Omaha, Neb. ? The interim tag has been removed. Tom Osborne is committed to being Nebraska’s athletic director for 21â2 more years.

Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced Wednesday that the 70-year-old Osborne would remain on the job until June 30, 2010.

Ten years removed from his celebrated coaching career, Osborne returned to the university in an interim capacity on Oct. 16, the day after Steve Pederson was fired.

Since then, Osborne has fired Bill Callahan as football coach, hired Bo Pelini and helped the Huskers in football recruiting.

Osborne, whose annual salary is $250,000, oversees a 23-sport program that runs on a $66.7 million budget. When he took over in October, he said he had no timetable for how long he would keep the job. In subsequent interviews, he said he would stay at least through the 2008 football season.

In his first two months on the job, Osborne’s focus has been on rebuilding the football program he coached to its pinnacle in the mid-1990s.

The Cornhuskers are coming off their second losing season in four years, and Osborne fired Callahan on Nov. 24. He introduced former Nebraska defensive coordinator Pelini as new head coach on Dec. 2.

Between Callahan’s firing and Pelini’s hiring, Osborne named himself interim head coach so he could keep recruiting efforts going. He even offered a scholarship to a player an hour after Pelini was named coach. That week, Osborne and Pelini spent a couple of days recruiting together.