Real Husker November Thrillers

[Roundball Shaman]

Relax. This is not going to be another thread about how the Huskers should rejoin the Big 12 conference. That conference of schools who today willingly choose to be under the Big Thumb of Texas will not be a future home for the Huskers. Instead, this is about the Husker days before the Big 12 became the Big Texas Conference and Nebraska went in with the Big 14.

From 1928 through 1947 the Huskers were part of the Big 6 conference along with Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa State, Kansas, and K-State.

From 1948 through 1959 the Huskers were in the Big 7 conference of all those schools plus Colorado.

And from 1960 through 1995 the Huskers were in the Big 8 which also included Oklahoma State.

Those were good times.

If you want to say this is a kind of Get Off My Lawn kind of thing, have at it. But that doesn’t change what’s already in the vault: the Huskers were at home in a group of Nebraska-like places like Iowa and Missouri and Kansas and Oklahoma and Colorado. It was a family kind of feel playing against your cousins. And nothing... nothing comes close to those epic NU-OU battles over the years once the Husker’s got good beginning around 1962. There was always a big buildup before the battle at regular season’s end. The Huskers and Sooners would try not to stumble before their epic battle. The anticipation was electric.

These days... Nebraska and Maryland? Against a basketball school near the Atlantic Ocean? And for the Iowa game to ever reach the same level as used to be in the Big 8 days, Iowa would have to become as good as Oklahoma. And that’s never going to happen.

The Huskers won’t be changing their conference anytime soon. But history proves that schools do change conferences and conferences add and lose schools over time. Things are going to change eventually.

Hopefully, someday the Huskers will have an opponent worthy of the season’s end battles they used to have. Until then, win a few Big 14 West titles and keep your options open.

[knapplc]

Depending what happens with the issue of profiting off of likenesses and the ever-growing arms race of facilities, there may not even be a conference called the Big Ten by 2030. There may just be 60-65 schools in a Super Conference and we play whomever is in our regional division.

[I am I]

Great topic! Nice work and wording. Can’t wait to see your follow up on this thread and amazing insight. I’ve been dwelling on what happened to our neighbors close by and the 100 times we played them until this evening, now I know we are moving forward by looking back to 1947. 

 

If I could turn back time, if i could find a way! I’d take back all those losses that’d hurt you, would you hear me say? 

[Nebhawk]

The notion of a super conference of all Power 5 schools will come true at some point.  The NCAA isn't capable of keeping this thing going much longer.  If by chance Alabama ends up in the playoff this season, were that much closer to having a super conference or whatever they might call it.  I don't know how that would work out for the future, but your right playing Maryland in November is kind of what has happened to this program as well.  Not that long ago, this time of year we were getting ready for KSU now, followed by Colorado, whom use to be OU.  I tend to agree with you, but the money all of these conferences are making is still going to be the deciding factor.  If by chance they could bring in a system that allows each conference winner a shot at the title, all of this stuff would just go away and things would play out on the field.  Have to win your conference, I don't think that would be that wrong.  

[Nebhawk]

I think that the longer we remain in the Big 10, the longer this feeling of being lost will remain.  Switching conferences right now is not an option, but seriously reconstructing our schedule should be an option.  Bring on a different Thanksgiving game, possibly with OU or Colorado, or even K-St.  It would make the Big 10 money as well, and thats actually what this conference is more about than anything else.

[Landlord]

[Huskers Way]

Our history with the Big 8 schools went back even further than that - Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri were founding members of the MVIAA in 1907 - with Iowa State, Kansas State, and Oklahoma joining shortly after and our history with KU, Missouri, and Iowa State went back to the 1890s.  I've accepted the fact that we'll never go back to the Big 12, but I'll never consider myself a "Big 10 Man" - I really couldn't care less about any of the Big 10 schools - since 2011, I basically think of NU as an Independent that has a financial arrangement with the Big 10 to play a slate of Big 10 teams. 

[Nebhawk]

I think alot of fans would say that they are not Big 10 fans, especially the ones who grew up in those other eras.  Now, current Huskers growing up, will prefer the Big 10 because thats what they know and see.  I will say that the conference as a whole is a better conference, but I don't know if that suits what were all about.  I don't know if we will ever feel like we belong in football.

[I am I]

I grew up in Big 8. Loved it. 

 

Big 12 to me was a huge swing and miss, although because we played old Big 8 schools it was “okay for now”. Once I grasped how the SWC texass schools totally f’d it all up, I was really happy we moved to B1G. 

 

Then they added Maryland and Rutgers...yeah it sucks but it wasn’t all bad. If we actually won some f’ing games we’d be really really happy. 

 

I think the Big East losing its basketball identity was bigger than us losing the Big 8. So stuff happens. We just need to win. Then people will hate us and we can once again become ourselves. No one hates us. They just like beating us. 

[hskrfan4life]

11 hours ago, Roundball Shaman said:

Iowa would have to become as good as Oklahoma

I don't think that's true. There just needs to be something on the line when we play. Such as a conference title berth. That's why those games mattered. It was conference title or bust most of the time.

[Ulty]

8 hours ago, I am I said:

Great topic! Nice work and wording.

[UniversalMartin]

On 11/20/2019 at 5:20 PM, Roundball Shaman said:

Hopefully, someday the Huskers will have an opponent worthy of the season’s end battles they used to have. 
 

 

Ummmm... I think we need to be worthy of "season end battle" before anything else

[CheeseHusker]

I never thought I'd feel some odd sort of nostalgia for Oklahoma ruining Thanksgiving every year and causing me to nearly break my TV set, but after the last few seasons....

 

[JJ Husker]

So we were at home in a conference that included places like Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri and Oklahoma but at the same time we’ll never fit in with a school like Iowa, who has beat us how many times, because they’re not as good as Oklahoma. Not sure I get it, the point.

[junior4949]

In the last 20 years, Iowa has finished in the top 10 five times.  Is that a lot different than CU's finish the last 20 years we played them?