon and thank you, again, for being here and tell you how excited that our family is to join this family It's a little bit surreal. It's exciting. And the more that we dive into everything about Texas A&M, the more this feels right to us. So just, again, want to say how grateful and honored we are to get to be part of this family.

Q. Just the simple, straightforward question -- how difficult was it to leave Nebraska considering your roots there?

TREV ALBERTS: Very difficult. And emotional, frankly. And that was a difficult part of this whole transition. I wasn't looking to leave, right? Been associated with that university for a long, long time. And as I said in the previous press conference, that's a place that changed my life. And other than my faith and my family, most everything I have today, I owe to the University of Nebraska.

So very challenging, emotional, and difficult. But at 54 years old, you see opportunities. And Texas A&M is a pretty remarkable place with a remarkable trajectory with remarkable leadership. So as you think about the future and you think about some of these evolving changes -- much of which is yet undefined, right? We don't know where this is going.

But part of what is really intriguing to me is, I think, this is a place under General [Mark] Welsh's leadership that's going to help to define what the future looks like. And that's really exciting to me.

Q. How about that first round NCAA match-ups -- have to say match-ups. What are your thoughts on that?

TREV ALBERTS: It appears a little too coincidental to me. [laughter]. But no, look, I'm really happy for Amy Williams. I'm really happy for Fred Hoiberg. I spent three years working with them and just trying to support them. Those basketball programs have achieved some really significant things.

I'm also really, really happy for Coach [Joni] Taylor and Buzz Williams, right? And had a chance, as I started to look at this job, really dive in. I've watched a lot of press conferences. I've watched Coach Taylor. Just really impressed. Those are four really outstanding human beings and four great teams. So it will be a little surreal and interesting to watch them compete. But the beauty is, I can't lose.

Q. President Welsh said that you took on some business mentors while at UNO. What was the purpose of that? What did you learn? And who were some of those people?

TREV ALBERTS: Well, I had never even worked in athletic administration. I received several phone calls during my time. One in 2008 from the University Nebraska Lincoln, and ultimately I chose not to engage. But in 2009, a Board of Regent member called and asked if I would be willing to serve the university at the University of Nebraska Omaha.

And to be quite frank with you, I thought being an athletic director meant you went to games and occasionally had to hire coaches when they retired. And as R.C. [Slocum] would tell you, there's a little more to it than that.

So about six weeks on the job, I went to my boss at that point, Chancellor John Christensen, who is still a dear friend of mine. I'm fairly competitive. I like to win. So I asked Chancellor Christensen, I said: Would you define victory for me? Because at the end of the day, I want to do what you want me to do. He said: I need a 25-year vision for financial stability in the University of Nebraska Omaha Athletic Department. I'm not sure he knew what that meant. I sure didn't know what that meant.

So I went home and told my wife: I think we're in trouble. She said: What do you mean? I remember, we had three young children, a dog, and a bird. We lived in an apartment next to the gas station. She was not real pleased with me. And we were in Marietta, Georgia, for 12 years. So we moved back to a place she didn't know anybody.

She said: What is your plan? I said: My plan is I'm going to ask for help. At the end of the day, if business leadership in Omaha doesn't think the University of Nebraska Omaha Athletic Department matters, then we'll head back down to South Carolina where our house is and move on.

So ultimately what I did, and I don't want to really name names, only because I'm not trying to -- but the coolest thing about Omaha, Nebraska, is the business leadership and philanthropy there take the meetings, no matter who you are. And these are all names you would know. And I went and asked for help.

Ultimately, a gentleman, who has since passed away, Walter Scott Jr. became my mentor. He's a former CEO and Chairman of Kiewit and Level 3 communications. He established a working group committee and we went to work. And for 16 months, they taught me business.

My job was to stand in front of a group of people, all three times smarter than me, all chairmen or CEOs of companies, and I had to walk through fairly substantial cash flow statements and all those types of things, uses and sources documents, all of that, to try to find solutions for how to fix an ongoing, recurring budget deficit within UNO Athletics.

Ultimately as a result of those 16 months, difficult decisions had to be made. And then I recalled back why, when he first met with me, he said: Will you have the courage to execute? And of course at that point, I said absolutely. And then it actually happened, which is a little different.

So that was sort of the process. I owe a lot to those men and women leaders in that community who chose to help me and go through the process. So they remain friends and that's just how I've always done it. That's how I was taught.

I always tell everybody and I'll say it here: That was not my athletic department in Nebraska. This is not my athletic department. This belongs to Aggies. My job is to make recommendations to do the work and ultimately seek and search for solutions. And I also recognize that business doesn't employ a whole lot of emotion. So the chief challenge, right, is that athletics is all about emotions. You know, fans, it's emotion. And business is about data.

So they taught me a lot and we made tough decisions. And then we made decisions that we thought, given the information we had at the time, was in the best long-term interest of the institution and ultimately our community.

Q. With that 25-year vision, moving from DI to DII, how much did those lessons you learned apply to the House case that's coming up? To the Labor Relations Board cases that are coming up and how college athletics is changing now?

TREV ALBERTS: Well, it's going to be significant. Because at the end of the day, what's happening in college athletics is we're creating a new expense category. So over time, we all had our aggregated revenues, and we would spread those out and fund the support of student-athletes across all of our sports.

I haven't seen all of the financials here, but it's likely that probably one or two -- maybe three if we're lucky -- but probably two sports have a net operating profit. The rest of those are subsidized by football and the other sports.

So slowly over time, because we're batting 1000 in terms of losing lawsuits in the NCAA, is more and more of the revenue that we've been using to fund athletics is going directly to student-athletes. Started with cost of attendance. When I played, we didn't get cost of attendance. And then it was the 59/80 and the Alston case -- which is probably, if I had to guess here, a 3 to $4 million expense category that wasn't here previously.

So if the litigation is settled, and we're modeling and essentially what we're going to be doing is sharing some of the revenue with student-athletes, you look at all the professional organizations -- the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball -- most of them are roughly 50/50.

So I think we'll get some credit for what we're doing on the backend. It won't be 50%. But if you model some of the numbers, depending on how it gets allocated, you're looking at between a 15 and $20 million number. Not one time. Annually, going forward, that will be a new expense category that athletics are going to have to deal with.

And so there's really only two options. There's increasing revenues or cutting costs. That's the only two things that we can do going forward. So we'll have a good plan with that. I think there's some opportunities that we can look at entrepreneurially and creatively to find new revenue streams, but at the end of the day, the business model of athletics is changing significantly.

The hardest part is most of the folks growing up in college athletics are part of the college athletics ecosystem that is used to a certain way of doing business. And it's no different at the University of Nebraska. It's probably no different here. The ability of institutions to adapt and adjust to that change and be nimble, the quicker you're able to get there, the more reasonably the opportunity to be successful competitively and others.

So change is going to happen. It's going to be hard. It won't be fun. It will be uncomfortable. But that's the reality we live in.

Q. Trev, you've said a couple times that you think A&M can be a leader in this changing collegiate athletic landscape. In your mind, what were some of the things that differentiated A&M from other institutions when you started taking a look at this position?

TREV ALBERTS: As I mentioned earlier, to me, leadership is just so critical. As you think about these changes, think about how hard this is going to be. Again, there will be decisions that have to be made that people are not going to like. That's just the nature of making decisions. And it will be hard.

So that's why leadership will really matter. When you're sitting down there in the trenches, who is beside you? I worked for an Admiral, Ted Carter, for three years. I really appreciated his leadership style. And I started looking at this job: Wait a minute, general? A four-star general? And I started just reading a little bit more and watching more videos. And then as I had some interactions with General [Mark] Welsh, I'm like: Well, this is the real deal.

So when you go through tough times, you want to work with people that you can follow and you can trust and you can believe in. So I think first and foremost, it's leadership. But look at the trends of Texas A&M, not just athletics. We're really focused on the wins and losses of athletics, but you look at the enrollment. You look at the research dollars. Look at where this institution is today. I don't know of many institutions that are on the trajectory that Texas A&M is right now.

That's pretty exciting when you think about the trustees and all of the folks that care about this place. So I think those are the types of things that matter to me. Having really entrenched leadership that the campus community and the community and the chancellor of the system believe in. I mean, that's important. We know what our role in athletics is. It's significant. It's important. But it isn't the primary reason that Texas A&M has a university.

So we'll do a good job of trying to recognize what that is and being a good partner with General Welsh and his leadership team to help uplift the brand equity of the institution. I hope that answered your question, I'm sorry.

Q. First, can you take us through how this process started? Was this like a job when you found out it was opened, you pursued? Did you hear from someone else? How did the ball get rolling that would bring you to Texas A&M?

TREV ALBERTS: Well, it's really been a whirlwind. I had so many people ask me, so when was the first time -- I can't even hardly remember some of this. Jobs like this come open. Obviously, there's search firms all across the country. So I don't want to get anybody in trouble, but you get phone calls about: Hey, you really need to take a look at this job. This is a job that would be really good for you, your skill set. So those types of things happen.

And then ultimately, you have an initial conversation with the search firm. That's how it generally works. And then it wasn't very long after an initial conversation with Chad [Chatlos] when he said: Can you jump on a Zoom? You can imagine how hard these things are, especially like someone with me and my alma mater.

I was very happy at Nebraska. We were working on a lot of really important things during my time there. And so confidentiality and those types of things are really, really important.

So you start out doing the Zoom interview with the committee and with General [Mark] Welsh. I really wanted to get through that. I wanted to see if that first interaction -- I kind of believe when things just happen easy and just kind of feels right, maybe it's meant to be? My wife and I were doing a lot of praying about it, because it wasn't something that was on our radar. We weren't thinking to ourself: Hey, let's take another opportunity.

And then after that initial Zoom with the committee, I think I was more interested than ever before, just based on my interaction with both the committee and with General Welsh.

Q. I wanted to ask you if there was any chance at all that you might have contacted Bill Byrne to see what you were getting into?

TREV ALBERTS: Well, I haven't yet. But I had just had some text message interactions with him several months ago. And he was very complimentary. I've known Greg [Hartman] for quite a while and have communicated with him a little bit. So after my name was announced, he reached out to me. And I'm looking forward to connecting with him.

He had just gotten to Nebraska in 1992, my junior year is when he came. He promised me he would give me the of all the best restaurants and where to get a haircut. So, I'm grateful to Bill Byrne for that.

Q. You talked a lot about leadership and General [Mark] Welsh. I wanted to ask you specifically about him. What were some of the things that really stood out about him and the way that he described leadership under him? And just how influential and instrumental he specifically was in you feeling confident to take a job like this?

TREV ALBERTS: Instrumental is right. Critical. I look for genuine, authentic leadership. And I ask myself all the time, and I'll get to your question. I'm sorry to veer off here.

Just because I'm the Athletic Director doesn't mean I'm the Athletic Director. Just because someone places you in a position of leadership doesn't mean you're the leader. You have to earn that. You have to earn the right to have people follow you.

And so the more I interacted with General Welsh, I could tell he is a genuine, authentic leader, and he is who he purports to be. That's really, really important. It's clear he's really, really intelligent, which I think is really important too. And generally, when you interact with some people at that type of level, I found him to be incredibly humble, which is important to me as well.

So you combine his experience -- I think to myself about there's going to be tough days here. There's going to be things that are really hard. I don't think they're going to rattle General Welsh. He's been through a lot tougher things. He's led a lot more complex organizations than this one.

So just gives you a level of confidence when you combine his experience, his intellect, his humility, his authenticity. I suppose most of you do know this, but I don't think many people know just how fortunate Texas A&M is to have him as the president.

I mean, this is a hard time. Just do a little research on the number of institutions that don't have presidents. It's hard to find great leadership in these spaces. So I think this is a place that, for a lot of reasons, was able to attract him. But this is a place that has elite leadership at the highest levels, and that's critical if you want to be successful.

Q. You talked a lot about how people in the end care about wins and losses in terms of athletics. Knowing what you know about what a winning athletic program looks like from that regard at Nebraska and Nebraska Omaha, what do you see in the athletes and the coaches and Texas A&M that gives you confidence that that can continue under your leadership?

TREV ALBERTS: Well, there's a lot of winners here. There's a lot of great coaches here. I mean, that's really obvious. First of all, it appears that they're great people. Great hires have been made here. They are really, really -- I didn't know Coach [Mike] Elko personally, but I know of him. That's a real football coach. He knows how to build a culture. He knows how to build a tough team. I'm excited to get to work with him.

I don't want to single out any more, but I just think about all the coaches, I think there's really, really high-level talent here.

So I think at the end of the day, and we talked about a lot of this when I was at Nebraska. I mean, Nebraska fans are no different than Aggie fans. We want to win. So we get so fixated all the time on winning, winning, winning, winning, winning. When Coach [R.C.] Slocum will tell you, at the end of the day, stop talking about winning. Let's start talking about the process that leads to the wins, right?

I think it was a great coach not long ago that talked about the culture precedes the championships. I mean, winners act like winners long before they ever win. So it's the things that nobody sees. It's the culture. It's the hard work. It's the unity. It's all those little things that ultimately lead to what we all want.

So we can get really fixated on wins. And I've seen successful organizations, of course, everybody wants to win. But the real issue is do we have the fundamentals in place and the details in place that ultimately lead to those wins? I think that will be an area of focus. And I think you have the right coaches here who understand that; understand that culture now is more important than ever before.

There's total freedom of movement with NIL. You're going to want coaches that players believe in. Genuine, authentic leadership in the coaching space is going to be more critical than ever before. And I think Texas A&M has a whole group of coaches like that. So that's exciting to get to partner with them.

Q. You were obviously at Nebraska. Curious about your vision there of the volleyball program. I know they have a tradition that dates back decades, but they seem to be, especially for a non-revenue sport, a program that a lot of programs around the country emulate. What do you think, from the university standpoint and the athletic department standpoint, has been done at Nebraska; can be done and applied to other situations to allow any program on campus to aspire to be that level within their respective sport?

TREV ALBERTS: Well, I think like anything else, programs get built based on consistency and winning. And ultimately, I was a student-athlete at Nebraska when the volleyball program was a good program, but it certainly wasn't what it is now. And Coach Terry Pettit, at that time, was the volleyball coach. And Bill Byrne got hired and said: Hey, what do you need to be great?

They went to work. He became friends with Coach [Tom] Osborne. And he started taking some of things that football was doing. You could leave a football game for Nebraska, and if you just showed your ticket, you could get into the volleyball game for free.

That was a lot easier in those days, because every football game started at 1:00. There wasn't the television moving games around. And slowly, they started building a fan base. And Coach Pettit won a national championship. And that consistency of winning -- and then John Cook has taken it to another level.

Fans love to be around winners. Donors love to support winning programs. It's a whole lot easier to raise money when programs are winning than when they're not.

I think it's just consistency of winning. Consistency of effort. And I say this a lot too, and this is something I really believe in. I assume it's probably not a lot different here than it is at Nebraska, but you got to put teams on the court or on the field, in the pool, that represent the values of Aggies, right? They have to be teams that Aggie fans can identify with. So part of that is understanding what is it your fans want and then deliver that to them in a way.

So probably no different than Nebraska fans. Nebraska fans expect really hardworking teams that never, ever quit; that are teams just that they can be proud of.

So I think there's great opportunity here. I think a lot of the programs are on upward trajectory. And we have to do our part administratively. We got to raise the bar for ourselves as well in terms of support. And I look forward to doing that.

Volleyball makes money at the University of Nebraska, by the way. It actually became, through that growth, is now a program that generates about $1 million a year of profit for the athletic department.

Q. You talked about the opportunity here and kind of the future, and this wasn't something that was initially on your radar. So what is it that you feel like you can accomplish here that you maybe wouldn't be able to accomplish at other places?

TREV ALBERTS: That's a great question. Won't be anything that I'm accomplishing. This will be our team. We'll be a team. Team in our department. Everybody has a critically important role. And I just think if you think about the future -- and part of the challenge of answering that question is I don't know exactly what the future is going to look like.

But as you think about any future, when I was considering this job and I was thinking hard -- and by the way, I spent a lot of time and a lot of time in prayer trying to understand. And I just kept coming back to there isn't any scenario that I can think of or imagine where this place doesn't have the opportunity, with alignment in leadership, hard work and focus, and a little discipline and accountability, that they can't be a leader. Not every institution can say that.

And I want to be very careful. I'm not saying that Nebraska isn't that either. That's not what I'm inferring or implying. But to answer your question, what I'm saying is, based on where some of this could and very likely may go, not every institution can say that.

So I think you have to look in the broader picture. Again, I don't think people understand how important momentum on campus, enrollment growth, research expenditure, those types of things -- while it may not seem like it impacts athletics, it does. Because part of that momentum and success cascades down into departments like ours. So that gives us a chance.

So that's what I think differentiates Texas A&M. I think they have a fan base that is remarkable; that's committed. I think the 12th Man Foundation is a difference-maker. Not every institution has that. So the commitment of our trustees, our donors, the fan base, and the trajectory of the institution with leadership, I don't see anything -- there's no excuse, I guess, is the easiest way to put it.

Schedule

Trev Alberts Introduced as Director of Athletics

TREV ALBERTS WELCOME EVENT

TREV ALBERTS, MARK A. WELSH III PRESS CONFERENCE

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Trev Alberts Introduced as Director of Athletics

TREV ALBERTS WELCOME EVENT

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