My Nomination for First MGoUser to Make a Case for Nebraska
I hereby nominate user steviebrownforheisman for the honor of first MGoUser to make a viable case for Nebraska's expansion candidacy. Spurred on by GCS's rejoinder to Dreisbach Turner Overdrive's dismissal of Nebraska's ability to expand BTN viewership, my nominee made the following bold statement:
Nebraska has a large, extended fanbase of people that live outside of the state. Not only that, Nebraska football is the only sports team worth half a shit in the state. New York has other, non-Big 10 universities to compete with, not to mention the Bills, Jets, & Giants. Take it from someone who used to live in Nebraska: EVERYONE IN THE STATE WORSHIPS HUSKER FOOTBALL.
Edit: There are many other reasons. Nebraska, I would be willing to wager, has more people watching their games than Syracuse, Rutgers & Pittsburgh. Nebraska played in the Big 12 Championship last season. They have sold out every game since 1962. Syracuse & Rutgers probably didn't even sell out all of their home games last season.
I'll agree they may not have as strong a resume as some of the other candidates, but the only schools that have been discussed that would add more prestige to Big 10 football are Texas and Notre Dame. [Ed. emphasis mine.] To dismiss them as undeserving of joining the Big 10, to me, means that you think people actually give a shit about the Big East.
I'd also like to give due credit to user wile_e8 who in his response to my nominee, astutely linked to what turned out to be a particularly prescient post in Frank the Tank's Slant. In that post. FtT made a persuasive argument that the schools that were the most valuable to the BTN were not necessarily the ones that brought the largest number of subscribers into the BTN footprint. Rather, since the ratio of BTN advertising revenue to subscriber fees is 60/40, Nebraska was actually the third most valuable school after Texas and wait for it, Rutgers.
(1) The 60/40 Rule – This might be the most important piece of information regarding Big Ten expansion that I’ve seen to date: the Big Ten Network makes 60% of its revenue from advertising and 40% 0f its revenue from carriage fees. I’ll be honest with you – I thought that it would’ve been the other way around and it has definitely altered the lens through which we need to look at expansion candidates. What this basically means that if push comes to shove, the Big Ten should pick a school that has a great fan base (which translates in viewers for ad revenue) as opposed to market size (which contributes to carriage fees). We’ve been very focused on footprint sizes and research funding in our discussions lately, but at the end of the day, ad revenue is the #1 source of dollars for the Big Ten Network and that’s based on finding schools that Joe Blow in Anytown, USA will want to watch. Here’s a chart of some of the expansion candidates with their football TV ratings from last year. (Note how well Nebraska and Pitt performed compared to everyone else.) Now, that doesn’t mean that expanding the footprint is irrelevant (as the New York City market is still an important target for the Big Ten), but it definitely lets people “think like sports fans” a little bit here.
(3) If the Big Ten wants to make a ton of TV money, it will invite Nebraska – I’ve been increasingly become more and more supportive of Nebraska joining the Big Ten lately and Patrick’s analysis completely sealed it. Nebraska’s small market be damned – the Husker fan base is as rabid as any other in the country and they will tune in anytime, anywhere. ...[W]e should remove Nebraska from the realm of “Well, they might be coming instead of Missouri” or “They’re a good back-up if Notre Dame doesn’t want to join” and put the Cornhuskers into the “lock” category instead. I will now officially be shocked if Big Ten expansion occurs without Nebraska involved.
So, the floor is open for a second to my nomination and for additional nominees if anyone can find an earlier post that makes a cogent argument for Nebraska as a serious expansion candidate.
I'm not going to look for an earlier post, because this is the earliest one I can think of that makes the good argument for money from Nebraska, and we all know, though the strength of the league and the brand is important, the real reason for expansion was, is, and always will be money.
Congrats to Mr Brown's Heisman Campaign, but I cannot support any of Frank the Tank's writing. He basically seems to have tried to make as many guesses as possible, hoping for a correct answer eventually. Perusing his old posts brings up gems like: This, which lists a whopping 15(!) possible teams outside of ND and Texas and this, which argues that Texas isn't trying to leverage the Big 12. He doesn't seem prescient so much as prolific.
Good job StevieBrownForHeisman.
Now MGoShoe, if that is your real name, if you really want to impress me with your search button skills and google userage, tell me who was the first mgomember to make a case for Penn State in the Big Ten! Ha! I knew couldn't handle a real challenge. Oh sure, make excuses like "there was no mgoblog" or "the internet was just in its infancy dumbass", or "no", all you want. I ain't buyin' it. Pathetic...
...larsonlo. I'm unable to provide an answer to that. If we wanted to try, I know we could probably eliminate a ton of users simply by age. If you weren't born by 1982, you probably didn't think of it first.
And my full name is MGoShoe B. Doowah.
Seconded!
http://mgoblog.com/content/big-ten-expansion-grid-judgment
Lot of Nebraskaites in that thread....actually mostly arguing against the idea that Nebraska wouldn't want to leave the Big 12.
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/big-10-amplify-its-search-12th-member?page=2
Another thread....in which a user gets negbanged for suggesting Nebraska. Or for being King of Belch, I can't get all of those usernames straight most of the time.
...skills or recollection. MaizeandBlueWahoo is perhaps too modest to mention that he made this to the point post on 11 Dec. Simi follows up eight minutes later with his first impassioned rationale for Nebraska and gets a nice negging for his efforts.
I'd say M-Wolverine gets some credit as well (although his was a 16 Dec post and Simi has 11 Dec and 14 Dec posts to his credit).
While Texas would be an awesome addition, you might as well say "North Carolina" or "UCLA", for all it's likelihood. Really, if they're serious, really serious, and aren't going to kiss Notre Dame's ring again...they need to give the big recruiting job to Nebraska. More "midwest" than some of the more Southern or Western Big 12 schools, demographically not that much different than Iowa, and really, a team that would one of the all time traditions in football to the conference. And at least respectable in a number of other sports.
I'm not a Nebraska "fan" by any means. But if you can't make Notre Dame work, this is the only possible candidate that really adds anything worth changing up the conference wholesale for.
Outstanding, sir. Outstanding.
There was a post in which MGoUser Zone Left specifically argued (as the OP) against Nebraska joining the Big 10. MGoUser Simi Maquoketa took on multiple MGoUsers in arguing that Nebraska to the Big 10 was very possible (in what turned out to be a long and heated debate.) Go to the second page of comments to see where the argument really heated up...
Landon C's argument against Simi:
You have to balance who is willing to leave their current situation with the benefits they could bring. Would Nebraska be great in pretty much every aspect but travel? Yes, but there's no chance they give up their rivalry with Oklahoma and their identity with the Big 12.
And this pearl of wisdom from Seth 9:
Nebraska will never leave the Big 12...EVER. Believe it or not, they have strong feelings about most of the original Big 8 (especially Oklahoma). Furthermore, they have no intention whatsoever of trading their easy berth to the Big 12 championship for playing in the Big Ten, where they have no running rivalries. It simply won't happen.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the Nebraska-Colorado rivalry, which is pretty big as well.
So, while steviebrownforheisman may have put together a nice argument for Nebraska in April, it was by no means a "bold statement" nor even close to the first. Simi Maquoketa had already blazed a trail of negs in pursuit of truth against popular opinion back in December.
I propose that everyone go back and give Simi a few pos-bangs for daring to step outside of the board's more mainstream opinions of the moment.
I'll close with Simi's argument for Nebraska, made on December 14th of 2009:
Your take on Missouri, though, and I'm assuming Nebraska would be in the same boat: One dominant division would be a reason to get the hell out of the Big 12--particularly if that dominant division has MONEY, resources, and deep pockets that are only overshadowed by the size of their egos.
And there are exactly ZERO "rivalries" worth noting that involve any of the North teams outside of Missouri-Kansas, which has all the excitement of the Old Oaken Bucket.
This is the conference you raid--Colorado is probably on their way out anyway, and the Big 12 is and always will be the sandbox belonging to Texas and Oklahoma.
But again, for the millionth time--fuck Missouri. Go for Nebraska. They could use a jolt and so could the Big Ten. Nebraska brings more instant hype than anybody but Notre Dame (who isn't coming not ever never no way never wanted to and doesn't want to).
Man, I wish people would stop approaching this with such a provincial mindset. Pitt and Rutgers just really suck from a Big Picture POV.
..and:
Now one thing is sure: Nebraska brings few TV sets in--but they do have national appeal and are still a Big Name in football. They have, since 1997, been no less relevant than Michigan--the two schools' football records are almost identical since then.
This is just a pholosophical reach by me. Nebraska is not nearly as tied to the Big 12 as outsiders would like to think. The fan base here is as knowlegable about the Big Ten as anywhere outside the Big Ten footprint. I think they would bring in a lot more interest to the Big Ten from the whole plains region. It is not nearly as far fetched as you'd think.
...on that exchange. I see you were one of the few to back Simi. Looking at his posting history, it appears he threw in the towel on 14 January. I'm guessing he got sick of arguing from an unpopular point of view. That's too bad. We need more Michigan fans in Cornhusker territory to give us the Nebraska perspective.
Of course it's possible he's back in another guise. Anyone want to fess up?
Anyhow, props to Simi for his early advocacy. He wasn't able to get many on the Nebraska bandwagon, but he was right.
I'm still giving credit to steviebrownforheisman for reintroducing them into the argument and to wile_e8 for pointing to the real reason they make such a good candidate from a TV revenue perspective - the almighty advertising dollar.
"I'd have to see a quality survey done of the entire fanbases and academic communities of both Missouri and Nebraska detailing the level of interest in leaving the B12 for the B10 before I'll believe that the possibilities of leaving are anything more than a highly unlikely notion, especially Nebraska."
Oh. That was me.
Nenrska is old news now...
[update: neg away; context is here, apparently no sense of humor among post archaeologists...:]
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/ot-all-time-favorite-mgoterms?page=1#comment-517270
just start a new forum topic and ask your question!
speaking of which, anyone got a Baxter update?
I concede that I thought Nebraska to the Big Ten was insanely idiotic.
But I also thought the same about Missouri.
I consider this a push.
At some point, probably on page three or later of some thread, I think I made a cringing, apologetic post defending Nebraska against accusations of being a lame choice. And probably got negged for it.
But I know I wasn't first by a long shot. I was the nervous kid in the corner tentatively joining in after seeing braver kids out on the limb. If I could have made the font grayscale and about 4 point, I am sure I considered it.
Give me five years and I'll have changed this story to me calling Delany in 2005 and demanding it.