Which Major Men's Sport Has Made the Most Progress in the B1G?

[Mavric]

On Sharp and Benning this morning they posed a question something to the effect of "Out of Football, Basketball and Baseball, which team has made the most progress since joining the B1G?"

 

I thought it would be interesting to see what HuskerBoard thought? Obviously it's going to depend on have you choose to define progress so give us your reasoning.

 

Benning said he would put baseball last but I missed his reasoning. He thought it was a coin flip between football and basketball.

[BigRedBuster]

Obviously Baseball. They at least have won a regular season championship.

 

But...before this year, that was questionable.

[Mavric]

Yeah, I wish I would have heard his reasoning - or perhaps I mis-heard it - because it seems like Baseball is the clear winner. Winning the conference this year definitely puts them over the top but the last three years in the Big XII we won 25, 27 and 30 games. Only in 2013 (29 wins) have we not done better than that, although I don't know how you factor in strength of schedule.

 

After baseball, I don't know how you decided who's gone backwards less. We at least tied for the division title in football the last three years we were in the B1G and only have one division title in six years in the B1G. Plus one disaterous season. Basketball wasn't having as much success coming in but has been as bad as it's ever been. So probably basketball would be the worst but it depends on how you look at it.

[RedDenver]

Can we get a "about the same"?

[NUance]

First, I'm not comparing apples to apples. The bar for football at NU is much higher than the bar for basketball or baseball.

 

I could see the argument for baseball. And Husker baseball is hot right now, so it's in the limelight. But despite the transfers I'd have to go with basketball. I know. I know. Win-loss looks pretty darn crappy. But at least we've won some big games. In the best week of last season we knocked off Indiana, Maryland and Iowa. Heck, that might just be the best week of any season we've ever had. Add Purdue and tOSU, and we had a lot of big win wins this year. It's just the silly losses we had to go with them is what the problem is.

[Mavric]

Can we get a "about the same"?

 

Done. I guess.

 

But come on ....

 

[Cdog923]

It's got to be baseball, right? Or even basketball? Football, I think, has regressed to a point; we went to two straight title games our last two years in the Big XII whereas we've been in 1 since joining the Big Ten.

[Saunders]

Baseball. Even though the B1G is weaker in baseball, winning the conference is progress.

 

 

Football is making alot of money, and recruiting seems to be on the uptick, hopefully wins will follow.

[knapplc]

I voted for "About the same."

 

No team has really "made progress" since we joined the Big Ten. We are, in all three sports, about where we were the previous ten years in the Big XII. Football winning nine games for the most part, a bad season without a bowl game mixed in, able to beat the top team in the conference but also able to lose to the bottom team.

 

Basketball is no different now than it was at any other point in our history with the exception of the Nee Era. Lower middle tier team with flashes of brilliance and long spells of meh.

 

Baseball is no different. Top four-ish in the conference, just like in the Big XII/Big 8, able to win the conference once in a great while and make an NCAA appearance, but nowhere near as good as the best of the Van Horn era.

 

 

 

 

What "progress" would people point to for any of these programs? None of these teams have significantly progressed or regressed.

[HuskerFanatic1]

I would argue that none have made a ton of "progress" in the B1G compared to where they were the last few years of Big 12. There seems to be an uptick for one reason or another in all sports but I wouldn't say any have made actual progress until they have some continued success outside of a few big games or small stretches.

[Mavric]

What "progress" would people point to for any of these programs? None of these teams have significantly progressed or regressed.

 

It depends on how big of a window you're using for "before being in the B1G."

 

As I said, I don't think either football or basketball has made any progress and you can make a pretty good argument that they've regressed to some extent.

 

Baseball isn't on the level that we saw in the 2000-2005 range. They've been in the same ballpark as 2006-2008. But I think you can make the argument that there's been progress from where they were from 2009-2011.

 

I don't think we'd won a conference championship since 2005 so this is probably the best season since then at least.

[spurs1990]

Baseball came in with the expectation of dominating year in and year out though so finally getting there, barely, isn't necessarily progress forward. Not to diminish what they did this year, just trying to figure out what the definition of progress would be.

[RedSavage]

I voted "about the same". There's been multiple occasions where I've thought we were making progress in all three sports, only to be proven otherwise. We take two steps forward and three steps back.

 

Baseball is really the only sport I feel like can even be considered. And I think the "progress" there is somewhat debatable. Now If we make some noise in the NCAA tourney, I would consider that progress.

[Thanks_Tom RR]

I think you aways take championships, so baseball. If we are only looking at their progress since joining the B1G and not putting it into context of prior B1G successes or expectations coming into the B1G, you got to say baseball has really looked good the last few seasons and has topped it off with a championship. That is progress.

[Huskers44]

It's baseball. Until we win conference championships it's going to be baseball.