Nebraska To Spur a Big Ten Revival?

knapplc

knapplc

International Man of Mystery
SEC is king, but with addition of Nebraska Big Ten will be back

Nebraska football is sort of like Kentucky basketball. If you erased the history of the sport and started over now, nobody would expect Nebraska's football program or Kentucky's hoops team to rise to the top of the nation. But through history, tradition, and the sheer passion of the fan bases, both programs refuse to be down for long.

Nebraska doesn't have exceptional in-state talent. It doesn't even border a state with exceptional talent. But Nebraska managed to win three national titles in the 1990s anyway. The school is still an iconic name in college football.

The addition of Nebraska is huge for the Big Ten for two reasons. One is that, under Bo Pelini, the Cornhuskers are clearly on the rise. Yes, they delivered a lackluster performance in a 19-7 Holiday Bowl loss to Washington, but they have a real chance to be national-title contenders in the next five years.

And the other reason is that the Big Ten now has more ammo in its annual bowl battle. So much of bowl success is based on matchups. If the Cornhuskers had been in the Big Ten this year, they probably would have played in the Outback Bowl against Florida. That would have knocked Penn State, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Northwestern down a notch, to lesser bowls -- and given those schools a better chance to win.
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knapplc said:
SEC is king, but with addition of Nebraska Big Ten will be back

Nebraska football is sort of like Kentucky basketball. If you erased the history of the sport and started over now, nobody would expect Nebraska's football program or Kentucky's hoops team to rise to the top of the nation. But through history, tradition, and the sheer passion of the fan bases, both programs refuse to be down for long.

Nebraska doesn't have exceptional in-state talent. It doesn't even border a state with exceptional talent. But Nebraska managed to win three national titles in the 1990s anyway. The school is still an iconic name in college football.

The addition of Nebraska is huge for the Big Ten for two reasons. One is that, under Bo Pelini, the Cornhuskers are clearly on the rise. Yes, they delivered a lackluster performance in a 19-7 Holiday Bowl loss to Washington, but they have a real chance to be national-title contenders in the next five years.

And the other reason is that the Big Ten now has more ammo in its annual bowl battle. So much of bowl success is based on matchups. If the Cornhuskers had been in the Big Ten this year, they probably would have played in the Outback Bowl against Florida. That would have knocked Penn State, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Northwestern down a notch, to lesser bowls -- and given those schools a better chance to win.
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2 of those 5 DID win! The biggest problem was two of the co-champions losing - one badly and the other to a non-AQ team - and putting Nebraska into the mix below them wouldn't have changed that at all.

 
Caven said:
knapplc said:
SEC is king, but with addition of Nebraska Big Ten will be back

Nebraska football is sort of like Kentucky basketball. If you erased the history of the sport and started over now, nobody would expect Nebraska's football program or Kentucky's hoops team to rise to the top of the nation. But through history, tradition, and the sheer passion of the fan bases, both programs refuse to be down for long.

Nebraska doesn't have exceptional in-state talent. It doesn't even border a state with exceptional talent. But Nebraska managed to win three national titles in the 1990s anyway. The school is still an iconic name in college football.

The addition of Nebraska is huge for the Big Ten for two reasons. One is that, under Bo Pelini, the Cornhuskers are clearly on the rise. Yes, they delivered a lackluster performance in a 19-7 Holiday Bowl loss to Washington, but they have a real chance to be national-title contenders in the next five years.

And the other reason is that the Big Ten now has more ammo in its annual bowl battle. So much of bowl success is based on matchups. If the Cornhuskers had been in the Big Ten this year, they probably would have played in the Outback Bowl against Florida. That would have knocked Penn State, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Northwestern down a notch, to lesser bowls -- and given those schools a better chance to win.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
2 of those 5 DID win! The biggest problem was two of the co-champions losing - one badly and the other to a non-AQ team - and putting Nebraska into the mix below them wouldn't have changed that at all.
Click to expand...
One of the biggest problems with the Big Ten was that the conference was done with right after thanksgiving. Now that the Big Ten has 12 teams people will still be talking about it in december. Also gives more teams a chance to win the Big Ten since will be split into divisions. The Big 12 will suffer the same fate as the old Big Ten did. Nobody will care once december rolls around.

 
husker_99 said:
One of the biggest problems with the Big Ten was that the conference was done with right after thanksgiving. Now that the Big Ten has 12 teams people will still be talking about it in december. Also gives more teams a chance to win the Big Ten since will be split into divisions. The Big 12 will suffer the same fate as the old Big Ten did. Nobody will care once december rolls around.
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Great point, and this cannot be overstated.

This is one of a multitude of reasons why it benefits the Big 12 to stay at full strength, and it's a crucial point in the prediction that the conference will fail soon. The number of teams they could possibly pull in is limited, but even TCU wouldn't sniff this conference.

 
The Big 12 screwed the pooch when they let TCU slip by. Rice and Houston will not help them, and I don't really think they can lure anyone from one of the other major conferences. TCU would have really helped them especially if they balanced the power of the conference by sending OU and Okie State to the North division.

 
junior4949 said:
The Big 12 screwed the pooch when they let TCU slip by. Rice and Houston will not help them, and I don't really think they can lure anyone from one of the other major conferences. TCU would have really helped them especially if they balanced the power of the conference by sending OU and Okie State to the North division.
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They could always go after a couple of C-USA teams that would open up the South. Southern Miss and Central Florida would give them 12 but no real threat.

 
husker_99 said:
junior4949 said:
The Big 12 screwed the pooch when they let TCU slip by. Rice and Houston will not help them, and I don't really think they can lure anyone from one of the other major conferences. TCU would have really helped them especially if they balanced the power of the conference by sending OU and Okie State to the North division.
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They could always go after a couple of C-USA teams that would open up the South. Southern Miss and Central Florida would give them 12 but no real threat.
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They don't want to expand because Texas doesn't want a B12 Title again. Big 12 does anything Texas wants...

 
corncraze said:
husker_99 said:
junior4949 said:
The Big 12 screwed the pooch when they let TCU slip by. Rice and Houston will not help them, and I don't really think they can lure anyone from one of the other major conferences. TCU would have really helped them especially if they balanced the power of the conference by sending OU and Okie State to the North division.
Click to expand...
They could always go after a couple of C-USA teams that would open up the South. Southern Miss and Central Florida would give them 12 but no real threat.
Click to expand...
They don't want to expand because Texas doesn't want a B12 Title again. Big 12 does anything Texas wants...
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If the Big 12's AQ status starts to get questioned you can bet they will expand. Just get safe teams that won't have a chance to beat them. Texas keeping the Big 12 alive was also done that they keep their AQ status as well. An Indepedent Texas would have no AQ like Notre Dame.

 
Well there is quite a bit of a shake up among conferences. BYU I think is going independent. Big 12 could pick them up. IMO the Texas 10 wants to stay with 10 teams. I don't think they been going balls out on trying to expand. I don't think they really went all out for TCU. It's better for Texas to have 10 team AQ conference. Less competition. They can play crappy out of conference teams to fill up there season. But this is just my guess. What do you think?

 
Why not just get a couple crappy out of conference teams? Then you're schedule is actually easier except for the title game. You lose that extra conference game and can schedule the extra non con. Plus all the other middle ground schools (Baylor, TT, KSU) get to pad their wins and the conference looks like it has better balance with 2 lousy schools and some decent schools a couple underdog challengers each year and the the big dogs. Sure there's the money issue of having to share some revenue but that title game should help and it's not as though Texas is hurting for cash. I think them losing the CCG is going to be their biggest mistake at this point. It may allow OU/Texas/OSU to slip into the title game but in the long run they'll be behind the other leagues.

 
irafreak said:
Why not just get a couple crappy out of conference teams? Then you're schedule is actually easier except for the title game. You lose that extra conference game and can schedule the extra non con. Plus all the other middle ground schools (Baylor, TT, KSU) get to pad their wins and the conference looks like it has better balance with 2 lousy schools and some decent schools a couple underdog challengers each year and the the big dogs. Sure there's the money issue of having to share some revenue but that title game should help and it's not as though Texas is hurting for cash. I think them losing the CCG is going to be their biggest mistake at this point. It may allow OU/Texas/OSU to slip into the title game but in the long run they'll be behind the other leagues.
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Ahh see I think you answered your own question. "Share some revenue" Its like the whole Longhorns Network instead of a BIG 12 network. Its all about Texas greed.

back on topic. What if Nebraska ran the tables and Went Undefeated next season.(I know, crazy long shot) :w00t Would that make the big 10 look bad? Also did they give us a tough schedule to prevent that?

 
TCU would never join the Big 12 and Texas would never want them anyway. There really are no benefits for TCU to go into an already overcrowded Texas (big 12) conference. Even if they did, it would depend on what other college they got to come in before they decided if OU would go North or not. OSU would be 1st, but if they got another North college, would they break that rival or not and be lopsided like the big 10 is now with the geographic.

 
The Big X coming back? From being where? They are the cellar dwellers of the major conferences right now so they have no place else to go. If your prediction is the conference will rival the Pac 10, Big XII, and ACC in the next few years, easy enough, there close now. If your contention is they may rival the SEC? Then it seems since the SEC will continue to win half of the national champ's per decade under the BCS, the Big X would have to win the other 5 to keep up. Ya right! Good Laugh!

 
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