Tom Osborne replaced as Nebraska AD by Miami’s Shawn Eichorst

Eichorst’s move puts the university and its athletic program in a difficult situation, considering the investigation into Miami’s compliance practices, and how close Eichorst worked with the NCAA in its inquiries.

In August 2011, former booster and convicted Ponzi scheme architect Nevin Shapiro made claims of providing dozens of Miami athletes with improper benefits over an eight-year period.

Shawn Eichorst, the current athletic director at the University of Miami (Fla.), is a top candidate for the same position open at the University of Nebraska following the retirement announcement of Tom Osborne on Sept. 26, according to a report by Steven Sipple of the Lincoln Journal Star.

Sources close to the situation indicated that Elchorst, in his second year as AD for the Hurricanes, has emerged as a leader for the position that Chancellor Harvey Perlman, with the help of an executive search firm, must fill as Osborne has plans to retire at the end of the year.

Tom Osborne, the legendary former Nebraska coach, announced his retirement from his position as the school’s athletic director in a press conference on Wednesday.

Osborne, a native of Hastings, was the Cornhuskers football coach from 1973-1997, where he won 13 conference championships and 3 national titles.

Nebraska Cornhuskers athletic director Tom Osborne, who has held the position since 2007, is expected to announce his retirement Wednesday. The school announced Wednesday morning that Osborne and school chancellor Harvey Perlman will hold a press conference at noon ET regarding “the future of Nebraska athletics.”

There are expected to be two candidates to replace Osborne as athletic director. The likely replacement is Dr. Jamie Williams, an ex-player of Osborne’s who returned to Nebraska earlier this year after spending six years as the athletic director at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Another potential candidate is thought to be Paul Meyers, who has been with the athletic department since 1994 and is currently the Associate Athletic Director of the school’s Husker Athletic Fund.