A former assistant women’s basketball coach at Nebraska admitted in a pretrial deposition he had a sexual relationship with a former Nebraska player who later sued the coach and the university in February 2024, according to recent court documents obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
The nature of the relationship between the former Nebraska player — Ashley Scoggin — and the former assistant coach — Chuck Love — remains central to Scoggin’s ongoing federal lawsuit against him and the university. Scoggin also recently expanded her case by suing two other Nebraska officials in February 2026, four years after she said in court documents she was groomed to have a sexual relationship with Love and then kicked off the team when their relationship was uncovered at a team hotel in 2022.
“At his February 5, 2026 deposition, Love for the first time admitted that he had a sexual relationship with Ashley,” said a document filed by Scoggin’s attorney in March.
Love previously denied the allegations in a document filed with the court in April 2024. But when put under oath in a deposition for the case, he admitted to having sexual contact with Scoggin, according to the filing by Scoggin’s attorney, Maren Chaloupka.
Love’s attorney didn’t return a request for comment.
What are the allegations in the Ashley Scoggin lawsuit against Nebraska?
Scoggin’s lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages from Nebraska for allegedly violating her civil rights and causing her pain and suffering. It says head coach Amy Williams punished her for Love’s abuse of power after teammates and Nebraska practice players created a scheme to confirm and record Scoggin’s presence in Love’s hotel room the night before they played at Penn State on Feb. 17, 2022. Nebraska suspended Love with pay but didn’t say why. He later resigned. Scoggin transferred to UNLV for her senior season after Williams’ decision to remove her from Nebraska’s roster, according to Scoggins’ lawsuit. She had started all 25 games in 2021-22 before the incident with Love.
No trial date has been set in the case, which started in February 2024 when Scoggin sued the university’s board of regents, Williams, Love and athletic director Trev Alberts, now the athletic director at Texas A&M. Nebraska has denied Scoggin’s allegations against the university and said “dishonesty and the distrust” between Scoggin and her teammates “warranted her removal” from the team.
In February 2026, Scoggin sued two other officials at Nebraska, sport administrator Keith Zimmer and Title IX coordinator Meagan Counley, alleging they failed Scoggin and violated her procedural right to due process by how they handled her situation after learning of the incident at the team hotel.
Lawsuit describes ‘caper’ by teammates to reveal relationship
Scoggin’s lawsuit against these two new defendants describes a hotel “caper” ahead of the 2022 Penn State game as revealing the sexual relationship between Scoggin and Love.
It said other members of Nebraska’s team carried out the scheme believing it was critical to obtain video evidence to confirm their suspicions about Love and Scoggin “because, without it, Williams would not take any action.” Scoggin’s new complaint said the plan included:
- One player claiming she needed to talk to Love about a personal matter, as a ruse to get Love to leave his room at a time when the team believed Scoggin was in his room.
- A student manager deceiving a front desk clerk in order to obtain a key to Love’s room.
- When the student manager opened the door to Love’s room with the room key, two other team members entered the room with a cellphone video recorder running. Meanwhile, two other team members were watching the recording on FaceTime, in real time, according to Scoggin’s new complaint.
In response to Scoggin’s original lawsuit in 2024, Nebraska said “team players gained access to Love’s hotel room and discovered Plaintiff by herself in Love’s hotel room, fully clothed.” Scoggin’s complaint against the two new defendants describes her as being “found under the covers in Love’s room.” In Love’s denial of the accusations in 2024, he said, “It was no secret that (Scoggin) was in (Love’s) room, as he was on the phone with his wife and son when (Scoggin) came to his room” to discuss a personal problem at her request. He denied telling Scoggin to “deny anything improper.”
Lawsuit alleges Title IX violations by Nebraska
Scoggin’s new complaint says Love engaged Scoggin in a sexual relationship starting in September 2021. After the caper, the new complaint said Williams convened an inquiry of Scoggin and Love with all members of the team present — a meeting that lasted more than two hours and was “emotionally charged.”
“Those present demanded that Ashley explain why she was in Love’s room (and had been out of her hotel room on previous road trips) and accused Ashley of lying,” the complaint stated. “Ashley was, in fact, still lying during the inquiry. Love was a few feet away from her in the room, along with Williams and the rest of the coaching staff. Love had told her not to disclose the relationship. Ashley was afraid that if she did disclose it during the inquiry, her coaches and teammates would blame her (and be) blamed as an equal participant in the relationship as if her power were equal to that of the associate head coach.”
Scoggin seeks damages to compensate her for her mental suffering, the loss of her place on the team and violations of her rights under the federal and state constitutions in the lawsuit. It blames Nebraska officials for failing to intervene to advise of her right to a fair and neutral investigation with trained investigators under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting gender discrimination.
Williams has been the head coach at Nebraska since 2016 and has led the Cornhuskers to three NCAA tournament appearances in the last three seasons.
Scoggin finished her college career as a graduate student at UNLV, where she started 30 games in 2023-24, when the Rebels finished 30-3 with a first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Nebraska women’s basketball coach admits sexual relationship with player in lawsuit