knapplc

This is the biggest news of all. The TV money from the Big 10 Network will be nice, but the CIC money will help grow Innovation Park and bring jobs to Lincoln, and increase the academic stature of the University. I'm not surprised, but very happy to see this.

Except that the money isn't going to "the Big 12". It is going to the Big 12 schools, or it seems, 3 of them. Those schools will be around long after the Big 12 collapses, and they can and will pursue it as long as they see fit. We're going to be paying legal fees to fight this just as they do. If there's anything worse than paying money to UT, A&M and OU, it's paying additional money to lawyers. How much can we afford to put into a weak legal case? I don't think our case is very strong, but again I'm not a lawyer. We signed an agreement that there is an exit penalty. The way I read it, there doesn't have to be actual damages for them to collect that exit fee. If I'm reading that wrong, then we have a decent chance. But if our case is that we thought we were forced to leave since it looked like the conference was going to crumble, it didn't. What we thought is not relevant since we were wrong about that. That's true, but if the Big 12 Conference doesn't exist those schools could be entitled to nothing. And when the Big 12 collapses as it inevitably will, Texas, Oklahoma and A&M have no claim to money owed to a conference that doesn't exist. I can see a decent case for Nebraska and I can see a weak case. You're right in that we did sign that agreement, but the gray area is how we can leverage the instability of the conference, and the flirtation of Texas with the Pac-10, Big 10 and SEC into a situation where we had to act out of self-preservation, since there were no guarantees that the conference would survive. That's where I see our best case - evidence that half the conference, which would constitute a death blow, were leaving, giving us no choice but to cut a deal somewhere. Seriously - where are our lawyer members? Don't we have anyone besides AR who could weigh in here on the legal side of this?

I know there's not a lot of remorse for the way things panned out, and frankly I'm still on Cloud Nine that we're members of the Big 10. No matter how you slice it, we came out of this smelling like roses. Rose Bowl roses, most likely. Still, there is one school I feel bad about leaving, and a couple of others that I'll miss. I feel bad that we're leaving Kansas. Kansas never did anything to us (unless you follow basketball). Kansas has always been pretty nice folks. They've been respectful and friendly, and they're a lot like Nebraskans. Especially since they hired Turner Gill, I'm going to miss these guys, and I am concerned for them in the "new" conference. I hope everything pans out. They had so few choices. I'll also miss ISU. Not nearly as much as Kansas, but for the most part they've been good foes, good folks, and good fun. The once-per-decade loss is easy enough to bear. Of course I'll miss Oklahoma, but as has been covered extensively, that ship sailed long, long ago. The only SWC team I'll miss is A&M - they're a heck of a great bunch of fans, and we've had some good games against them. They're also the one SWC team that seems to have enough integrity to stand up to Texas. It'll be interesting to see what the next couple of years brings to them. I won't miss KSU, Colorado or Missouri. I don't care enough about these schools to hate them, and frankly the best parts of Missouri and Colorado are Fro Daddy and BeachBuffs, and they're going to be sticking around here whether they want to or not. MUTigerFan is pretty cool, too, and he'll stick his head in once in a while. It would be a tragedy if we lost TuffTiger, but somehow I think he'll still be around. So there's my take on the schools we left behind. A decent bunch of folks, some better than others, and all in a peck of trouble with their new arrangement. Let's just hope the decent among them use the next year or two to build an exit strategy.

Trust me - this isn't a cut-and-dry issue. Bylaws are nice things, but they are not laws. This will be battled out in courts and from what I'm seeing Nebraska has a strong case not to pay a cent... or, have a cent withheld from them, as the case may be. And my original contention stands - this will languish in court for long enough that there won't be a Big 12 to collect when it's all said and done. That money isn't going to go straight from the networks to the Big 12. NU will file suit and the money will be put aside until the dispute is settled. In order for the Big 12 to collect, they'll have to be in existence long enough to win the court battle. With the appeals process, that'll take years - years this conference doesn't have. Either way, the Big 12 will have to pay millions in legal fees to see this thing through, and at some point they're going to have to make a decision whether it's worth it to pursue the action rather than forgo the penalty. NU will have to make that decision as well. The other option is that Nebraska doesn't contest it at all, allows the money to be taken from them, and rides off into the sunset richer by far in the long run than any remaining Big 12 school. Remember, no matter how big Texas' TV contracts are, the money the University of Nebraska will see from the CIC will make the TV contracts look like lunch money. Frankly, I'm not too concerned about it. At first I didn't want to pay it, but now... I just don't care. Bon nuit, Big 12. Sweet dreams.

For once I'd like to see a conversation about a politician - any politician of any party - not turn into a piss-fest of partisan bickering. Moving to the appropriate forum because people can't control themselves....

Cool!

I like it! How hard would it be to make that an emoticon in the menu?

He was a guy I admired for what he did for Okie State. That's why. Pumping money into a floundering program to name another...I still hold a special place for the Big 8, and after reading his book couple years back, I bought into his philosophy. And.....because Nebraska is being made the villian in this whole thing....and being born and raised in Texas, this type of publicity can kill recruiting. Coaches just love this type of ammo. As a side note, I was recruited by Texas....hated them then and hate them even more now. The arrogance. I think that answers it. Great. So are you going to get worried about everyone who throws bad words Nebraska's way, or just T. Boone's? The guy has nothing to do with us. He's classless, he's hot air, and he's not going to have any affect on our recruiting whatsoever. If we continue to show improvement under Bo it won't matter what a thousand T. Boone Pickens say. If we suck this year it won't be because of him.

We'll cost them as much in legal fees as they'll collect from us. I say let 'em go after it. We'll see them in court, and drag it out long enough that the conference will dissolve before we have to pay a dime.

Why in the world would you give a damn what T. Boone Pickens thinks of Nebraska?

This is why Nebraska Fan has no respect for Colorado Fan - because there's none given, and there never has been. The difference between Nebraska and Colorado is this - we've been bad as often as Colorado has been good over the past 50 years. Yet despite this 90/10 split, all we get from y'all is a pointing out of our flaws. Colorado never learned humility, and the respect for their betters that humility brings. Had they ever learned that, and based their rise to prominence on that, they may have been a team and a fanbase that Nebraska could learn to appreciate as a rival. Since that proved too hard, all Colorado ever came across as was a bitter group, forever destined to hate what they could not become. I won't miss Colorado in the least, and it'll be a cold day in hell before they ever sniff the Rose Bowl.

Husker Roster Mouseover popups with pics. Neat.

I was cruising through campus and stuck my head in the Coliseum just now. They were having a clinic and I stopped at the water fountain and waited for Morgan Broekhuis to fill up her water bottle, so I asked her how China went. She said it was great, they had a great time, they learned a LOT, and they even picked up some Chinese. PS - Morgan is TALL. Looked me square in the eye. Nice person, too.

I would be 100% on board with this.

That Billdozer guy posting over there looks awfully familiar....

1. This whole shebang revolved around what Texas wanted. The wants and needs of the other schools were secondary, and we know that because at the 11th hour Texas bollixed the deal with the Pac-10, a deal that both sides had worked on for months, by making extra demands that benefitted nobody but Texas. 2. I think any involvement speculated about here is just that – speculation. Notre Dame has their deal with NBC, the SEC has their ESPN deal, and this gelded Big 12 will not affect those in the least. They have no reason to get involved with the Big 12's negotiations because, no matter what, they're going to get paid. If Megaconference Armageddon happened, the others would simply follow suit, get bigger, and get a bigger slice of the pie. So this explanation doesn't fly with me, either. 3. The TV folks didn't "throw money at Texas." Texas and the Texettes could have gotten a much better deal merging with the Pac-10. Certainly the serfs could have, and Texas' slice of the pie would have been marginally bigger – and that was the sticking point. Texas would not allow their slice of the pie to be less than huge, and they put a poison pill in the deal. Here's where this leaves us: 1. Texas will eventually get more money from TV than any other school in the country in the short term. The deal they cut is for what? 10 years? From what I've seen there's a flat rate being paid which is approximately $135 million for the ten teams over the life of the contract. That's $13.5 million per year, which is an upgrade now, but in ten years that will be chump change much like the MLB salaries we oohed and aahed about in 2005 are paltry compared to today's money. This is a short-term fix for the Texettes, but long-term they're going to lose, and Texas will vastly outstrip them in revenue. 2. I will be the Pope before Nebraska pays the Big 12 an exit fee. If the Big 12 attempts to impose a penalty on Nebraska, the Huskers will take it to court, it will drag out for years, and by the time it would get anywhere near resolution the Big 12 will have fully imploded, leaving nobody to collect the dough. Why? Because the "solution" Texas engineered to "save" the conference isn't a solution at all. It's a band-aid on a bullet wound. The Big 12 has slowed the bleeding for now, but it has not solved the problems that led Missouri to stand on the street corner and show leg to anyone passing by. In fact, it's done exactly the opposite by making the league even more Texas' bitch, meaning those resentments that festered before will conflagrate soon. 3. Colorado won't pay the Big 12 anything, either, for the same reasons as Nebraska. Whether they remain a viable school athletically is anyone's guess. Philosophically they fit into the Pac-10 pretty well, but they're poor as all get-out and those travel costs for the Olympic sports are going to be a big bummer. I agree with your conclusion – follow the money trail and you'll see who orchestrated this from the beginning, and who will be bearing the brunt of the blame when this current setup inevitably fails. Texas bought themselves some time. They did not solve their problems.

I can't believe nobody addressed this! godd2, that statement couldn't be further from the truth! If you're wearing Husker Red you matter to this team. You are no different from me, a guy sitting a few hundred yards from Memorial Stadium right now. You are no less a Husker Fan because you live outside the state, just like those of us who live in Lincoln aren't somehow "more Husker than thou." Let's be real about Nebraska, and Lincoln in particular. There aren't a lot of great jobs here. There isn't a lot to do in this state. The weather is too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and the streets are in a constant state of disrepair because of it. Add on to that a small population/huge state, and you have high taxes just to pay for basic necessities. OF COURSE people move out of this state, but they keep their Husker fandom alive when they leave, and they are every bit as much a fan as anyone else, regardless of location. Dude, don't for a second believe that you are not important. I can guarantee you that the folks running the show in the Athletic Department love you out-staters very, very much. You are the people who fill stadiums across the country with Red, you are the people who represent Husker Nation from Maine to Montana, California to Kentucky. I just can't tell you enough how much you out-of-state folks matter to this program.

Jayhawk, I hope your money does increase, but I'd like to know where that increase is coming from. You now have a conference without the eyeballs across the country that Nebraska brings, and you've lost the Denver market. How does this equate to more money? I really hope it works out for you and Missouri and ISU and KSU, because I recognize you're in a tough position. But I wouldn't trust the numbers coming out of Texas one little tiny bit.

I would bet that aTm is going to stay. That rivalry with Texas is big for them.

Dallas Morning News reporting it was Fox. They are still in negotiations, it is not a done deal. Plus its a 10 team split, not a 12 team. (16% rise without any additional money) Maybe. I've also read it was a tag-team of ABC/ESPN and FOX. I doubt FOX has the cash to do this on their own. They for sure don't have the network capability - they're spread across the country into a bunch of regional pieces. They would need to make something national - something that would compete with ESPN, which isn't a bad thing - to make that viable. If FOX figures out a way to make a national network to rival ESPN, that could be the best thing to happen out of all of this. But of course this is just conjecture on my part.

Maybe ABC/ESPN came riding in on their white horse and threw money at Texas and Co. to remain in the conference, but this is not a long-term solution. They will have to add two teams to get that CCG payday, and they've already got Missouri with one foot out the door. The Big 10 is likely not done, so in a few months when expansion rears its ugly head once again, this conference fractures. Colorado and Nebraska were brilliant to get out while the gettin's good. Nebraska more so by weight of where they landed, but CU wasn't too fool to read the tea leaves and see what was coming. Money rules this sport now. The genie isn't going back in the bottle. The dregs of this conference don't carry enough weight to make a viable conference on their own.

There's a little bit of a difference between having a couple of down years and having a couple of up years. Just a little.

Wisconsin would be a natural rivalry. We could play them the day after Thanksgiving, and Barry Alvarez would be the trophy. Winning team gets Barry for the year.

I'd say that's a fair estimate.