Is this a fair assessment of Nebraska?

For someone born and raised on the right or left coast it is nothing for them to not know where Nebraska is. I went on a trip to Washington DC when in HS met lots of other students from around the country. The students from the coasts especially the east coast had no idea about NE or IA. Most of them thought I rode a horse around and it was like Little House on the Prairie. I am not kidding. They think anything west of Philadelphia is the end of the earth.

Doesn't surprise in the least that a kid from Maryland wouldn't know anything about Nebraska.

Its not that these people are stupid or uneducated it has more to do with the fact that they just don't care. Just like most Americans have very little concept about anyone else in the world. They think everyone want's to be like us.

 
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StPaulHusker said:
Not born. But a 30 yr old man who graduated from HS should know where the states are located.
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Probably, but it doesn't make him inherently stupid if he doesn't. Ignorance isn't always a negative character trait nor is it always that person's fault. That 30 year old man probably wasn't taught well or given any incentive to know his states.

It's incredibly common among millions of people all over the country to be ignorant because they are uneducated, and that's not necessarily their fault.

 
One thing that might be overlooked in the relevency talk is just how much access to games has changed in the last 15-20 years. Before, there were only very few games a week, and since NU was at its highest at that time, we almost always were the game on. Now those kids in Kansas and Missouri can watch KU, KSU, and MU with very little hassle. So of course those kids are going to like the team that's closer to home.

 
Regarding relevancy --- it is a relativistic thing. For us --- Husker fans --- we see the NU game with UCLA as a "big game." It is exceedingly relevant to us... and peripherally relevant to fans of other B1G fans. But nationally? It is not a big game. It is just another early season game w/o relevance to the national picture. It is a little more interesting to the common fan than most non-conference early games as most non-conference games pit a good team against a bad team (which is the norm). So... two relatively evenly matched teams (or so we think) should make for a good game... albeit one whose outcome means little to nothing on the national level.

The game in Ann Arbor is again very relevant to us as NU fans... and modestly interesting to B1G fans. Even there, few give either NU or Michigan essentially any hope of beating OSU in the championship game --- B1G fans may have a preference... but still the interest in the outcome of the NU/Michigan game is only modest even at the B1G level. As far as the nation goes... the NU/Michigan game is not a big game... as neither team factors into the national picture overly.

So... NU is so non relevant nationally that --- for all intents and purposes --- NU is not even involved in ANY nationally relevant games all season.

Someone posted that "relevance is not about how much one talks about the team" (something to that effect). Really? The very definition of relevance to a group is how much that group cares about you. To Husker fans NU is very relevant. To the B1G NU is modestly relevant. nationally, NU is utterly irrelevant. It bis all proportional to the impact that NU football has on each group --- which is proportional to how much people care.

Finally, the more NU wins... obviously the more NU is talked about at every level and the more relevant they will become. So far though... NU has not won for so long that their biggest games (like UCLA and Michigan) and not even reckoned as big games nationally.

 
robsker said:
Regarding relevancy --- it is a relativistic thing. For us --- Husker fans --- we see the NU game with UCLA as a "big game." It is exceedingly relevant to us... and peripherally relevant to fans of other B1G fans. But nationally? It is not a big game. It is just another early season game w/o relevance to the national picture. It is a little more interesting to the common fan than most non-conference early games as most non-conference games pit a good team against a bad team (which is the norm). So... two relatively evenly matched teams (or so we think) should make for a good game... albeit one whose outcome means little to nothing on the national level.

The game in Ann Arbor is again very relevant to us as NU fans... and modestly interesting to B1G fans. Even there, few give either NU or Michigan essentially any hope of beating OSU in the championship game --- B1G fans may have a preference... but still the interest in the outcome of the NU/Michigan game is only modest even at the B1G level. As far as the nation goes... the NU/Michigan game is not a big game... as neither team factors into the national picture overly.

So... NU is so non relevant nationally that --- for all intents and purposes --- NU is not even involved in ANY nationally relevant games all season.

Someone posted that "relevance is not about how much one talks about the team" (something to that effect). Really? The very definition of relevance to a group is how much that group cares about you. To Husker fans NU is very relevant. To the B1G NU is modestly relevant. nationally, NU is utterly irrelevant. It bis all proportional to the impact that NU football has on each group --- which is proportional to how much people care.

Finally, the more NU wins... obviously the more NU is talked about at every level and the more relevant they will become. So far though... NU has not won for so long that their biggest games (like UCLA and Michigan) and not even reckoned as big games nationally.
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Good post, other than the fact that it might be a good game I really don't care who wins the Alabama/A&M game.

 
robsker said:
The game in Ann Arbor is again very relevant to us as NU fans... and modestly interesting to B1G fans. Even there, few give either NU or Michigan essentially any hope of beating OSU in the championship game --- B1G fans may have a preference... but still the interest in the outcome of the NU/Michigan game is only modest even at the B1G level. As far as the nation goes... the NU/Michigan game is not a big game... as neither team factors into the national picture overly.
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not to nit-pick...but this is pre Notre Dame. ESPN had a lively debate the other day about who the best team in the B1G was, and it was split down the middle. Same with Fox Live when they talked about it. Michigan is the real deal right now (who knows where they will end up). But they are sitting at #11 now, and will most likely be a top 5 team by the time we see em. Michigan is a perfect example of a combination of top talent (which many on here dismissed before the season) and top coaching. 17 total starts among there starting defense going into he season? That's younger than the Huskers by a mile and their defense gives up just over 300 yards after playing a top tier team in ND. That's coaching.

 
I've met a person from Omaha (at a game) once that had never heard of Hastings. I ask if he just moved to Nebraska. Nope been there all 40 some years of his life. Never heard of Hastings. Grand Island I ask? Nope. I just said, well Hastings is a nice little town about 6 miles east of Juniata.
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NUinID said:
robsker said:
Regarding relevancy --- it is a relativistic thing. For us --- Husker fans --- we see the NU game with UCLA as a "big game." It is exceedingly relevant to us... and peripherally relevant to fans of other B1G fans. But nationally? It is not a big game. It is just another early season game w/o relevance to the national picture. It is a little more interesting to the common fan than most non-conference early games as most non-conference games pit a good team against a bad team (which is the norm). So... two relatively evenly matched teams (or so we think) should make for a good game... albeit one whose outcome means little to nothing on the national level.

The game in Ann Arbor is again very relevant to us as NU fans... and modestly interesting to B1G fans. Even there, few give either NU or Michigan essentially any hope of beating OSU in the championship game --- B1G fans may have a preference... but still the interest in the outcome of the NU/Michigan game is only modest even at the B1G level. As far as the nation goes... the NU/Michigan game is not a big game... as neither team factors into the national picture overly.

So... NU is so non relevant nationally that --- for all intents and purposes --- NU is not even involved in ANY nationally relevant games all season.

Someone posted that "relevance is not about how much one talks about the team" (something to that effect). Really? The very definition of relevance to a group is how much that group cares about you. To Husker fans NU is very relevant. To the B1G NU is modestly relevant. nationally, NU is utterly irrelevant. It bis all proportional to the impact that NU football has on each group --- which is proportional to how much people care.

Finally, the more NU wins... obviously the more NU is talked about at every level and the more relevant they will become. So far though... NU has not won for so long that their biggest games (like UCLA and Michigan) and not even reckoned as big games nationally.
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Good post, other than the fact that it might be a good game I really don't care who wins the Alabama/A&M game.
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you do not care. But far, far more people nationally care about the Alabama/A&M game than any game the Huskers are in all season. That game is nationally relevant. That said, I could care less about that game... but any one of us is not the point.

 
JTrain said:
Relevance, at least in the grand sense discussed in that article, is a long ways away right now. Only a few programs have that kind of national recognition right now. Certainly Alabama and Oregon, with programs like Notre Dame, Ohio St., Michigan, Oklahoma, LSU, TCU and Boise St. all hovering around the border. And then additionally there are teams that are relevant at the moment like Clemson and Texas A&M (at least for another four days).

Beating UCLA won't get that type of relevance. Maybe beating UCLA and Michigan will make us relevant as a team. But that type is so temporary as to barely be worth discussing. 12/6/09 we were the next big thing. 10/3/10 we had arrived. 10/16/10 we were right back in the hole we fell into on 11/23/01. And that was really the last time were relevant as a program, in the longer-term sense. The road back to that point is still a long one. We need multiple conference titles, top 10 finishes, playing for a national title and beating somebody from the SEC, or Oregon.
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Oregon? Even with the departure of Harbaugh, I consider Stanford the class of the PAC12 these days:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/17/stanford-oregon-ducks-football-pac-12_n_2152834.html

 
kchusker_chris said:
Had this conversation with a guy the other day, mainly in regards to recruiting, the alternate uniforms, the marketing and all that crap. We were discussing how so many Nebraska fans brush off the uniforms as non-important, or the little things that recruits care about. He has kids in middle-school. He said (keep in mind I live in KC) - "Go ask your wife's kids (she teaches middle school) who their favorite team is. They'll tell you KU, or KState, or MU. But ask them who their second favorite team is, and they'll tell you Oregon almost every time". The uniforms and the "relevancy" isn't about getting this years recruits in the door, or next years even. It's about laying a foundation for recruiting kids that are 8, 10, 12 years old today. The loss of relevancy may not be felt today, but I guarantee you it will begin to be felt as time goes on. If you live in Nebraska, you can't understand it....because every kid's favorite team is still NU. Get outside the state lines, and the opinion of Nebraska has DRASTICALLY shifted over the last 10 years. We're now on an equal pedestal with KState, MU, Iowa, etc. That was never the case. We're just another midwest team.
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This is all basically true but, without some sustained success, Oregon wouldn't be in that position either. Sure they have the Phil Knight/Nike cool uniforms and the high powered ultra fast offense working for them for quite awhile now but, that won't last for a 4-12 team. It has always been this way. Younger kids and the media in general have always been bandwagon jumpers. Nebraska had a bit of it through the mid 90's, Bama has it now, Oregon has it because of the unis and winning, and A&M has it for no better reason than Manziel and beating Bama. A bad team with cool unis or a hot player alone won't do the trick. Winning = National relevance and it matters little if you are located in Florida, California, Oregon, or Nebraska. Sure, being a "boring" Midwest team in corn country makes it tougher but string together 3-4 years of dominating the sport and you're relevant. I don't totally buy the "we're working now" for the 8-10-12 year old crowd. If Oregon sh#ts the bed and has a few bad years, that Nike O won't mean crap to 12-14-16 year olds four years from now. Winning games of substance are where it's at and right now we're not there. The reason I point this out is that it is nothing that winning can't/won't cure. Basically, if you're not top 10 / top 5, you're not going to be relevant. I guess I don't understand people bemoaning this. It's always been that way. It was just easier 15-20 years ago when there were fewer televised games and we happened to be at the top of the heap at the time. Want to be relevant? Beat UCLA, beat Michigan, don't lose games you should win, beat tOSU and play in a BCS or MNC game and do that a few times and all of a sudden.......

 
NUinID said:
For someone born and raised on the right or left coast it is nothing for them to not know where Nebraska is. I went on a trip to Washington DC when in HS met lots of other students from around the country. The students from the coasts especially the east coast had no idea about NE or IA. Most of them thought I rode a horse around and it was like Little House on the Prairie. I am not kidding. They think anything west of Philadelphia is the end of the earth.

Doesn't surprise in the least that a kid from Maryland wouldn't know anything about Nebraska.

Its not that these people are stupid or uneducated it has more to do with the fact that they just don't care. Just like most Americans have very little concept about anyone else in the world. They think everyone want's to be like us.
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agree with this post.

I think that the article was spot-on with its depiction of Nebraska Football.... but he lost me at the "I didn't know where Nebraska was" comment. He is comparing apples and oranges.

Even when awareness of Nebraska Football was probably at its highest, in the Ninety's, I would bet you that many people who knew about our football program still did not know where the state is located, or anything about the people of the midwest.

An example:

I grew up in Rapid City. When Mt Rushmore was having its 50th anniversary we went there to a star-studded (by SD standards) event that was televised nationally. The crowd booed when our then-Secretary of the Interior (under Bush Sr) started his speech with "It's great to be here in the beautiful state of North Dakota!"....

... More recently my wife was in Las Vegas and someone asked her if people ate soup for every meal in SD...

... many of us midwesterners have similar stories, and it has nothing to do with football.

 
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Mr. Accountability said:
I've met a person from Omaha (at a game) once that had never heard of Hastings. I ask if he just moved to Nebraska. Nope been there all 40 some years of his life. Never heard of Hastings. Grand Island I ask? Nope. I just said, well Hastings is a nice little town about 6 miles east of Juniata.
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More than once when I was at UNL someone asked me where I was from and I'd say western Nebraska. "Kearney?" Well, you're almost halfway there.

 
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