Tom Osborne, who went 255-49-3 in 25 years as Nebraska’s football coach, returned to the institution October 16, 2007, to be the interim director of athletics.

The interim label was removed two months later. Osborne doesn’t have a contract, but he has committed to guide the Cornhuskers athletics department through the 2009-10 academic year.

After Osborne ended his legendary coaching career at the conclusion of the 1997 season, he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served his constituents for six years. He also ran for governor. 

Osborne, who led Nebraska to national championships in 1994, 1995 and 1997, spoke with the NCAA News about his return to intercollegiate athletics.

Q: What are some of the significant changes that have occurred in intercollegiate athletics since you began your career in the 1960s?

Osborne: “The Internet and the talk shows have changed things dramatically. The media influences are instantaneous, but there tends to be less accountability. You can put a blog on the Internet and they can say something that could be pure rumor or pure speculation or worse – it could be something that someone knows is false. In the 1960s, the general thought was you had to have two independent reliable sources before you wrote something. That certainly has changed through the years. There is also more emphasis on recruiting services. It’s almost like you have two seasons. Coaches are now accountable for the football season, then your recruiting class gets rated. Sociologically, you find that there are more kids carrying baggage. A lot of kids are living without both biological parents, and they have been through some sort of trauma. There is also the influence of the gangs and violence that have impacted kids. Our society has changed. Kids today are more apt to want to know why you are going to do something instead of saying, ‘Coach said it, so we will do it.’ They didn’t ask questions when I first got into coaching.”

Q: What do you think of the academic-reform efforts in Division I?

Osborne: “This has been good. It requires greater supervision and more paperwork. That part can be onerous in a way. When I first started, you saw players who stayed eligible and at the end of four or five years, they didn’t have very many hours toward a degree. They simply took whatever easy course they could find. There was no progress toward graduation. There were isolated cases like that. The academic accountability and graduation picture is much better. The NCAA has a better handle on compliance. I like the idea of having secondary and primary violations, also. At one time, it seemed like if you bumped into a player accidentally while recruiting that it was treated the same as someone else offering somebody a car. Now, they have a better system. It’s not perfect, but it is better than what it was.”

Q: Why are you back in intercollegiate athletics?

Osborne: “It was totally unexpected. I was teaching leadership classes at the (Nebraska) College of Business and doing some speaking. I had more flexibility in my schedule than I had for 40-some years. My wife, Nancy, liked that and I liked it. On a Sunday afternoon, I got a call from the chancellor saying he was going to make a change in the athletics directorship, and he wanted to know if I would take it on an interim basis. I talked to my wife about it. I knew there was some division in the state, and there was some concern about lots of things. This is pretty important in the state of Nebraska, and if I could help in some way, I felt I should do it. My wife went along with it. I don’t think she was ecstatic about it, but she also knows that I’m not real good at sitting around. It has been good. It’s like any job. It is something you have to work at. The hours are sometimes long. We have a lot of sports (23) here, and you have to show up to their endeavors. But this isn’t foreign territory for me.”