Nebraska Had An Equipment Problem Today

[Robert Goren]

They had a problem with their helmets. It seems they no longer fit. Their heads had grown several sizes since the Kansas State game.

[CBedo]

I am a die hard orange blood, and usually pass on betting their games since I am smart enough to know I probably am too emotionally tied in.

That being said, I thought Texas getting the 10 was the best bet I've seen all year. Nebraska's "undefeated" campaign included the weakest of the weak. Washington & Kansas State were the best they'd seen. Neither had anything resembling Texas's defensive team speed.

[Marshall Bennett]

Still, I felt Texas had no chance. I was shocked. Longhorns had shown me absolutely nothing leading into game.

[Pace Cap'n]

If the Nebraska receivers had caught their balls, it would have been a blowout. Four dropped touchdown passes, hard to win when that happens.

[ElKabong]

NU beat themselves as much yesterday as UT beat themselves vs OU. We gave the sooners a win with several defensive penalties on 3rd and long that kept several drives alive

Now ou is #1 in the bcs poll....ou wouldn't finish 4th in the sec west. LSU, Bama, Auburn and Arky are all better. Miss State might beat ou on any given week...maybe ole miss, too

This conference sure took a big dip on quality. UT should have bolted instead of hanging around the b12. In 2 yrs we're going to have a tremendous team & will be in the same predicament TCU or Boise St is today, by being stuck in this conference

[delayjf]

UT should have bolted instead of hanging around the b12.

Why didn't they??

This conference sure took a big dip on quality

NU defense may be the best in the country.

[Valuist]

What does the N on their helmets stand for?

Knowledge, of course.

[cj]

Why didn't they??

Texas/OU would be crazy to leave. The winner of their game is a cinch for the Big 12 title game 95% of the time, though now and then the loser actually makes it. Now, without a title game, they'll be conference champs. I imagine their will be a few invites in the next few years to get back to 12.

If Texas would stop scheduling cupcakes (though one did destroy them this year) they can make up for a "weaker" conference. Joining the PAC 10 would have made them more money, sure, but certainly made winning titles, conference or national, much tougher. I guess it depends what is important to them.

[delayjf]

Now, without a title game, they'll be conference champs. I imagine their will be a few invites in the next few years to get back to 12.

That title game has cost the B-12 several chances to play for a national title.

[cj]

That title game has cost the B-12 several chances to play for a national title.

A few, but it has helped more often than not. OU even got a title shot after losing the B12 title.

[ElKabong]

cj,

Not true. By staying we're supposedly making more $ with the uneven distribution of tv and conf merchandising funds.

Also, costs go down by staying in the b12...travelling the minor sport teams to Pullman, Seattle and Corvallis, etc would take a huge chunk of that pac 16 cash.

But to answer delayjf, we'll likely (announce ) leave in 4-5 yrs after the b12 pact runs dry. Powers wasn't happy with the pac16 deal (even tho he's a Berkeley guy) and there was a lot of pushback internally on going to the b10. Remember, the past 3 yrs the b10 has been ridiculed for being a pathetically weak football conf...Just what they don't want to move into. This yr the b10 looks very good, but is that an abberation?

[cj]

cj,

Not true. By staying we're supposedly making more $ with the uneven distribution of tv and conf merchandising funds.



I should have said had they left it would have been for money. Obviously it wasn't a good deal since they stayed. However, the uneven distribution is what caused other schools, especially Nebraska, to resent OU and Texas.

In the end it won't matter, OU and Texas will do just fine wherever they wind up. It is the other schools that are hanging on for dear life.

[delayjf]

However, the uneven distribution is what caused other schools, especially Nebraska, to resent OU and Texas.

Nebraska will do real well money wise moving to the B10 - not just athletically but academically as well. With the split into two divisions the NU-OU rivalry lost some luster. Still I will miss the tradition that was the B8.

For about 7 - 8 years, the better teams have all been warm weather teams, but it does not seems like better talent is making it's way north again.

Now if NU could only get some reciever talent. I don't think they had an All conference receiver since Irving Fryar

[ElKabong]

It's going to be hard for NU to establish a recruiting base in the b10. Their Cal connection won't be bolstered by the move, their attempt to recruit Texas will come to a screeching halt when it comes to top talent here (see Arkansas after they left the swc). I wish NU well, they're a class act. But they have to re-establish a recruiting base and that's never easy for a program in a state that produces few d1 kids

[ElKabong]

I should have said had they left it would have been for money. Obviously it wasn't a good deal since they stayed. However, the uneven distribution is what caused other schools, especially Nebraska, to resent OU and Texas.

In the end it won't matter, OU and Texas will do just fine wherever they wind up. It is the other schools that are hanging on for dear life.

As odd as it sounds, the NU chancellor said there was no animosity towards UT at all. They saw eye to eye on a lot of things, didn't on very few. At his level, TEXAS was not a reason to leave.

He saw a chance for their Univ, a nondescript one at that, to gain much by getting a hold of the CIC $$ and prestige. That will be a great boost to that University (w/o even thinking about a new football conf---and remember, NU has a weak hoops program and the baseball program underperforms).

I'll try to find that interview and post it, it was from the Omaha WH back in Aug or so. Great read. What you and I and everyone else thought was the case (TEXAS envy, by NU) wasn't the case behind the scenes. It was simply a chance for NU to improve their University.

Osborne I'm sure is a diff story. He hated losing to us 9 outta 10 times & having his recruiting base crushed.

[ElKabong]

wow that didn't take long....google is awesome.

Long but very good read on the machinations and thought process in NU moving off to the b10

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100830/BIGRED/708309872

[ElKabong]

parts of interest in the article (which is worth reading all the way thru)....obviously "fans" and Osborne were the only disgruntled red folk
========================================

Sure, Husker football fans had screamed robbery just 10 days earlier when a second was put back on the clock, allowing Texas to beat Nebraska for the Big 12 title.

Osborne also personally had some longtime concerns about the Texas-centric nature of the Big 12 and the natural advantages of its Sunbelt schools. It certainly wasn't the same as the old Big Eight, the league in which the legendary coach toiled for decades before it absorbed Texas and three other Southwest Conference schools in the mid-1990s.

Osborne had opposed the relocation of the conference offices from Kansas City to Dallas. He also fought anchoring the conference title game in Dallas, preferring it move between cities in the north and the south.

But Perlman didn't really share those geographic concerns. In fact, he actually would end up voting to play the title game in Dallas for the next several years. “I wasn't prepared to sit in Kansas City in the cold,'' Perlman said.

And on the issues of greatest import, “Nebraska was getting largely what it wanted,'' Perlman said.

While some schools complained about the league's unequal distribution of revenue from network TV contracts, Nebraska wasn't among them. It joined Texas as a strong proponent of giving big-time football schools — those most appealing to the networks — a bigger slice of the pie.

Plus, Perlman said, the Big 12 had just recently completed important conversations about whether to form its own TV network for secondary sports programming, akin to the Big Ten's.

While many have blamed Texas and its plans to start its own Longhorn TV network as the reason a Big 12 network never got off the ground, Nebraska wasn't on board with a conference network, either. Nebraska's support was conditional on the high-profile schools taking a larger cut of that revenue, too — a condition some schools strongly opposed.

[delayjf]

It's going to be hard for NU to establish a recruiting base in the b10.

Good point, it will be interesting to see if and or how NU recruiting shifts. They seemed to do OK before the Texas teams joined the conference.

Personally I think NU problem is since they have moved away from a running offense they have not been able to recruit the kinds of athletes (speedy wide recievers) it takes to run that style of offense. I think they would do better with a offense simular to USC - emphasis on the run and play action passes.

Bo has done an unbelievable turn around with their defense

[ElKabong]

delayjf,

Actually the ncaa rule changes took a lot of wind out of NU's recruiting. There were those "bob and jackie thomas schollie fund for go big red Football" and whatnot that allowed the so-called walkons @ NU to play at NU w/o being counted as a schollie. When that gravytrain was shutdown it hurt them a lot.

When the b12 voted to limit Partial Academic Qualifiers, that hurt them a lot (this was what Osborne fought tooth and nail, lost, then whined to the media about it)

When he had more than one perennial top ten football program in his conference to deal with, that hurt NU a lot.

Basically, NU couldn't adapt to a tougher environment. It's that simple. When you lose 9 of 10 to TEXAS in conf play, that proves a lot.

Pelini has done well, just don't know if he's capable of sustaining what he had late last season (remember, iowa state beat nebraska last season!). So far he hasn't.