According to published reports, Nebraska is bolting from the Big 12 and will join up with the Big Ten. Is this going to be a good thing? Will college football be better off or worse? The CFN writers give their instant analysis on the big realignment and expansion news.
Instant Analysis
Nebraska Is Set To Join The Big Ten
Pete Fiutak
Nebraska moving to the Big Ten is a good thing for the fans, therefore, it's a good thing for college football.
There will certainly be a slew of writers and jilted Big 12 fans bemoaning the idea of lack of loyalty, the raiding by a bigger conference of a weaker one, and the concept that money is once again making the college sports world go around, just like there was an onslaught of screaming and yelling after the ACC grabbed the best Big East programs. Remember what happened after Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College moved over? After about ten minutes the crying died down and college football got even bigger and even better. Nebraska in the Big Ten is the first domino to fall, and now it's game on.
The Big Ten is certainly not going to stop here with Missouri and Rutgers almost certain to come next, the Big 12 is about to fade into oblivion, the Pac 10 is about to move next, and it's going to be a new storyline and a new reconfiguration of college athletics by the day, but for now, just try to wrap your mind about the concept that's really happening … Nebraska is in the Big Ten.
Big Ten insiders have been talking about the possibility for years. It makes geographic sense with Lincoln 300 miles away from Iowa City, 430 miles from Minneapolis, and 500 miles from Chicago. Instantly, Iowa vs. Nebraska becomes one of college football's best new rivalries, and Wisconsin, led by athletic director and former Husker linebacker, Barry Alvarez, vs. Nebraska should also be a special battle if the divisions are lined up as expected.
Now, no matter what else the Big Ten does, there's going to be a Big Ten Championship game (meaning there will finally be a real champion again), the league is going to be more entertaining, and the tradition-filled conference will go to a whole other level.
Forgive me for not weeping over the idea of a busted up Big 12. Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas A&M will likely stay together, the only Nebraska rivalry that really mattered, Oklahoma, was all but done when the two schools were put in different divisions, and as far as the rest of the Big 12 teams … whatever. On a national scale, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Colorado being in the Pac 10, and Missouri likely going to the Big Ten, will make the sport more interesting. It's not like anything on the scale of Alabama and Auburn or Michigan and Ohio State are being split up.
College football fans, once you get past the initial shock and once things settle down, your Saturdays will be better than ever, Nebraska will seem like it should've been in the Big Ten all along, and from this, when all is said and done, you'll get better games and better matchups all across the college football landscape. The week-in-and-week-out drama will go up ten-fold with the bigger leagues.
This is going to be fun. I promise.
Richard Cirminiello
Big Red to the Big Ten. Sure, it may sound like an odd fit today, but don't be surprised if it winds up being a very happy marriage for the program and its new conference.
Considering the circumstances and the climate we currently reside in, Nebraska has to be ecstatic these days. As the Big 12 slowly begins to submerge into the water, the Huskers will be looking to the Big Ten as the ideal life preserver. Academically, this is a great fit. Geographically, not as bad you might assume, with the Big Ten West possibly comprising Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and maybe Missouri. In terms of football, which is obviously driving this more than anything else, what's not to like? The Big Ten matches the Huskers' philosophies and pool of talent more than their old digs ever did. Too often, they appeared miscast in the Big 12, getting dragged into an arms race without the right personnel. In the Big Ten, meat-and-potatoes linemen, sound defensive play, and punishing running games are pretty much the norm. No, Nebraska isn't going to scrap its current offense and begin installing the option once again, but the recruits it often attracts will end up being a better fit in the Big Ten than they ever were in the Big 12.
Yeah, these are increasingly strange times in college football, but why not embrace it? While some rivalries are about to become extinct, it also means that others are going to be born. Nebraska and Iowa every year. Nebraska and Ohio State or Penn State every other year. Chalk this one up to progress, the natural evolution of a sport seeking more revenues, and a surprisingly fortuitous move for everyone not named the Big 12.
Steve Ryan from BigRedReport.com
The move is beneficial from the standpoint of academic prestige and the one thing that drives all decisions like this: Money. The Big Ten has a lot of it, making close to $300 million in TV revenue last year versus the Big 12 with brought in less than a third of that, despite having one more team and more national titles this decade.
Maybe Nebraska can get back that Oklahoma rivalry that OU ditched when the Big 12 was formed, because at the time the Huskers were hanging 60 to 70 points on them in consecutive years. Perhaps Nebraska and Iowa can engage what has always seemed like the most natural rivalry out there due to proximity from one another. There's little doubt that if the divisions went east/west, they would be playing each other every year. It's the Big Ten; you can't argue the tradition. With Nebraska in the fold the Big Ten will have four of the top seven winningest programs in the history of the division. You want luster? They have it. You want tradition? It's there. Oh, and Nebraska brings plenty of its own. Yes, there is the academic side, which is a huge boon to Nebraska, as it will join other likeminded institutions who are all members of the AAU.
But enough about academics. Nobody is watching FSN to see someone take a test.
It's about athletics. It's about domination. It's about doing all that in the future. Will Nebraska fit in? Will the conference get better? I think the answer to the second one is yes, due in some small measure to the fact that number one should be an affirmative as well.
It's still just football to me.
Matt Zemek
The main question at this point is as follows: Will the Big Ten stop with Nebraska?
The moral answer: Yes, it should.
The real-world answer lying inside Jim Delany's money-obsessed mind: No, it won't.
It's important to realize that if the Big Ten doesn't stop at 12 teams and moves to 16, Delany becomes the uber-villain of college sports. It's public record that Delany fooled Dan Beebe. It's an open secret (if not part of the official record) that Delany lied to Beebe about his stated intentions, setting the seeds for the poaching of Nebraska.
Delany stood in the way of a plus-one in recent years, and the Big 12 – with the clueless Beebe at the helm – failed to show the leadership or courage to insist on one. Delany is surely filling the Big Ten's coffers – that's not really the issue or problem here. The problem is that Delany – if he does indeed go to 16 teams – will effectively be saying this: "I not only want to make money for the Big Ten; I want to make money without care for any other schools (and their attached communities)."
If the Big Ten wants to grow its football product, it's already done so with the addition of Nebraska. It's only if the Big Ten moves to 16 teams that the balance of college sports power will be fully shaken. By taking from the Big East (most likely) or maybe even from the ACC (Maryland), the Big Ten will be forcing a full-scale restructuring of America's conferences, certainly with respect to football. Delany and the Big Ten could be in the process of telling the rest of the nation's BCS schools,
"We only wanted a 12th team and don't want to blow up the Big 12." Yet, a move to 16 teams would suggest that this was never a sincere intention on the part of Mr. Delany. It would also suggest that there was a wink-wink relationship with the Pac-10 and new commissioner Larry Scott. There might not have been any formal collusion, but a move to 16 teams on the part of the Big Ten would certainly give the impression that Delany – the master chess player in all this and NOT a victim of Scott's head-turning maneuver a week ago – allowed all this to happen when he could have exercised the leadership needed to prevent it.
Yes, the Pac-10 is swooping in and getting big – at least that's what the flow of events suggests right now – but don't view Scott as the villain. No conference got a worse deal from the BCS setup than the Pac-10, which placed only two teams (Oregon State 2000 and USC 2002) in an at-large BCS bowl slot. After decades of being the kid locked outside the candy store and being saddled with horrible TV deals under former commish Tom Hansen, the Pac is finally getting a piece of the pie. Don't blame the Pac.
Texas – seeing Nebraska taken away and seeing Missouri also wooed by the Big Ten (what about Mizzou, anyway?) – saw the attractiveness of the Big 12 rapidly diminishing as a football league. Yes, the Longhorns held (and still hold) a lot of power, but their level of clout diminished to the extent that UT was balkanized by processes Jim Delany set into motion. The Big Ten pried Nebraska loose, and that's the first domino to fall. The Pac-10, while proactive, was still the secondary mover here. Delany and the Big Ten always were the prime movers.
Moreover, if the Big Ten expands to 16 via the Big East, the Big Ten will essentially sound the death knell for the Big East as a football league. The conference raided by the ACC in 2003 will have no leg to stand on, and so the Big Ten's encroachment will turn the Big East into a basketball league with no pigskin presence. If the Big Ten were to sit on 12 teams, though, Big East football could still live.
Yes, the Pac-10 is responsible for blowing up the Big 12, but the Big 12 was poorly run and had schools whom the Big Ten initially eyed to begin with. It's the Big Ten that – should it move to 16 teams – deserves almost all the responsibility for causing pain and privation at a number of schools throughout America: Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor, Memphis, the WAC schools, the Big East football schools, and very possibly the schools in Conference USA who are not taken by a downscaled Big 12 or the Mountain West.
Jim Delany could have increased the size of his money pot while not creating a scorched-earth landscape in college sports. Maybe he still will hew to only 12 teams (but it's not likely). If the Big Ten does go through with a move to 16 teams, he'll deserve the blame for a man-made earthquake that has one interest in mind: money. Students, class time, travel, conference stability, communal well being, and institutional security? Who the hell cares… if the Big Ten becomes the Big 16.
Jim Delany, you have a choice. You've probably made up your mind, but if you have a soul, you'll stay at 12. A lot of communities who would be hurt by the dawn of four 16-team superconferences are still hoping against hope that you'll show some moral courage in the face of the dollar signs dancing in your head.
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