I think there's some serious overboard paranoia with this "Beebe has it in for Nebraska, he's going to suspend our players unjustly" line of thinking. It's like we want it to be true, so that there's something to hate. Extrapolating or fabricating viciously cruel stories in our minds to make ourselves feel better about loathing the Big 12. When really we are leaving for hopefully greener pastures, and haven't really been wronged here. Unless "not getting to exert our own will over the Big 12" counts as getting wronged.
...well then...there is one who doesn't think the big 12(-2) has been screwing us for 15 years. I guess you're entitled to your opinion no matter how wrong it is.
Meh. I'm not saying it's been terrific for us in every way, but you can't always get what you want. It was an alright situation, I think. It was a good conference. What it boiled down to, what the Big 12 couldn't offer, was stability. Texas schools had too much clout and Nebraska was at risk of being hung out to dry if things started going in motion. So, we jumped ship. Good choice for us. But I don't understand all the animosity ...
While I don't think Osborne's hit was a suspendable offense, accident or not helmet-to-helmet could have been called by the officials as a penalty. So we should be thankful for that. Officials just let them play. Which I think was the right call.
You can't understand all the animosity? Well, how about all the 11-1 votes in the big 12(-2) meetings? How about the big 12(-2) deciding that the big 12(-2) title game will be in Texas forever...? How about the big 12(-2) splitting the conference in a way that protected the red river rivalry between texas and oklahoma while not giving a crap about the Nebraska/oklahoma rivalry? How about the conference allowing texas to negotiate their own tv deal and that idiot bebe totally dropping the ball on creating a big 12(-2) network that might actually benefit the rest of the conference? Of course the big 12(-2) didn't work hard for a big 12(-2) network. That would get in the way of texas' sweetheart tv deal. Ever since the creation of the big 12(-2) the conference has been texas, Nebraska, and the 10 schools that have been more than willing to be whores to the pimp that is the texas-run big 12(-2). Add to that the freakin' audacity of that jack-a$$ bebe to think he could give a legend like Tom Osborne an ultimatum. "You have a week to decide if you will commit to stay with the big 12(-2)." Yeah bebe you freakin moron, Osborne never needed a week in his life to make the right decision.
Why the animosity? Actually animosity is a colossal understatement!
1) 11-1 votes? Clearly we had an outlying opinion. One could say we did not philosophically connect with the other schools in the conference. And now we are in a better place where that's less true.
2) It certainly wasn't going to be moved to Nebraska, was it? I don't know too much about this one, but it isn't the biggest deal in the world, IMO.
3) Did we really want a Big 12 network? I thought we were making plans on a Nebraska network, before the Big Ten and their network came along. So we're not much different from UT. Looking out for ourselves here.
4) Oh, how dare they give Osborne an ultimatum for flaking on our commitment to the conference...did it hurt us? Why is it OK, for us to give a flaking recruit an ultimatum, then? The Big 12 has stability problems and were in a tough place in this conference realignment thing as well. It worked out well, though, as it accelerated our entrance to the Big 10.
5) It's a pity about the OU rivalry. From 100% (every season) to 50% to nothing. We chose to go from 50% to nothing. I'm sad we won't see them, but a surprising number of Husker fans seem completely fine with this. Regardless of how much tradition is uprooted by moving to the Big 10.
Did we not have a largely nice, and uneventful run in the Big 12? And aren't we going to a better place? Help me out here, to quantify the damage that was done to us in the Big 12. Again, I don't think it was perfect, but was it that horrendous either? In just over a decade we had something not work out and are moving on to the bigger and better things.
No matter what though, us opting to move will make us look a little bad, but that's unavoidable from a PR standpoint. It hasn't been all that bad really...has it?