Recruiting

[HANC]

Of course, as I type this, all of this talk is still hypothetical, but picking up more steam than ever. If Nebraska does move to the Big 10, how does it affect us as far as recruiting? IMO, we don't have as good of chance of recruiting the state of Texas, and we all know how important that state is too our recruiting base. I just don't think kids will sign with NU, knowing that we will not be playing "in" or "near" their home state and families 2-4 times a year. Furthermore, if this IS case, does it set NU's offense or defense back any? It is no secret that Texas, Florida, and California are the hot beds for recruiting, and we will have basically zero ties to any of these states....

 

I am for the move to the Big 10....( I think ) , just becuase I feel as if the Big 12 has dumped on NU....even the KU-KSU-MU likes, who are crying and begging....if they really wanted to partner with NU, they would have voted with us on many occassions instead of kissing Texas' a$$... BUT, I fear that our recruiting will take a drastic "hit"...Sorry, but demographics could be a recruiting killer..

 

I understand that we would be playing against teams with the same problem, but how many of those schools have proven they can compete with the SEC or Tex recently with rosters filled with mostly midwest kids. Hell, I don't want Big 10 titles, I want a NC.

 

Opinions?

[HuskerNMO]

What ties do we have to California and Florida today? None, yet we were still able to recruit there. What ties did NU have to Illinois? Have we not pulled recruits out of there?

 

Who says we won't schedule A&M, TCU, Texas or Texas Tech in the future and still play in Texas? There's only so many kids that the Texas and OU schools can take, who's going to swoop in and take the TX recruits from us? KU and KState will be dead without Texas. Will we have less focus on Texas? Possibly, but the improvement in revenue, facilities and academic prestige will keep NU in the game for many TX recurits and open doors in the Great Lakes regions up into the Northeast. And if MU gets left behind in all of this somehow we will own any Kansas and MU prospects also.

[knapplc]

This same concern, over and over and over and over and over, and yet as has been pointed out dozens of times since expansion talk started, we recruit from states we're not affiliated with ALL THE TIME.

 

Recruiting will not be hurt one iota. Not one bit. We have relationships built up with schools across the country, and these will not be tossed in the trash heap simply because we play in the Big 10.

[junior4949]

If it were only Nebraska moving to the Big 10 and nothing else going on, I would agree for the most part that it wouldn't hinder us that much in recruiting. However, I think with the Big 12 South moving to the Pac-10 our recruiting will suffer. If you were a high profile recruit, you'd almost be guaranteed to be playing in nice warm games throughout the season. I'd venture to guess that the Texas and California recruits almost get locked down to Pac-10 schools once the Big 12 South joins the Pac-10.

 

In terms of what side of the ball will get hurt the most, I think it will be the offensive side of the ball. I believe Bo and Carl will keep the D strong enough to land some top recruits on the defensive side of the ball. However, I think we'll have problems getting top recruits on the offensive side of the ball.

[TheCheshireCat]

This same concern, over and over and over and over and over, and yet as has been pointed out dozens of times since expansion talk started, we recruit from states we're not affiliated with ALL THE TIME.

 

Recruiting will not be hurt one iota. Not one bit. We have relationships built up with schools across the country, and these will not be tossed in the trash heap simply because we play in the Big 10.

 

You're basing predictions off the old way of doing things. If teams expand to 16 team superconferences, what incentive will kids have to leave the south now that maybe 4 more teams have been added to the SEC? What incentive will kids have of leaving Cali or Texas when you now have 16 teams in a combined conference between those states? Kids in Arizona - as just one example - will now have 6 more schools to choose from while being able to play near Mom and Dad. Not to mention kids we're recruiting from Texas with Cali offers or kids we're recruiting from Cali with Texas offers. I'm talking about the kid without a UT offer who chooses NU over a school like TTech because he knows we're a better team. Now this kid can also consider Cal and UCLA and still get to play at home. I think we'll see a bigger decrease than we want now that kids have more and more options of going to on-the-rise programs in stronger conferences.

[Bradr]

It will impact recruiting from the standpoint that any athlete that has committed to play at school such as K State, Kansas, Iowa State, either Baylor/Colorado, and possibly Missouri, in lieu of one of the "mover and shaker schools" will be feeling mighty bad about their previous decision making. Welcome to the Mountain West Boys!

[muffler dragon]

Personally, I think NU in the Big Ten would be a boon for recruiting solely because of television sets. So many more kids east would be open to coming out, because of their family seeing them on TV. Just a thought.

[GSG]

If there does end up being 4, 16-team conferences, I think you'll see the talent spread out a little thinner over all the schools.

[Paul in WI]

Please allow me to point out a simple truth:

 

During the decades of excellent Husker teams and the absolute dominant teams of the 90's, Texas wasn't even in our conference.

 

We didn't need Texas in our conference before, so would someone please put forth a rational explanation of what has changed where we suddenly need them now to be a successful football program? News flash: Don't listen to their mantra. The universe doesn't revolve around Texas. They've been nothing but a hemorrhoid on our backside since the Big 12's inception. No more Preparation H for NU. This is a surgery I've been looking forward to for a long time.

[deedsker15]

When IS the last time we played in california...when we went to usc a couiple years ago????? we still manage to pull a few recruits from there every year

[RedNeckHusker]

Recruiting impact is THE question now, and there's really no way to know for sure how it could shake out.

 

My issue isn't so much with recruiting Texas, but rather the south and west in general, where most of our scholarship athletes come from other than the state of Nebraska.

 

The case can be made that recruiting will stay status quo, since we will now have the upper hand (seemingly) against the likes of KU, KSU, and ISU in the recruiting battles. I like our chances in really picking up kids in Missouri and KS that maybe before went to KU or KSU.

 

The case can be made that our recruiting will actually improve, due to more national TV exposure.

 

The case can be made that our recruiting will suffer significantly, due to the fact that we will not be a member of a conference that plays many of its games in the south (i.e. Big 12 South), and that Lincoln and all of the other road games will simply be too far for south/west recruits to have a genuine interest in. And if that is the case, new recruiting grounds have to be mined, and there are no guarantees of success.

 

The truth is, it's an open question. What isn't a question is that it is a huge gamble on the part of Nebraska; we really must have felt as though there was no other logical way out of this situation. I just hope that it all works out. In terms of football competitiveness, I honestly have some concerns that we will descend to more of a "Wisconsin" level, which really depresses me.

 

I have a high level of confidence in Pelini, but let's be real, he won't be our coach forever. What happens when we have another "Callahan" debacle for 4 years. Do we have the recruiting pipelines to "restore the order" as we did before? I've got my doubts about that.

 

But I hold out lots of hope that I'm dead wrong!

 

Anyone that doesn't have at least some concerns about recruiting is drinking a bit too much red kool aid.

[husker B-rent]

another thing to look at is if we go to the big 10, we will be a member of the CIC and if we are a member of the CIC kids like Trevor Robinson would be playing at NU instead of ND.

 

i wouldnt be surprised if recruiting even got better.