knapplc

Another great game that we ended up losing was 1991 Washington. We had the lead late in the game against the #2 Huskies and it looked like we had the game in the bag, up 21-9. Then the Huskies rattled off four TDs in the final quarter to win the game. Steve Emtman and Billy Joe Hobert played in that game for Washington.

This was also a great game. The crowd was pumped, and went absolutely ballistic when Roy broke off his big runs. Then that goal-line stand that forced Mizzou to kick the field goal when they had marched crisply down the field, culminating in Gabbert getting stuffed at the one when it seemed certain he would score, and the place was up for grabs. That literally "put 'em in the aisles," as Lyell would say.

I was at that game. Still one of my favorite game experiences, ever.

Link says it all. So long, Cody. Good luck to you. LINK

Ah. Yes. I see. I should probably stop drinking this early in the morning, huh? It's a good thing that's not embarrassing.

Ummm... didn't we already do this? It's still on the front page. Did you forget that you already posted this here? LINK

I +1'd this. Definitely agree, word for word.

It's hard to say. The easy answer is that everybody loves a winner, but we weren't winners in 1962 when our sellout streak started. I'm sure the success of Devaney and Osborne over three decades greatly aided the current situation, though. I think football appeals on a broad level to the folks who built this state. When Lewis and Clark came through here they called this area "The Great American Desert." It's a tough place to live – too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, barely any decent spring or fall, the soil is clay and difficult to make produce, there were (at the time) very few trees, and in general life was hard. My grandparents were poor as dirt, and I'm betting most everyone here has similar stories from their grandparents. That toughness is ingrained in the older generations from which us latter-day folks take our cues, and football is a good reflection of that culture. Probably if we were a colder-climate state we'd have embraced hockey more than we do (but hockey is rapidly gaining ground here, too). There's also the lack of population, which means no other competing sports. Contrast Nebraska with Missouri and Missouri has a better climate, more scenery, a much larger population, way more things to do, which probably leads to more distractions and less focus on your flagship school.

I think what sets the Nebraska fanbase apart from many school is that the people of the state cheer for the team more than for many schools. Many schools have fanbases that are mostly made up of alums, with some secondary interest from "fans" in the home state. Nebraska has a bigger and more passionate following from these non alum fans who either live in Nebraska or have a connection to the state. You are absolutely correct. There are tons of Nebraskans who never attended UNL who are die-hard fans.

Beebe is correct in that Nebraska was in favor of the unequal revenue sharing model of the Big XII for many years. It definitely benefited Nebraska greatly to pull in more money than Missouri or Colorado. But that stance was taken in the 90s when the disparity was a few millions of dollars. When it became annually tens of millions of dollars, the sheer weight of that monetary disparity begins to create problems, and that's when Nebraska's stance changed. You cannot have a team earning $130 million a year and another team earning $50 million a year and maintain a competitive balance. It's impossible for the "have nots" to keep up. And lest anyone think Nebraska was a have-not, we weren't. We were steadily in the upper fourth of the conference. And it cannot be stressed enough that our revenue over the past ten years has suffered dramatically from the direction the program took under Callahan. With a recovery in full progress, with or without a conference move, we were going to be improving our income. This isn't an example of a program on the decline crying foul. It's a program on the rise seeing the problems of a failing policy, and attempting to right those wrongs. To be clear, Nebraska never wanted an equal sharing of revenue amongst Big XII members. They simply did not want the disparity to be so great. What is baffling is that Iowa State, Missouri and the Kansas schools consistently voted in lockstep with the Texas Four, knowing full-well that it was cutting their own throats to do so. Not a wise thing to do. Five years from now, presuming the Big XII still exists, they'll realize the failure of allying themselves with Texas. But the sad thing is, all they had to do was ask Arkansas and they would have known their future. Sucks to be them.

I'm a sucker for shields, so I tend to like most of those even though they remind me of pest control company logos. For my money, the best one was #941. It looks kind of 80's TV-ish, but it's clean and I like the font. Maybe the best thing about it is that it doesn't try to incorporate the number 2 in it somewhere. Too many of those seem forced.

Isn't OTE pretty much the same thing as Bleacher Report? This is basically a bunch of amateur bloggers posting their opinions, the same as what happens on most every message board, right?

Ah, gotcha. Sadly, we're on the same page. The page where politics, and politicians, sucks.

We're mostly realists here at Nebraska. Sure we drink the kool-aid sometimes, but that's what fans do. But we went though an awful stretch in the 00s, and it taught most of us to think critically about our team and not just be blind homers like a lot of us were in the 90s when we just smooshed everyone. Honestly, there are about ten people here who could have written that rundown (and another 20-30 who could have written it much more succinctly ).

Where do they list how long we've been tapping the horseshoe? Am I missing this?

This is a copy of the New Zealand All-Blacks haka, which they've been doing for over a century:

What doesn't matter is that every that every lemming in the US who hasn't been to Husker game would have seen "dates back 16 years" and scoffed at it as a tradition. Where are they announcing how long these traditions have been in existence? As far as those lemmings know, we've been doing the Tunnel Walk since we were the Bugeaters.

Is that open to everyone? Absolutely.

Honestly? Nebraska is by itself a tiny TV market. Our population is under two million, so delivering eyeballs to TV sets isn't going to happen just via our home population. Geographically we're an outlier. We increase travel budgets big-time, and the impact of that will be felt most by the programs that can least afford it – tennis, track, golf, bowling, etc. Academically we enter at the bottom of the Big Ten (I believe). Even before the AAU boot we were trailing most, if not all Big Ten schools. The mitigating factor of this is that we are currently in the midst of the largest academic growth program to his this school in about 40 years. Speaking specifically of football, we've just come off our worst decade in the last 50 years. We have a coach who's been known to go ballistic on the sidelines and we've lost some high-profile games in the last couple of years, in rather embarrassing fashion. This could be a detriment to the conference's image. Now, the mitigating factors of those concerns are: We are a national TV brand. We've got a bazillion fans across the country through the diaspora of our people to better climes. Only us fools stay here in the heat and cold all year. Those former Nebraskans and their family tend to stay loyal to the Huskers, and thus you have very large groups across the country – in every state – of "Georgians for Nebraska" or "Arizonans for Nebraska" and the like. Larger states, or states with larger populations, have regional groups like "North Texans for Nebraska" to which my cousin belonged when he lived down in Dallas. We have a history, both long-term and recent, of high TV ratings. That's a huge attraction to the BTN. We are a geographic outlier, but so would anyone else be besides Notre Dame. Missouri wouldn't be, but they fall below Nebraska in every other metric, and thus were not chosen. Delany's comments during the presser introducing Nebraska that "The Big Ten is not for every school, and every school is not a good fit for the Big Ten" was pointed at two schools in my opinion – Missouri and Texas, both of whom flirted with membership, and (at least in Missouri's case) were turned down. I don’t know how deeply Texas got into the process of flirting with the Big Ten, but I think it wasn't far at all. Academically we lag behind, but look no further than Penn State for an example of how quickly that can turn around. Within a decade PSU was in the thick of Big Ten academic rankings, and there's very little reason to believe Nebraska cannot make such a leap. The benefit to Nebraska of AAU membership was more prestige than practical use. We'll gain more from CIC membership than we ever did from AAU membership. As for our football team, we have as good of a chance of returning to perennial top ten rankings as anyone. We have a sturdy, loyal fan base who have proven through the worst of times that they are willing not only to continue to sell out the stadium, but to buy Husker gear. That steady income, along with solid, long-term football experience throughout the program, means that although we've been down, we should (and I think will) return to prominence. Nebraska is not like Missouri, who can trace most of their success to one coach (Pinkel), or Kansas (Mangino). Once those coaches go, weaker programs tend to falter. I fully expect Missouri to take a step or two back once Pinkel moves on or retires. Nebraska has the foundation to find the right coach and reload. Look no further than Kansas for a program that cannot do this. Cincinnati is another example – once Brian Kelly left, suddenly they've returned to earth. There are other issues, like our perennial weakness in basketball, but football is the main force in college athletics, and Nebraska is one of the pillars of the game. That makes up for deficiencies in basketball.

Good lord, enough! Let's let it go. Come to Lincoln, we'll have a beer and talk football, biggie. Deal?

I agree, I wasn't trying to negate anything about the tunnel entrance, I suppose more so just being obvious. I do LOVE the tunnel walk though. The key to it all...that low toned pitch from the beginning of the APP Sirius. Gives me goose bumps every time. Especially when I was on the field during my band years and just feeling/hearing the quick gradual roar of the crowd. I was speaking to ESPN/EA Sports, not directing that at anyone here.

I'm not sure either. And I don't know how you would really quantify that. I've provided some numbers showing that Nebraska is a big TV draw nationally, and that we are ranked now about where PSU was ranked when they joined the Big Ten. But again, I really don't care if some non-Husker fan doesn't think Nebraska is all that and a bag of chips - and really, I don't expect them to.

It doesn't matter that the Tunnel Walk has been around for less than two decades. That's long enough for it to become established as our signature entrance. Touching the Horseshoe by itself isn't much of much. Like everyone's saying - lots of teams touch something on the way out to the field.

See THIS

That's about the reponse I expected. That wasn't my response. I'm still willing to give it to you, I just want to know what you expect. Do you expect your question to be taken as seriously as you took mine, or do you expect a real answer? That's a legitimate question. After all, if you're not going to take this conversation seriously, why should I bother with you?