Would you miss the Huskers?

Submitted by Picktown GoBlue on

So, OU President David Boren thinks the Big 12 should look to growing up to, well, 12.  The article at the worldwide leader indicates one of the options for growth might be taking Nebraska back, in addition to the usual speculation of Cincy, BYU, and others.

I think our obvious vote on this board would be to give them Maryland and Rutgers.  Or do we hand over all 4 of our recent additions?

WichitanWolverine

June 24th, 2015 at 11:38 PM ^

That's a good point about Harbaugh. And I remind myself of that when I read a lot of the comments on this site from people who are already planning their championship celebrations. I'm a pessimist and a skeptic by nature, especially when it comes to Michigan. But we did hire the closest thing to a "guarantee" as there is. Harbaugh is the best football coach in the country and there's enough data to back that up that even a skeptic like me can't argue.

In reply to by Mr. Owl

wildbackdunesman

June 24th, 2015 at 9:30 PM ^

You scored our first TD and it was with a flip no less....and then you designed the Michigan Union and the Union buildings at MSU and Purdue -- your opinion must be solid!

Avon Barksdale

June 24th, 2015 at 9:00 PM ^

Nebraska gives the Big Ten West some sort of name recognition even if they are a shell of their former selves.

The only way losing Nebraska would not hurt is if the Big Ten acquired a Missouri or Virginia Tech like school and shifted the division's again which is obviously not anything that we want to see again after the Legends and Leaders debacle.

justingoblue

June 24th, 2015 at 9:00 PM ^

It wouldn't be like losing Ohio State or even Minnesota or Iowa, but I am glad Nebraksa is in the Big Ten and think they have a lot to offer.

Like a lot of people around here, though, Maryland and Rutgers could leave tonight and I'd be simultaneously celebrating and realizing just how little I actually care where they end up.

coldnjl

June 24th, 2015 at 9:04 PM ^

I agree. NU fits perfectly. This nostalgia for the old B1G (-Nebraska and Penn State) is idiotic. They contribute to our profile and prevent us from being a crappier ACC. I also like Maryland. 

FrankMurphy

June 25th, 2015 at 5:01 PM ^

I used to like Penn State, but the cult-like atmosphere around their football program (exposed by the apalling reaction of their fanbase to the Sandusky scandal) made me wish they had never joined the conference. 

Fun fact: Penn State was admitted to the league by a narrow 7-3 vote, and Michigan is one of the three schools that voted against them.

Gulogulo37

June 24th, 2015 at 9:17 PM ^

Yes, but with how ND has partially joined the ACC and conferences and conference championships seem very helpful for getting into the playoff, it seems things have changed. The thing about all the repeated attempts to get ND in the past is that nothing was any different year after year. Realignment and the playoff especially seem to have changed things. Would be great if we could replace Nebraska with ND. No idea about how open ND really is to it though.

Blue Durham

June 24th, 2015 at 9:26 PM ^

Despite all of the financials involved as well as the fact that there is a long, negative history of Notre Dame with the Big 10 (particularly Michigan) and Nebraska's long-standing problem with the way Texas operated within the Big 12, clearly Mski2812's NCAA overloard that dictates what conference each school is assigned is going to make this happen.

BlowGoo

June 25th, 2015 at 11:42 AM ^

Just stop. Please, for the love of God, stop. Notre Dame is that psycho hot girlfriend who is just so fricking hot, but psycho. Batshit. Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. The girlfriend who you take out on a date hoping you'll get lucky, but 98 percent of the time, the date ends with you trying to find where she threw your car keys in the 7-Eleven parking lot while in a drunken fit at 3am, while she got a ride home from the Hell's Angel who keyed your car after pissing on the grill. But it's okay because in the morning, she'll have forgotten everything and she's hot. Then one day she's gone, and you realize just how much of a bullet you dodged. Hell, Notre Dame can't even commit to the ACC completely even now! If the ACC could check for crabs, herpes, and crabs with herpes, they should. Man, unless you can wrap their entire football program in three-layers of condom, just keep Notre Dame away.

M-Dog

June 25th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^

And all that was 20 years ago.  

Now she's old and divorced with 3 kids living at home.  She keeps leading on that loser middle-aged balding ACC guy who keeps trying to rewind the clock 20 years.  It's all very pathetic.

She's college football's Cougar.  Do not want.

 

 

Blue Durham

June 24th, 2015 at 9:00 PM ^

I think Nebraska is a great fit for the Big Ten.

Whomever from the Big 12 implied that getting Nebraska back as a possibility a dreamer. The problems that drove Nebraska out of the Big 12 in the first place aren't fixed.  Regardless, they just aren't going back, period.  Why in the hell would they?

The Big 12 options are Wyoming, Colorado State and the such.  The Big 12 (Texas) made their bed, now they don't want to sleep in it.

Blue Durham

June 24th, 2015 at 9:10 PM ^

Plus the academic prestige, plus no Texas.

Why in the hell would they ever want to go back? This is just some Big 12 moran floating trial balloons. Everyone was trying to leave the Big 12, and Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Missouri succeeded.

Did this guy ever say why anyone would now want to JOIN the Big 12? Of course not. They will have to do what they did after the mass exodus. Take the Southwest Conference rejects (and then that weren't even rejects but never weres) of the world.

Gulogulo37

June 24th, 2015 at 9:44 PM ^

Well, at least they were dominating the North division when they were there. And I think they can recruit better in the Big 12 because of the Texas connection.

What does the academic prestige actually do to Nebraska in practical terms?

I agree though all the reasons they left in the first place seem the same, mainly Texas.

EDIT: "As others have noted, significant revelation today about the Big 12's TV deal. If everyone's share is guaranteed, expansion far more viable" - Stewart Mandel's twitter

Blue Durham

June 24th, 2015 at 9:48 PM ^

You're kidding, right? What does academic prestige do for an academic institution? You do realize the role organizations like AAU play an important role in the conference and its member institutions. When Penn State was admitted, it was last as far as rankings in the conference, now it is right in the middle. That was a huge and important bump. Conference affiliation might not have been the total cause, but it certainly was attributable. It is not the case for the SEC and PAC12, but both the ACC and Big Ten have academic standards for any school considered for admission in the conference. And rightly so.

Gulogulo37

June 25th, 2015 at 1:16 AM ^

"What does academic prestige do for an academic institution?"

No, that's not my question. I worded it very poorly. What I should have said is how does being in the AAU raise their prestige? Does it actually make them a better university or have better professors? It seems a school joining the AAU just gets to now say it's an AAU member because you fit some criteria.

Anyway, Nebraska isn't in the AAU. They were kicked out in 2011. So I guess the B1G doesn't actually have those standards anymore. Is Michigan really worse off because of that?

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/26078/nebraska-loses-aau-status

Wikipedia's AAU page also lists them as former members so I guess nothing has changed.

It seems Stanford and Cal do fine with their academic reputations without worrying about their football teams playing other football teams who attend schools that aren't as prestigious.

orangeda

June 25th, 2015 at 9:56 AM ^

group set up through the Universities to get government research grants for the Member schools.  The money that's associated with that makes the Athletic dollars seem like small potatoes(8.4 billion/year), and is a benefit to all the the B1G schools.  It's why the ND faculty was so pissed off(they voted unanimously to join) when ND turned down the B1G invite back in the late '90's or early 2000's or whenever that was, and it's also the biggest reason why Texas has been mentioned as a realistic possibiltiy should the B1G ever actually try to expand that far south, they want the research money.

The University of Chicago is also still affiliated with the B1G schools for the CIC money.

https://www.cic.net/research

 

Ray

June 24th, 2015 at 9:36 PM ^

I've heard more than one Husker describe Texas as a cancer within the Big 12.  Unless that got fixed somehow (like TX leaving for another conference), I don't think NE would even consider going back.

And even if that were the case, I'm not sure they'd want to leave the B1G.  Yes, they're a natural fit: The soul of the B1G is rooted in the Midwest.   

Nebraska excepted, the problem is that expansion has ruined what is great about being in a conference.   If we never play Rutgers again, I couldn't care less.  But I miss playing Wisconsin every year.