KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Poor Tom Osborne. The Nebraska athletic director emerged from a Big 12 meeting and was held up by a circle of reporters hungry for information.
“Is Nebraska going to the Big Ten?"
“Why is Nebraska upset at the Big 12?"
“What could the Big 12 do to make Nebraska happy?"
All these years and monosyllables, and some media still don't know Osborne that well. What did they think he would say?
“I don't think the Big Ten knows what they're going to do," Osborne said with a shrug. “They might add one, might add three, five. We have no indication right now what's going to happen. We like the Big 12. We're not looking to leave.
“We're not mad at anybody. We're not upset with anything."
Someone asked Osborne to elaborate on a recent comment that the Big 12 was shifting south toward Texas.
“I made that comment one time but probably shouldn't have said it," Osborne said. “When the conference office moved to Dallas, now you do see a push to have the playoff (championship) game in Dallas for three years. Those are not things that are major problems for Nebraska."
Osborne won't budge, and so the media and the chat rooms around the league go back to scratching their collective heads, wondering what NU's problem is with the Big 12.
They should have paid attention to Osborne's body language as he was surrounded by those reporters. He looked uncomfortable. It was symbolic.
Osborne and Nebraska were never fully comfortable joining this league and have grown less and less comfortable in recent years.
It's not something you can put into words, which was the case when I attended the Big Ten meetings in Chicago two weeks ago.
There, several Big Ten media and officials asked me the same questions that came up on Wednesday: Does Nebraska have a problem with the Big 12?
I explained the power shift to Texas, the perception/reality of Texas running the league and the location of the football championship game. The Big Ten types all replied, “So what? What's the big deal?"
The big deal is that I sense that Osborne — and many Nebraska fans — don't see themselves as a fit in the Big 12 anymore, if they ever did.
Other old Big Eight partners have embraced the Texas culture. Nebraska has not and will not.
Take the championship game issue. Look, it's going back to Texas for another three years. That will be announced later this week.
Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe explained why, saying that if you have the best football stadium in the world in your backyard, you take advantage of it, “whether it's in Oklahoma City or Omaha or Lincoln." The latter reference was for the former football coach in Nebraska.
Osborne is holding onto Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium. He's holding firm on the north. In a preliminary vote last March, A.D.s from Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State all voted to go back to Texas. Why wouldn't they pick the stadium down the road from their fans and schools?
“I think they like the money," Osborne said Wednesday.
Why wouldn't Osborne pick Cowboys Stadium? Doesn't NU recruit in Texas, too?
Yes, but it's complicated. It's a Big Eight thing. It's a loyalty thing. Osborne, like a lot of Nebraskans, saw the Big 12 as the Big Eight helping four Southwest Conference schools back in 1995. Osborne wants Nebraska fans to have driving access to the title game. But the old Big Eight should get a gesture, too, for balance, for fairness.
What does it say when NU is the only former Big Eight school that feels that way? It says that if there is a gravity pull toward Texas, the old Big Eight schools haven't exactly fought the urge. It also says that they may be doing politics to get the basketball tourney in Kansas City.
What it also strongly suggests is that Nebraska doesn't have much in common with the old gang anymore, if it ever did.
For more than 30 minutes on Wednesday, Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione talked about the Big 12 as a bunch of overachieving underdogs who have overcome the odds to win national championships and have only just begun. He sounded as if he were promoting a movie.
You don't hear Osborne touting the league that way. And you won't.
The difference is, OU has embraced the league. Why not? The Sooners were always more Southwest Conference than Big Eight/Midwest. Former OU Athletic Director Donnie Duncan was in Kansas City on Tuesday, and Duncan told the story of how OU ended the Oklahoma-Nebraska series when the league was formed.
Duncan said, “We had a chief rival — Texas." When asked about playing NU as an annual nonconference game or conference rival game — as proposed by former Nebraska A.D. Bill Byrne back in 1995 — Duncan said, “Bill didn't play Texas every year."
Bottom line: Oklahoma embraced Texas as its rival and left NU in the dust. And maybe that has stuck in Osborne's craw all these years, too.
For decades, NU and OU ruled the Big Eight. In the Big 12, Texas has supplanted Nebraska in that position.
There's talk that the Big 12 athletic directors and presidents will issue a statement of unity either Thursday or Friday, pledging their support to the league. Which won't be worth the paper it's on if the Big Ten calls.
If and when that call comes to Lincoln, there will be a lot of reasons for Nebraska to jump. And not nearly enough gravity from Texas to pull the Huskers back.
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Shatel: Osborne, Nebraska look more and more like outsiders in Big 12
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whateveritis1224
All-Conference
This is just a rehash and reassertion of things we've known for a while now.
Nebraska doesn't like playing second fiddle to Texas like they are now. It wouldn't be that bad if some of the things Nebraska's wanted done had gone their way over the years (talking about all of the 11-1 votes). But they haven't so it's really not a surprise for Nebraska to look towards the Big 10. Sure by moving to the Big 10 we're on the bottom looking up, but there's a very real possibility that in a couple years Nebraska could get into the OSU/MU/PSU triad of power in football (Iowa's been too up and down to be called in that, no matter how down Michigan's been).
It's not necessarily Texas controlling the conference, it's the fact that outside of Missouri it seems like no one cares. Texas talking about starting up a Longhorn network and all they hear around the country is how it's a good idea from everyone not involved in the Big XII. And Beebee hasn't said anything about it. If Beebee really wants to put on a show of solidarity, he needs to stand up for the rest of the schools and stop bending over for Texas all the time. He needs to start with telling Texas that they can't start a Longhorn Network unless they package it with the rest of the Big XII schools.
Nebraska doesn't like playing second fiddle to Texas like they are now. It wouldn't be that bad if some of the things Nebraska's wanted done had gone their way over the years (talking about all of the 11-1 votes). But they haven't so it's really not a surprise for Nebraska to look towards the Big 10. Sure by moving to the Big 10 we're on the bottom looking up, but there's a very real possibility that in a couple years Nebraska could get into the OSU/MU/PSU triad of power in football (Iowa's been too up and down to be called in that, no matter how down Michigan's been).
It's not necessarily Texas controlling the conference, it's the fact that outside of Missouri it seems like no one cares. Texas talking about starting up a Longhorn network and all they hear around the country is how it's a good idea from everyone not involved in the Big XII. And Beebee hasn't said anything about it. If Beebee really wants to put on a show of solidarity, he needs to stand up for the rest of the schools and stop bending over for Texas all the time. He needs to start with telling Texas that they can't start a Longhorn Network unless they package it with the rest of the Big XII schools.
Fuzzy
All-Conference
Wow, you read the article and its like Nebraska has very good reasons to leave the Big 12, and money isn't one of them. I always thought that Arrowhead Stadium was a more centralized area for the Big 12 title game, its within a good driving distance for the all the schools. Having it in Arlington makes sense money wise, But the home field advantage goes to the south. If Nebraska and Missouri both leave for the Big 10, i don't see anyone within the next few years maybe more, to defeat a south conference team in the championship game. Of course, the blame will be put on Nebraska and Missouri for leaving when the Big 12 falls from its Texan throne, but i see it as jumping ship before the other one sinks.
Husker_x
All-American
Here's the thing, though. If the Big 10 expands to 16 teams, including Nebraska and Mizzou––and gasp, Notre Dame––there will be no more triad of power. The Big 10 will have so many elite football programs both by wins and national prestige and tradition that centralization will diminish. New rivalries will sprout, old ones may change. No one ever though Nebraska and Oklahoma could die, but it faded drastically. If Ohio State ever has its down period, a lot could happen to the entire landscape of football north of SEC country.
AS far as the CCG, money is the issue. Outside of NU, and recently MU, nobody else in the North has visions of reaching the game on a consistent basis. Those schools, like the South teams, beleive the game will be more profitable at Jerry World. So these schools collectively make more money, and since their fans would be thrilled just to reach the CCG, they'll happily pay for the once-in-blue-moon experience.