Caven

Oh god PLEASE let us fire our OC after the NU game. He has needed to go for years.

I highly doubt it. Between the Iowa/Nebraska border, Iowa fans have been waiting for this match up to happen every year and now their wish has come true. All of the Hawkeye fans that I know care more about this new "so called" rivalry against Nebraska than the Wisconsin rivalry. I would rather have had both - but if I had to choose which one to play every year I would have chosen Wisconsin. Kind of hard to not play them every year - probalby similar to what you guys went through when you lost the annual game against Oklahoma. I am looking forward to the game with Nebraska but the Wisky game will be sad to see gone. I hope that when they change to 9 games that they add an additional cross division rival and we get Wisky back yearly to go with our yearly game against you guys.

You can't play Michigan in the championship game - they are in our division...

1. @Wisconsin (I would put OSU here - but with their suspensions and the home/away I think this one will end up slightly harder) 2. Ohio State 3. @Penn State (As much as I want to put Iowa here since I think they will be better than PSU this season, the home/away factor comes into play again) 4. Iowa 5. @Michigan (They are late enough in the year that they should be in their tailspin again) 6. Northwestern (They are just squirlly enough to surprise) 7. @Wyoming (Classic trap game played up in the mountains) 8. Michigan State (Not sure how they finished so high last year and with them here this shouldn't be much of a game) 9. Washington 10. Fresno State 11. Red/White game 12. @Minnesota (I know Iowa lost to them last year - but they are REALLY bad) 13. Chattanooga

Can we please just hope that Michigan stays down? Pretty please? I like where they are at! Let the divisional title come down to Iowa/Nebraska every year and we can all be happy Other than that, excellent post!

Fixed it for you. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say over the history of football, Nebraska has been much better than Iowa but given that over the last decade Iowa has really stepped up their game, it could very well make for a Thanksgiving game being played for the division title? The entire point I have been trying to make is that given RECENT history, the game in the fall should be a good one. I have in no way argued that Nebraska does not have a more storied history, just that this game is being played NOW. It is no different from me being confident that we will beat Michigan this year - not because we are a better team than Michigan over the history of the game, but that I believe we will be a better team than Michigan this year given who each team is returning and how things went last year. My entire problem with the attitude isn't that you all think you are going to win because I would be dissapointed if you didn't think that way - but that the reasons given are typically of the "we have 200 more wins than you all time so that shows we are just better than you" variety. This is also what leads to my - this isn't the 90s comments. When talking about a SINGLE YEARS game, it doesn't matter what you did over the past 100 years. Hell it doesn't even matter so much what you did 5 years ago. What matters is how you have done the past couple of years and who you have coming back - both starter and new guys. Now over the course of the next decade worth of games between our teams, the historical significance can come into play because that has an effect on recruiting and in that you will have a significant edge. I am sure that Iowa WILL lose a few recruits to you guys - people that wanted to play in the Big 10 but were overlooked by Michigan and Ohio State might choose to come to Nebraska as one of your low end recruits instead of one of our high end recruits. But as for the game this year, breaking down what both teams have coming back and how the matchups are looking, it just looks like it will be a really close fought game and to think otherwise simply because you have a bunch of national championships and we don't just seems edit: Before someone points out the obvious - yes I talk about last decade in the first paragraph and then say that only the last few years really matters in the last paragraph but you should get my point anyway

This is one of the things I am most looking forward to - how will Nebraska's defense stand up through the Big 10 season. Will the fact that they spent a lot of time with only 1 true LB in a pass happy league cause any problems in moving to a run heavy smash mouth format for much of the season. I suspect that they will be just fine and end up in the top 3 defensively, but that is certainly one of the things I want to see.

From what I am hearing, they are still looking into trying and figure out how to make a 9 game schedule work starting in 2015 so that you never go 4 years without playing a team from that point forward. I am just floored that with the way things fell that Iowa and Illinois are going to go 6 years not playing.

Yes, yes you did. I envy you that run that you guys had - it was an amazing run that was happening while I was in college and suffering through the mediocrity of Texas bowl game after Texas bowl game and having the honor of being the first class at Iowa in 20 years who never got to experience the Rose Bowl. It caused me to build up just a little resentment towards you guys and I would guess I was not alone in that. Marrying into a Big Red family who hold season tickets combined with your move to the Big 10 has allowed me to put those feelings to rest (I didn't want to be too ostrasized at family dinners). Again as I stated above, it isn't the optimism but rather the contempt that causes the annoyance. It is comments like "I believe the general chaos evidenced in the hickeye futball program since the announcement of the NU + B1G merger, and the loud unwarranted talking from that corner, revolves around panic felt all the way to the top of the program considering the very real, and very likely, possibility that hickeye football is on the verge of being banished to the wastebasket of football relevancy...in their own state...by the hated and very successful program next door." and "This isn't even going to be a rivalry. Let me repeat: Iowa is NOT our rival. Our only true rival will ever be is Oklahoma. Maybe in 20-30 years Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State will become our "true rival" due to their success and history. " are what causes the annoyance and the comments about living in the 90s. That isn't optimism for the upcoming season, that is just something that I would expect from a Michigan fan.

For example....? What do they say to you that shows "no class?" Knappic - you asked and I answered. The complaints were that Iowa fans in Iowa talk crap to the Nebraska fans that live there and how Iowa is going to kick their ass and all the typical we are better blah blah blah - I stated that it is the same way here in Nebraska with the people that I work with and you asked me what they say. I suppose I could have quoted this post when making my response but I had wanted to finish reading the thread before I responded to you and at that point I was being too lazy to go back and find the post to quote it. You chide me for ignoring what is said on the Iowa message boards and how Iowa fans act when I have acknowledged many times that many Iowa fans are morons - but as I said, the point of my post was answering your question about the real world here in Nebraska and had nothing to do with internet boards at all. I actually don't have a problem with most of the smack talk that goes on around the boards (all of them). These kinds of boards tend to draw the most fanatic of fans. I hang out here because in general the level of football talk here is better than it is on our boards but it still is grating when people act like this isn't even going to be a game because you are Nebraska and that is that. It annoys me when Iowa fans take a similar attitude with anyone as well. There is also a difference between talking admiringly about the Huskers and some of the comments that are made toward other teams. As far as bowing down to Iowa... WHY ARE YOU NOT DOWN ON YOUR KNEES YET MAGOTS!!!

If we only look at recent history and use that to attempt to foresee how the Nebraska-Iowa game will go this season, the only reasonable prediction is that Iowa will have to forfeit. All of the players will be in the hospital. LOL - now THAT is the kind of comment that puts down my team that I can get behind. Well done!

My major problem with most Husker fans is that they still think it is the mid to late 90s. They act like they are the best football team around, when in actuality the team hasn't been any more nationally relevant recently than most other teams. If you talk to a Michigan fan the past couple of years, they don't act like they are god's gift to football and that they are going to walk all over you and win the game simply because they are Michigan. They realize and understand where their team is right now and that they will have to actually play the game and it won't just be handed to them because of who they are. Given recent history, there is no way that Nebraska fans should think that the game with Iowa will be anything other than a down in the trenches slug fest that won't be decided until the 4th quarter - but the attitude is, well we are Nebraska and you are Iowa so we are just better and you should just bow to our superiority and accept your place as our doormat. News flash - this isn't the 90s and it is that smug attitude that pisses us off. I can sympathise with those Nebraska fans living in Iowa because I am sure that after all of the smugness and superiority coming from Nebraska during their amazing run in the 90s that things were a little rough - but to continue to think that just because you are Nebraska you are better than everyone else without proving it on the field doesn't help.

Funny, I feel the same way about the Nebraska fans I work with and class. They show none and are always running their mouth.

So Missouri is for real over the past decade with 3 losing seasons and going over 10 wins 3 times, and Okie State is for real with 2 losing seasons but only a single 10 win season, but Iowa with 1 losing season, 4 10 win seasons and 2 BCS bowl appearances and Penn State with 3 losing seasons and 3 10 win seasons and 2 BCS bowl appearences aren't? Hell even Michigan has better stats over the last decade than most of the Big 12. They have fewer losing seasons, more 10 win seasons and more BCS bowls that either Missouri or Okie State. They have just had a couple of down years that are memorable for how down they were. What bowl did Texas go to this year again? If you are using Missouri and Okie State as part of your benchmark for what teams are real then you are missing a whole lot of Big 10 teams that fit the category. I also love how you throw in Texas Tech flying high for one year as another boost to the Big 12 but leave out Big 10 teams that have done something similar (Iowa in 2002 comes to mind without even doing any research) And lets not even get into comparing Kansas State with its 2 11 win seasons and 2 7 win season (the rest aren't even winning seasons) to Michigan State and its ... ok so that is a valid comparison. They both mostly suck and have the occasional great season. I also don't get why everyone puts Wisconsin so high and bashes Iowa, when Iowa has the same number of 10 win seasons and more BCS appearences as Wisconsin over the past decade and Iowa has a 6-4 edge over that time. I would say that Wisconsin and Iowa are just about the same team - which makes sense given the respective coaches history and philosophies.

Northwestern = Baylor = Vanderbilt They're like the brainiac kid with pop-bottle lens glasses who always gets picked last in sandlot baseball. Except Northwestern likes to actually win the conference every once in a while. True, Northwestern did win the Big 10 once during the past 110 years. And they were tied for the best record two other times, both fairly recently. Actually, I think NW is headed in the right direction under Fitzgerald. Almost can't be called a doormat anymore. You just had to make me pull up the list of conference champions by stating over the past 110 years didn't you 2 outright championships in 1936, 1995 5 shared titles in 1926, 1930, 1931, 1996, 2000 Vanderbilt has only ever been bowl eligible 4 times and has zero SEC championships (they won a bunch of stuff in small leagues in the early 1900s before joining the SEC) Baylor was actually decent through the mid 70s and 80s and has 4 titles in 22, 24, 74 and 80 in the SW conference.

Northwestern = Baylor = Vanderbilt They're like the brainiac kid with pop-bottle lens glasses who always gets picked last in sandlot baseball. Except Northwestern likes to actually win the conference every once in a while.

Just take Nebraska out completely and compare both conferences without Nebraska included to get a fair comparison. I know which way I think the stats look... edit: because I like the word completely a little too much.

Can someone check my math and tell me where I am making my mistake? 90+70 = 160. 160/10 = > 20.

When going through the histories I found it interesting that were it not for racial tensions between us and Missouri we likely would have ended up in the Big 8 with you.

Oh hell yeah You should have heard the ^&*ing about the Insight when we were convinced it was going to be Nebraska we played only to end up with Missouri. Iowa fans have wanted a shot at Nebraska since about 2002 since the last time we played was during the transition period between Fry and Ferentz when we forgot how to play for a couple of years.

If im not mistaken wisconsin tried to get us to sign a deal to play them on black friday but we turned it down. By the way I encourage you all to read iowas message boards more often. There are quite a few spitting uneducated opinions Wisconsin wanted us as their cross division rival, but that didn't happen. We didn't turn anything down. Wisconsin was fighting to be in the Legends division and ship Iowa over to the Leaders division. Between the two schools, one of us was going to end up separated from our natural rivals. Thankfully things ended up as they did. I do remember reading somewhere back when things were announced that Tom was asked his preference on Iowa or Wisconsin and he stated that Iowa made more sense being the border school.

I think you're probably right... Of course, that means we're going to have to pry it away from one of the greatest rivalries college football has ever seen... The REAL Farmageddon Rivalry Bah. That game involves Iowa State. If Iowa/Nebraska start using Farmageddon it won't matter that they used it first - it will stick to our game

I don't get why everyone keeps talking like Iowa doesn't want to play on Friday just because of a few loud posters when the polls show overwhelming support for the move to Friday.

Well, I'll just say it... morons. Most of the polls I have seen are about 80% in favor. Loud minority is loud.

Given the TV pull that Nebraska is going to have - especially in this first season - I would guess you guys will be safe from most 11 am games. You will probably have at most 4 on the season and 2 of those will be non-conference probably.