Duffman

I'm sorry to say that the game on Friday is feeling like a big let down. I (along with most of you) thought it would have division title ramifications. In fact coming into the season I would have gladly put money that at least one team in this game would have a shot at the title. Don't get me wrong its still going to be fun to watch given the fact our family has both huskers and hawk fans, but it just doesn't feel as big as I imagined it would. To be honest, it just kind of feels like another game. It's a shame neither team is really bringing anything extra to the table this year. Both are playing for the difference in respectable bowl versus toilet bowl. BTW I did find it interesting how similar our boards are. We've each got the required "Fire our coach" thread as well as the "For those that want our coach gone" thread. We've both got the "the other teams fans are classless thread" and the is it "players and coaches" debate. Anywhoo... just some random observations. It feels like I'm forgetting something though..... Oh yeah. Suck it bugeaters, you guys are going down!

Another nice thing, and maybe this is why you like it, is that if they isolate the announcers in the center (like FSN does/did), you can unhook the center channel and just get game sound (or turn off the center amp if you have separates-- just setting "Center" to "none" won't work). The channels that do that are my favorite. I pay closer attention to the game and spend less time irritated with the broadcast if i don't have anyone telling me what I'm seeing. I had a lot of fun watching games with only the ambient sound from the stadium coming in in (essentially) 4.1 Thank you thank you thank you. Because of this post I was able to enjoy a game on CBS like never before. Finally I have a way to tune out Phil f'ing Simms. Dear lord I hate that guy, just the sound of his voice makes me want to beat puppies. Please PM me your name, address, and DOB so I can send you appropriate man presents on your birthday going forward. BTW it's pretty amazing the other things you catch, trash talk, sounds of hits, etc when you have the announcers turned off. It also essentially mutes commercials that utilize 5.1 as well. What a great way to watch the game.

Iowa has a lot of terribly uninformed and obscene fans. I only have my personal experience of living in Iowa city and passing by Kinnick every day. I has talking football to 95% of them. Actually i've found Illinois and Notre Dame fans in Iowa city who are much more reasonable and pleasant to talk to. I'll be right up front though. Gameday in Iowa is a sad second place to Iowa. Even the bars like spo co and airliner and brothers get lined with fair weather fans. I won't even pretend to understand what you are trying to say here, other than you dislike Iowa fans. It does make sense that Nebraska fan would get more heat from Iowa fans from those two other schools as you don't share a border with them and don't interact with them nearly as much. Lastly I pretty much dismiss as a fool anyone who tries to make broad generalizations about a fanbase. Outside of a few SEC schools where things get crazy (ROLL DAMN TIDE!) there is little if any difference between the fanbases from different schools. We have our fair share of yahoos as I'm sure you do (in fact judging by the post I'm probably quoting one here).

Exactly!! I hear this all the time from Squawk fan. My answer is always the same. I usually just say "If my team's coach was an emotionless gum chewing statue on the sideline I probably wouldn't like Bo either." I have all the confidence in the world in Bo. I think the majority of Husker fans feel the same. I guess it's fair to say we're both content then. Personally I'll take cool and collected, but like I said, I could dig the stark raving lunatic thing too. The important thing is the players like and rally behind a guy, and it seems to be that's the case (from what everyone is saying here). FWIW it's not fair to call KF emotionless, he's just more prone to getting misty eyed after a big win than he is chewing ass during a loss.

Obviously we are a little biased but its rare that any Iowa fans think Bo as anything other than a stark raving lunatic. Clearly dude's emotional and I get that, but whats the sense around there? Any concern that he's over the top, or that players don't enjoy playing for him? From an outsider it kinda looked like some players have sort of tuned him out. Personally I think that unlike the NFL college athletes have to enjoy playing for.someone to excel. They don't necessarily have to like the HC all the time but they have to enjoy the experience.

Yeah they tried that with Illannoy the year after they went to the Rose Bowl. It turns out watchig The Zooker lead his team to a 3-8 season from behind the scenes is real sh**ty television.

What do you guys think about the studio stuff, the pre-games, post-games, feature programming. Do they do a quality job?

Hey guys, Iowa fan here, and I'm curious about your impression of the B10 network (outside of the game programming) so far. I know when it first came out the studio stuff seemed like an afterthought and I didn't really take it seriously. It certainly wasn’t pulling me away from ESPN’s Gameday pre-game show, nor did I watch any of the post-game analysis or wrap-up. However over the years I think they have really improved their studio and feature programming to the point where it’s a very viable product, even as a stand-alone product. Of course it could be that like an ugly girlfriend with a great personality it’s just sort of grown on me as time has gone by and I’ve learned to live with it by tuning out the ugly. I’m curious on what you guys think of it. I’m assuming most of you didn’t get much exposure to it until recently and I’m wondering what those that tuned in to the finished product think. I can’t wait to visit Lincoln on the 25th, I hope you guys fix what you need to fix and we’re playing for a spot in the title game. Suckeye fan out.

Actually i think the population of Maine is 7. They all must have voted twice.

Minny, Wisky, and Illannoy didn't.

Battle for the "Grain Belt" has also been discussed.

We have 81 wins from 2000 to 2009. You missed a few . Personally I'd rather sacrifice a few wins overall for 2 conference chapmionships. I think that gives us the edge over the last 10 years. We've also played had a good deal more sucess in bowl games over that period. I'm not saying you don't have a better program historically. Obviously thats the case. Again thats a big reason why you are here. What I'm saying is now that you ARE here it doesn't mean a damn thing. I'm also saying none of Tom Osborns teams of the 90's are comming with you. That's all in the past. Over the last 10 years you have been a solid program and I'd expect that to continue. But don't think for a second you are going to come in and have a cake walk in the B10, it isn't going to happen. Again ask Michigan what tradition alone gets you in the B10. Again I'm not trying to get into a pissing match here. I think we've been the better team over the last decade (that's a pretty long time and a much better indication of what is likely to come over the next 10 years) but I'd expect most of you to think differently. My point is to say that Nebraska and Iowa won't be a nice rivalry in the B10 because your history and tradition dwarfs ours is just idiotic.

Farmagedon and "Battle for the Grain Belt" (the trophy being the heavyweight title belt) have been kicked around.

Oh okay so the last 10 years matters, just not the last 13? The masses remember the past decade but "if any of that matters" from 97 now "we're kidding ourselves." What a joke. And I also don't recall Iowa winning a Heisman or playing for a championship this decade. Your national title game was 13 years ago. Your incomming freshman were 5 years old when that game was played. They don't remember one damn snap. The joke is that Nebby will come in with thier 4 national titles and 4th winningest team in college football history and dominate because they have 4 national titles and are the 4th winningest team in college football. Ask scUM what tradition alone gets you in the B10 (I'll give you a hint, it's 1 and 7 in the conference). Congratulations on your storied past. That along with your academic standing and your other athletic prowess helped you get the invite. But now that you are here get in line. Your history in college football means something between Jack and sh#t and Jack left town. That being said were damn happy to have you. PS I really don't think you want to get in the argument of who matters more in the last decade. No titles and no Heisman's but in the last 10 years we have finished in the top 10 four times, had an AP player of the year, a Doak Walker award winner, a Mackey award winner, an Outland Trophy winner, one Heisman runner up, and one 6th place finish.

I tried to get scalped tickets for nearly all of Iowa conference games last year. I got them for face value only once. For all other games the going rate was between 70-100 each. That includes after kick. Remember we can only cram a little over 70k in Kinnick, tickets are tough to come by.

Evan who?

I never said they werent in good shape in regards to thier endowment. The bigger issue than TV money is TV expsore. If they aren't on TV around the country it's hard to expose people to the program which makes it hard to recruit on a national level which they need to do in order to survive. That problem is only magnified by thier stingient admission stadards. Regarding joining immediately it's arguing semantics. Just cause you guys were able to bail on the B12 and begin Big10 play starting in 2011 doesn't mean everyone will. Even if they don't play thier first game in conference until 2016 (which I doubt) they are going to have to make that decision very shortly. Also don't think for a second the B10 would bat an eye at letting ND join the leage AND let them continue to recieve thier piss ant little NBC contract until it expires. They aren't going to let that get in the way.

Vitually every reason people have put up for ND remaining independant here are false. They don't need the money due to thier NBC TV contract. False. Thier current TV contract with NBC ends in a few years. Dick Ebersol from NBC sports said at the time they singed the latest extension that in order for this to be a sucessful relationship ND doesn't need to win national titles, they just need to consistently finish in the top 10. ND has finished in the top ten exactly ZERO times sense he said that. With the creation of these super conferences NBC is going to have to come to a realization that if THEY want to stay relevant in college football they will have to move in a new direction when the current TV deal is up (2015 I believe) they need more than just ND. Who are they going to get? The B10 already has the B10 network along with ABC and ESPN. The SEC has agreements with ESPN and CBS and are in talks about their own SEC network. Fox Sports has already made the move into college football by carrying BCS bowl games, it's hard to imagine they are going to sit on the sidelines here. There are two networks without major conference affiliation (NBC and FOX) and there are two conferences without large media deals (the Pac Whatever, and whatever the BigEast ACC merger becomes), can you honestly imagine that NBC (or any other major network for that matter) would put all thier eggs in the ND football basket given the circumstances. In my opinion ND will be lucky to secure a regional cable deal like Comcast Sports Chicago or Fox Sports Midwest. Even if they do secure a similar deal with NBC (or anyone else) the B10 network football share is around 20 million per season and the ND deal is worth less than 10 million per, thats a lot of money to walk away from. They can schedule whoever they want. False. In previous years ND had been able to schedule virtually whomever they wanted. As conferences scrable to re-align that is going to be a MUCH more difficult task. With the advent of "superconferences" all bowl games and eventually the college playoffs (I feel strongly this is where we are going) will be determined by where you finish in your conference, and conference schedules will likely be 8-10 game schedules (if you count conf title games). As this happens more teams are going to realize that it makes ZERO sense to schedule difficult teams for thier out of conference schedules. More and more teams will adopt the Nebraska *cough cough* I mean Florida schedule method of playing 3 games against Directional Occupational U before they get into the conference schedule. It is essentially a pre-season schedule now in that they don't need SOS to compete (this is especially true of we end up with playoffs) anymore, they just need wins and they need to work the kinks out of thier team. In addition all this conference realignment is going to mean that many OTHER schools are going to be making major changes to thier own schedule to accomidate all the new conference schedules. How long do you think it will take USC to call ND and say "sorry guys, but we cant play in 2014 anymore we have a hot date with Colorado". Now consider the Big East and Big10 situations. The B10 is in a position to move to 16 teams. It can't get any bigger the B10 can easily say to ND "listen domers it's now or never". The Big East is poised to take in the leftovers from the former B12 along with what's left of the ACC (after the SEC raids them to get to 16) and they end up with a superconference of 16 teams in football and 20 in basketball. They get to say to ND "listen domers either you are all in or all out, we don't have room for this bball only BS anymore." Given the situation does anyone believe ND would chose the Big East over the B10? Essentially what all this boils down to is the feasability of ND remaining independant and successfull beyond the next few years is virtually impossible. If they don't joing the B10 now they will very likely end up being a football program without a major source of TV revenue, without a major media presence, unable to schedule quality games, who will try and remain relevent on tradition alone. Now you could say well so what, if all that happens who's to say it won't work. I say it won't work, because it hasn't worked before. If they don't join the B10 ND runs the very real risk of ending up like the Army and Navy football programs, once proud programs that are relegated to one major moment a year when they play each other that in reality, is little more than a sideshow.

I just thought I'd throw this out there... With the addition of Nebby to the B10 we now have 3 of the top 5 winningest programs in college football and 4 of the top 7. We have.... 1) scUM 4) Neb 5) fOSU 7) Penn State Of note numbers 2 (Texas) and 3 (Notre Dame) on that list have both been rumored to be potnetial members. I'd put the chances at better than 50% that we get at least one of the two before this is done, and maybe a 5% chance that we get both. Now the question is where does your athletic deparment plan on putting all those truckloads of money that are going to start comming in?

The stupid thing is almost everyone I know in the conference refers to Northwestern University as NW not NU.

Do they sell to opposing fans?

1958. If you are going to be a jackhole the least you could be is an educated jackhole.

We don't care. We shall come in our short busses and our motorhomes. We will arrive in old bread delivery trucks, in 1979 Cadillac hearse limos, and in 2010 Chevy pickups. We will come with trunks full of beer, and chips, and hamburgers, and in some cases entire pigs. We shall come to Lincoln and take up your parking spaces. We will run up our flags, set up our tents, fire up our propane heaters (if necessary). We shall set up our big screens, position our sattelite dishes, and we shall watch. We will watch and we will cheer, and most importantly drink beer. We will celebrate our victories and take our lumps gracefully in defeat (and drink more beer). Those most fortunate among us will buy scalped tickets at 4 times face value. The meek will stow away in crammed backseats and try and make a 12 pack of Natty Light last 6 hours. We will come.

OK I guess I'm biased here but Kinnick is a great place to watch a game (if you can get a ticket). The stands are no more than 10 yards from the sidelines so you are literally right on top of the action, there really isn't a bad seat in the house. We've got two nice video screens for replays, a top notch pressbox complete with luxury suites. It's certainly not state of the art, but it's a great blend of a throwback stadium with some new technology. It's also damn loud being closed in all four directions. It holds little more than 70k so again it's a tough ticket. It's also smack dab in the middle of a college neighborhood so tailgating is a blast. Regardless other than that it's a pretty spot on review. Expect fOSU to be in the hunt for the title year in and year out with PSU, Wisky, and Iowa in the running every 3rd year or so. Also be aware that in the B10 we actually play defense (even if we can't spell it). You won't be the only team in the conference that does anymore.

Fair enough. I do think it will be fun, too bad Hayden Fry and Co. told Devaney no in the 80s or we would have a series already. IIRC he approached Iowa for a on-going series and they declined. As you can imagine they tell that story a little differently around here, at least from what I remember. Regardless thats water under the bridge, or over the damn, or whereever the hell the water goes. All I know I'm looking forward to travelling to Lincoln with 20k of my best friends every other year or so.