I’m not going to go into academics or touch on Nebraska’s “lesser” sports. Let me preface this response by stating that I grew up in Nebraska and spent a lot of my adult life there. All of my family and my wife’s family still live there, so while I might have moved, I still have an ear to the ground in that state. Let me try to help you have insight into how Nebraskans view their college football team.

Nebraskans eat, breathe, and sleep college football. There are no professional sports teams or competing colleges in-state, so Husker football is it. While people in other states may think they have a dedicated fan base, don’t kid yourself—most are rank amateurs and simply don’t compare. These are not fair weather fans, and these fans REALLY know their football. It truly is more religion than game, with Memorial Stadium as their version of the Roman Coliseum where they can watch their beloved gladiators represent their state in battle. (If you think I’m joking, go live there.)

If you were to poll the entire state of Nebraska, you would probably be lucky to get 1 out 100 respondents willing to even consider having a conversation about Nebraska leaving the Big 12 for another conference (if even that). It would be viewed as running away from a tough schedule for a weaker conference, which goes completely against the grain of how these people approach football. While outsiders looking in may see a faded national program, Nebraskans consider their football team a national power that is recovering from a bad coaching decision. I believe that their program had the most wins over a 35 year span. That championship mindset doesn’t go away with a handful of bad seasons. They fully expect….no..they DEMAND that their team rebound and once again compete for national championships each year—then there’s this matter of some “unfinished business” in the Big 12. There is no delicate way of putting this: From a football standpoint, the Big Ten would not be looked on as peers. It would be looked upon as “food.” Most Husker fans would look on talk of a switch as an insult. The Big Ten is viewed as having done little to advance the art of football to the next level and would be unable to provide a team to be a long-term rival for a Nebraska that has regained its stature in college football. There is also animosity towards the Big Ten and other coastal conferences that are seen as having many over-ranked teams due to having so many sports writers (ie voters) compared to “flyover country” on the Plains.

Please don’t confuse NU’s strong dislike for CU and their fans as a rivalry. Most NU fans don’t consider Colorado as their rival. They simply don’t like the bellicose behavior of their fans. That doesn’t constitute a rivalry. On the other hand, even though the splitting of the conference took away the yearly Oklahoma game, Nebraskans still see OU as their rival. There is a mutual respect that goes back decades. Just as there was a time in the 90’s when the North division had most of the talent and NU fans lamented the fall of OU, you can now see OU fans hoping for the return of the Huskers so the rivalry can be restored to what it was.

I hope this helps you better understand the typical Nebraska fan.

I do not presume to speak for all Nebraska fans, but in my experience the notion posted above of 99 out of 100 Husker fans wanting to stay in the Big 12 is simply not accurate. I could not give any sort of alternate figure, but I can promise you its nowhere near that out of whack. I will tell you with certainty that most Nebraska fans hate the Big 12, and view its bastardized existence as a major loss of sovereignty for our proud program. As political power continues its shift South, these feelings only grow. Whether than translates into a willingness to leave…that’s another matter. Nebraskans are conservative folk.

Probably the most prominent reason for us to stay, from a football perspective, is our rivalry with Oklahoma. Well that went out the window 14 years ago, and after several scheduling cycles with the Sooners being absent, that relationship is basically dead in my view. The "political" relationship between the two schools is unquestionably dead; OU is firmly ensconsed in the South Division camp nowadays, along with their snotty little brothers in Stillwater.

The Big Eight is completely gone. We have no traditional ties to any of the Texas schools; believe me, we’d all get by just fine without our tussles with the Red Raiders and Bears in Lubbock and Waco every fourth year. The Kansas State, Colorado and Iowa State are failing programs. KU and Missou have their moments to be fair, but the majority of our North Division colleagues are going nowhere. They lack the dedication, demographics and alumni base to be competitive in the foreseeable future. That is not who I want to see my school tied to in the next century. They all basically stabbed us in the back during the formulative talks with the SWC back in 1995, and Husker fans- and Tom Osborne- have certainly never forgotten that. They can go swing for all we care.

For my part, I think NU would be a fine addition to the Big Ten. We have a lot of cultural similarities with people in Big Ten country…its just feels like a better fit than with the Texans. We’re a land-grant university in a small state so we’ll never be an academic powerhouse, but I feel our university system does a fine job with the resources available to it. Certainly nothing to be embarrassed of; we cannot all be Northwestern of course. This isn’t about academics anyhow, lets not kid ourselves. It’s a football deal, and I think, despite some recent struggles, our resume speaks for itself in this vein. I, for one, would love to see it happen.

While you might put a lot of solice in this biased publication that ranks all midwest school as inferior, that is the perogative of you all that is fine, ALTHOUGH i would like you to all look up which school has the most acadmic all americans in the nation. Upon doing this you will realize that Nebraska athletes would be extremely competitve if not better than most big ten school.

    Side Note: I agree with the statement that a move to the big ten would be seen as a step in the wrong direction. In both football, basketball, and baseball. The Big 12 is no doubt a stronger conference in football and typically a better conference in basketball.

The last time NU was on TV was the Colorado game. Not sure if that was a national broadcast, though. That game has been televised on ABC for years.

huskers, the perception outside of Nebraska is that good grades and hence national honors are easier to come by in Lincoln. Academic AA is sort of subjective. And its no secret we made a lot of hay with prop 48’s, back in the day.

I think from NU’s perspective, there are advantages and disadvantages to the Big 10.
Advantages: better exposure. I think Fox’s coverage is rinky-dink, second rate. Definitely better than nothing, but not that great.
Better academic reputation: I suspect the moving to the Big 10 would provide impetus to upgrade programs. At least the acceptance rate at UN-L is a reasonable 75%, unlike the 90% or so at several other Big XII schools.

Agree that we don’t really have a true, long term rival.

Disadvantage: While the Big XII is dominated by UT (and the other southern schools), UN-L does carry some clout. In the Big Ten we would be almost an outpost.
Even Iowa CIty is a drive, and all others are further.
Also, despite better exposure, I’m not sure being in the Big 10 would help football recruiting. Some of our best recruiting areas historically are Colorado, Missouri, and Texas. We would be in a conference with no teams in those states.

FWIW my undergraduate degree is from NU and my graduate degree is from an ACC school.

…I can only see joining the Big Ten as a bonus for NU. Many Husker fans believe the recruiting sun rises and sets in Texas; I disagree. Nebraska is fifth on the Big 12 totem pole in terms of recruiting the state, and will never rise higher than fourth. We will never be competitve with Texas and Oklahoma by fighting with A&M, Okie State, Missou and Tech for their B-List prospects. That is a losing long-term strategy.

Point in fact, there weren’t more than a handful of Texans who started for Osborne’s dominant teams of the 1990s. Those squads were an amalgamation of talent from across the country; California, Florida, New Jersey, Missouri, Illinois and yes, Texas. That is where Nebraska’s return to prominence lies, and its going to be difficult to achieve with the rinky-dink (great term schwarm) television coverage NU gets in the Big 12. Heck, studies have shown that even the crappy coverage we do get doesn’t help much, as the audience share of Big 12 games not involving UT, OU or A&M in Texas is low anyhow. We aren’t getting the ONE benefit we supposed to out of this deal.

The Big Ten gets far better regional breaks, being shown often in California, the East Coast, and even the Southeast. This is not to mention the national 11:00am slot on ESPN that is pretty much the first game of the day.

The travel issue is somewhat legitimate, but I’d counter with two points. First, its getting more and more difficult to acquire away game tickets as it is. Many schools are slapping stipulations where non-season ticket holders must purchase two or more tickets to other games in order to get one for the Nebraska game. Second, anyone that’s driven from Lincoln to College Station, Austin, Boulder or Lubbock can tell you its not exactly a stroll across town. Husker fans can, and will, travel. Personally, I’d rather drive 10 hours to see us play Ohio State in Columbus than six to play Oklahoma State in Stillwater, and never think twice about it.

but as I posted above, all of our Big XII north opponents are in neighboring states. If we get a few years of decent coaching, its not hard to believe that we can get regularly get some top prospects out of these states, plus some out of Texas. By joining the Big 10, you may be counting on recruiting long distance.

I agree its frustrating to watch OU and UT at the top of every major men’s sport… and if that’s all we have to look forward to, then why not concentrate on academics. But for now I would rather see a push to even the playing field, with better TV coverage for instance.

Stillwater… ouch. Not fair.

This subject (Nebraska jumping to the Big Televen) comes up at least once a year.
As does Colorado jumping to the Pac-10.

Never say never, but as close as Nebraska is to dominating the Big-12 north again; which will put them in the CCG and a step away from the MNCG, I doubt this will ever fly.

Oh by the way, Nebraska’s dominance in womens volleyball would fit well in the Big Televen.
Russ Rose would puke knowing he’d have to play in the NU Coliseum every year.