BoNeyard

Terrible leadership may have been the reason the PAC-12 fell apart, but regardless the future and fate of college football is now in the hands of TV networks and that is worrisome.

Not a bad idea at all. I like the idea of having a mini playoff within conference with winner and potentially second place getting invites to the College Football Playoffs. The possible good thing from these mega conferences is if they put more emphasis on conference games again. Your playoff starts week 1 in conference, lose more than 2 and you have zero shot at making the playoffs.

Good points. Right now members of the Big Ten are loaded with cash thanks to their media partnership, but that well could run dry by the next media rights deal. Who knows what things look like when that time comes around. I trust in Nebraska's leaders, but the future of this program and therefore the state, given the economic reliance on Nebraska football, are in their hands. I hope they manage the budget appropriately and set the university up for success or at least stability when that next round of media rights comes around.

Maybe this is what it all morphs into and maybe that is 15 years down the road, but I can see FOX and ESPN creating a AFC/NFC type of league, SEC and some ACC teams for the AFC and the West coast teams and Big Ten/Big 12 teams to create a NFC. Only the best and strongest programs make the cut. You mentioned this could happen after a break from the NCAA, well the NCAA base has never been this unstable. With NIL, the transfer portal, the concerns of all these Olympic sports taking a back seat to football, it just seems like the future is very gloom within the NCAA. Honestly I think if it was really up to the NCAA they wouldn't have allowed a conference to just disappear. It may not be long before the money and the networks start to throw around the idea that football does break away and have their own entity.

College Football is changing rapidly and although today things may seem stable, I don't trust it. The networks are calling the shots and it is very concerning for the future of college football. This round of realignment and media deals completely wiped out a athletic conference that has been around for 100+ years. No one is safe and that includes Nebraska. We got lucky back when we join the Big Ten, our brand was very strong, we had history and not only were we playing competitive football, the Nebraska fans were an attractive market for the Big Ten. But the last 10 years we have been mediocre to down right bad. My concern is the next round of media rights and discussions may see non-competitive programs and teams being kicked out of conferences. I get when Rutgers and Maryland joined it was to gobble up the TV markets as that was seen as a big deal, but I think what ESPN and FOX are going to be wanting in the next round is simply competitive games every single Saturday. They want people glued to their TV's all day Saturday, similar to how the NFL runs Sunday's. I think these networks will realize that they'd rather have Michigan vs USC and Ohio State vs Penn State type of games then Ohio State vs Maryland or having to air Purdue vs Northwestern. I could see the Big Ten getting rid of teams like Maryland, Rutgers, maybe even Indiana and Purdue to make room for teams like Clemson, FSU and Miami. With geography, traditions and rivalries out the window, the Big Ten/FOX could be looking to make Saturday's as jam packed as possible with top winning programs knowing college football fans from all over are going to tune in and watch, instead of focusing on getting the New Jersey TV market for an awful Rutgers program. If Nebraska doesn't start winning and becoming competitive, I worry when that TV deal comes back up and that is the philosophy of the networks, that Nebraska may not qualify for a spot at the table. At this time we will be nearing 20 years of irrelevancy on the big stage and our small market sized state suddenly doesn't have all that much to offer. Do we travel well? Heck yes we do, Nebraska fans are the sole reason we likely got into the Big Ten originally and certainly has been the only reason this program continues to hold a big name brand, but with less and less emphasis on ticket sales, and the uncertainty of if the new generation of Nebraska fans will be as loyal as the previous generation, man I don't know if we become that attractive. It's worrisome times, I don't trust any of it, and the only way to make sure we remain worthy of qualifications to a big time conference is to win. I love college football, but these are some ugly times.

Doesn't Wisconsin have difficulty in recruiting due to academic standards, etc? I don't think Wisconsin has ever had an amazing recruiting class, even back when Brett was there and winning like Wisconsin was, I think they hovered around the 30's-40's in recruiting. Wisconsin has always been about developing what they had.

That is why I said I trust Rhule. But also I am keeping myself cautiously optimistic moving forward. -Bill Callahan on paper should've been a great hire, NFL experienced coach, recruited talent, but he refused to let Cosgrove go. -Mike Riley should've been successful here, he put together Rose Bowl contending teams at Oregon State, "Did so much with so little, imagine what he can do with Nebraska resources", had over 40 years of coaching experience, brings in a coaching staff full of experience in both college and NFL, many of which developed 2 stars and 3 stars at Oregon State. -Frost inherits a rebuild at UCF and in his second year goes undefeated, comes back home to where he grew up and played and absolutely was the worst coach we have had in our lifetimes.

When we hired Rhule I thought a "Wow" hire would have been Joe Brady, until I read somewhere that Rhule actually fired Brady and it seemed like the firing and the relationship between Rhule and Brady was not that great. I get no firing is good, but from what I've read it didn't come across as an understanding of business move.

I am going to trust Rhule but so far none of these hires has been a wow. All seem like grinders who work hard and I am welcoming of that, but a lot of their history has them at places that aren't top tier programs, so are their names not big because of the places they've worked? Or are they working at those places and haven't gotten top tier program jobs for a reason? I don't know and I am just waiting to see. I've invested a ton of emotion and intrigue over the years with the hiring of these positions and I am exhausted and what I have taken from all those years of investment is you just never know. These could be the best group of coaches we have had since Osborne's crew, or they could be like Mike Riley's group which did so much with so little elsewhere, but come here and do nothing. I'll still stand by that I think we have hired the most qualified and established head coach since who knows when.

Not enough offensive linemen are entering the portal.

The new DC must be from the NFL. If it were from the college ranks it likely would've been announced after the games this weekend and if they were currently unemployed my guess is we would have already heard about them. Since other Panther coaches who were currently employed by the Panthers were announced either the DC job is too big for him to just up and leave so they are waiting on the announcement or the coach is from another NFL team that currently has meaningful games left.

Coach O

Could be amazing, could be like the last 8 offensive coordinators we've had. One thing I've learned from the Frost disaster is we don't know how any coach is going to do until the games are played.

I was saying Joe Brady as OC, but then unbeknownst to me, I read where Rhule fired Brady as his OC at Carolina. So I don't think he hires Brady as OC? Although maybe it was said between the two to be strictly a business decision and Brady understood that, but reading the article that I read it sounded like it wasn't the greatest of exits. Hope he keeps MJ, but would understand if either MJ goes on to better things.

Rhule has the potential to be the best hire Nebraska has made since Osborne retired. He goes up against Solich, Callahan, Pelini, Riley and Frost. He seems to have the experience we need and maybe the most successful long term compared to those listed. Of course he could end up being like the rest, but I have this feeling that he will get after it, put in the work and actually build something at Nebraska. Also, maybe some find his paycheck from the Panthers as a reason he may not be all into this job, but I find it the exact opposite. Him wanting to coach this upcoming season means he wants to coach. He very well could sit around and do nothing for the rest of his life collecting a paycheck from the Panthers, but he chose to come and coach at Nebraska. He didn't have to if he didn't want to. Furthermore, adding to Rhule wanting to come to Nebraska, there is a different feel of him being hired and coming to Nebraska than Frost. I've posted about this before, but I always felt like when Frost came to Nebraska he wasn't really into coming here. I think he was genuinely torn between staying at UCF and coming back home. Maybe Frost saw the pending doom of his return, but I always wondered if he wanted to come here or if he felt obligated he had to come here. I remember hearing he was the coach and the press conference was a day or two away and feeling worried that he would have second thoughts and back out before the official signing. Rhule I feel like wants to be here, again, otherwise he could just sit at home and collect NFL money. You take that for consideration along with his videos out there at coaching conferences and listen to what he has to say and the guy I think genuinely loves coaching. I think he genuinely enjoys developing players and being competitive and growing a program. He's a true coach. I am excited to see what he can do in Lincoln as I think we will look back and say he was the best hire since Osborne retired.