Location wouldn't be has big a factor if they won. Going to school in Lincoln is really no different than going in Tuscaloosa or Norman its just those guys win. Plus they had a national recruiting base and a stronghold in southern California and routinely would 5 guys or so from Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, and Kansas....you sprinkle that in with the random Florida guy and Pa guy they'd get it would fill their roster with good skill position players
OT: did the Big Ten kill Nebraska football?
- Thread starter Pitt_Boss
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In can happen anywhere, look at FSU. Awfully hard to get momentum back after losing it. Hell, look at Tennessee. Even Alabama was irrelevant for over a decade.
Being located in Lincoln and in a conference with a bad geographic fit only makes it harder to rebound.
Being located in Lincoln and in a conference with a bad geographic fit only makes it harder to rebound.
Nebraska was already on the decline while still in the B12. Nebraska went 6-4 in 1968. The didn't have another 4 loss season until Solich's first year in 1998. That's 30 years without a 4 loss season. After a nice three year run under Solich, here are the loss totals during their last 9 years in the B12; 7, 3, 6, 4, 5, 7, 4, 4, 4 That's 44 losses in nine years. They only lost 47 games during Osborne's entire 25 year run. The were clearly on the decline before they moved to the B10. The arrival of Texas ended the yearly Oklahoma game, as Texas/Oklahoma became the league's showcase game. Texas' pushy domination of the league became a burr under Nebraska's saddle, and was a big reason why they were happy to leave, as were A&M, Missouri, and Colorado.
Steve Pedey Boy Pedersen, Nordy's lap dog, killed Nebraska FB....
Look at Miami. Located in a great city, with tons of local talent, and a history that was even more dominant than FSU. USC isn't exactly setting the world on fire either.
Agree - Wisconsin is the new Nebraska - wining with the exact same system and formula - huge corn fed lineman and skill players from the speed states - running a spread in frigid Lincoln Nebraska ruined that program
True.....Scott Barnes is in the hunt
for the prestigious Pederson award,
given to the athletic director with the
anti-Midas touch....
Pitt basketball
Oregon St football
When Nebraska was in the Big 12, they could recruit players from Texas since they played teams from that state. Now that they are in the Big 10, that pipeline has dried up somewhat if not totally.
Was just looking at a map, they still get players from California, Florida etc -- but now they get 3 star players from those states instead of 5 star players. Add that on top of a bit of a Texas recruiting decline and a heavy decline of contributions from in-state players.
These mega conferences are not good for most of these schools as far as on field product is concerned. But money wise (which is all that matters to the administrators) was in mega conferences. Other than Oklahoma, all the rest of the old Big 8 would be much better served if the Big 8 was still around.
I'm glad! Always cool when a perceived blue blood sucks, I've been so happy about how Texas sucked the last few years, I'm sad that they seem to be rebounding, I'd rather see someone like UCF or Boise at the top than see revived historical blue bloods.
Nebraska recruited relatively few players from Texas when they were in the Big 12. It was never a big pipeline for them.
Regarding the decision to change conferences, that was done out of fear, not greed. People seem to forget that in 2010, Missouri was in talks with the Big Ten, and Texas and Oklahoma (and several other Big 12 teams) were in talks with the Pac 12. Nebraska moved to avoid being left behind in a G5 conference.
Nebraska was slow to adapt to the changing landscape of the game becoming more passing oriented. Sometimes it seems like they never quite caught up.
TV changed as well, it used to be guys would go to schools like Nebraska in part because their families would get to see all or most of their games. Now pretty much every game is available everywhere, the allure of being able to be seen on tv is gone.
TV changed as well, it used to be guys would go to schools like Nebraska in part because their families would get to see all or most of their games. Now pretty much every game is available everywhere, the allure of being able to be seen on tv is gone.
not sure I buy in to the Texas is back story. One nice bowl win over an SEC team and everyone was anointing them as back.
the holy & good Dr. Tom made a killing out of recruiting gang bangers from LA. That well has run dry for them.
They used to stockpile walk ons and a few would pan out. They recruited guys no other programs would touch and they fed steroids to most of the players before they became outlawed.
Irving Fryer, Christian &Jason Peter, Mike Rosier, among others from New Jersey. I don't see them getting talent out of that state anytime soon.
Me neither, I just hate the way the MSM and CFB talking heads are openly desperate to see them back on top. What about Pitt? why aren't they desperate to relive "Pitt is It '76" or those days?
Nebraska hurt Nebraska football.
Have and administration that supports football, hire the best AD you can get, coaches who can recruit, and you can have a successful program regardless of where you're located.
Use ND as an example. South Bend? Where the h-ll is that. Here it is 1251 N Eddy St Ste 400, South Bend, IN 46617, Eddy St?, not exactly a football hotbed, and the weather and transportation in and out is terrible.
ND does ok.
Have and administration that supports football, hire the best AD you can get, coaches who can recruit, and you can have a successful program regardless of where you're located.
Use ND as an example. South Bend? Where the h-ll is that. Here it is 1251 N Eddy St Ste 400, South Bend, IN 46617, Eddy St?, not exactly a football hotbed, and the weather and transportation in and out is terrible.
ND does ok.
that's a shame Nebraska left the big 12, also a shame Colorado did too. Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, those schools should always be in same conference. going back to big 8 days or whatever it was called.
Nebraska v Ok was a rivalry for the ages and Nebraska v Colorado was more regional but a nice one too.
Nebraska v Ok was a rivalry for the ages and Nebraska v Colorado was more regional but a nice one too.
Isn't that the case with all college football?
Hell look no further than our beloved Pitt Panthers. Pitt plays our biggest rival for 54 games series every 15 years. It has been many years since Pitt played WVU, Pitt gets them back for a few years then they are off schedule again. The only traditional rival Pitt still plays is ND and that is every 3 seasons and they do not see Pitt as a rival but as a traditional opponent.
Look at Texas and Texas A&M they don't play anymore. I think today's mega conferences hurt more schools than helped in regards to on field product. Money talks so they all went a long with it.
Don't think comparing ND to almost anyone else is a reasonable apples to apples comparison, IMO. They are very unique in terms of their fan base and the reasons for it. Here's just one small example of why:
My late dad went to a parochial grade school in W PA (nowhere near S. Bend, IN). He used to tell me that all the kids in the school had to learn the words to the ND fight song at a very young age and they'd sing it in school on a regular basis. It was ingrained in them. That might still be a pretty common occurrence in many places?
ND has fans in virtually every state. In some states, they have LOADS of them. People talk about Rutgers and if they have many fans in the metro NYC area. The college football team that has the most fans by far in the metro NYC area is ND. Not even close. Same with a lot of the big metro areas where there is a significant Catholic presence. There are still a bunch of ND fans in and around Pittsburgh and W PA. I know several of them personally.
yeah but pitt vs wvu were only conference brethren for a short period of time. we played em for 100 years but most of that was as eastern independents.
we weren't in same football conference til the early 90's until the dismantling of the conference.. Nebraska and ok were in the same conference dating back to the 20's.
There are ND fans everywhere and over the past 2,000 years ND did a great job developing, and maintaining a great football program year in and year out to keep that fanbase interested and excited even though the program is located where?
Even the best of the best can screw up a colllege football program although the Catholic and Irish ND thing goes a long way in attracting fans.
When PITT last played ND last at home on the way out of Heinz I asked a lot of ND fans - What State is ND located in. Well I got very few who knew the answer and got answers like WI. OH, and MI.
hey, they like the brand that is ND Football and could care less about the academic side of the school. i don't know why that's a bad thing really yet pitt fans mock it with subway fans or whatever..
because college football fans aren't aware of the major metropolis that is south bend, but are passionate about the football team, that's a bad thing? really?
Very true. The catalyst for all this is the huge amount of $$$$ generated by the allocation of rights to televise or stream all P5 college football games to the various networks that show the games. I can remember when there were very few games televised on any given Saturday. And there was an NCAA imposed limit that no school was allowed to be on TV more that 3 times a year. Can you imagine that being the case now? Me either.
Dramatically escalating costs have driven things in that direction. The schools need the $$$$. TV contracts are extremely lucrative revenue streams. So the P5 conferences have sought to expand their markets and footprints into additional areas to make themselves more appealing and attractive to the TV overlords. Unfortunately, as you say, this has led to the demise of many of the great traditional geographic rivalries due to several schools now having different conference affiliations.
My point is even being located in the middle of nowhere, a place that most people can't find on a map, ND has one of the top college football programs and fanbases in college football.
I don't like ND but they are good at what they do.
As far as I'm concerned subway fans any fans who come to games are good fans.
LOL!!!! So true about many of the ND "Subway Alumni". Don't know if you've ever been to ND for a game or not. But the experience there is significantly different. Many of the regular season ticket holders there have a much stronger association and relationship with ND (alumni and/or donors). In my experiences there, the attitude of the fans there has typically been much better than many of their fans who go only to the occasional Irish away game.
But there are obviously WAY more of the ND Subway Alumni, many of whom have never been to game in
S. Bend. They probably have the greatest "national" following of any other individual college program.
Kids from places like NJ today realize they don't have to go to drab, isolated Lincoln, NE out on the plains to get national recognition and acclaim. Everybody is on TV now.
NU is like Rutgers and Maryland in that they opted to go for the B1G $$$$ over sticking with their roots and tradition. The quid pro quo hasn't worked so well for any of them football-wise.
It was a bad move football-wise for all of them.
In the case of Nebraska though, how much bullcrap were they supposed to eat? When Texas' I mean the Big 12's director asked Nebraska to sign what amounted to a loyalty pledge within one week (while Missouri was exiting), and the Big 10 offered an extra $15 million a year to the insulted Osborne, can you really blame him for leaving? Especially when the Big 12 didn't want a TV network (but allowed Texas to create the Longhorn network) while the Big 10 had one that would instantly be carried by every cable provider in Nebraska if they joined.
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Yep. The devil is almost always in the details. There were politics involved and power struggles involved. Playing 2nd fiddle to Bevo had to rub NU the wrong way. Just ask Texas A&M.
Yep. The devil is almost always in the details. There were politics involved and power struggles involved. Playing 2nd fiddle to Bevo had to rub NU the wrong way. Just ask Texas A&M.
They were dead before they ever got to the B10. Tom Osborne's retirement killed Nebby football. The hiring of Bill Callahan by Pedersen a few years later poured the cement over the coffin. Hiring a has-been/never-was NFL guy to come into a power option program to try to install his "west coast" offense was catastrophic.
Just as importantly--in the Osborne days they always relied heavily on California recruits particularly at the speed/skill positions. There is no question that a lot of funny business went on on Rep. Osborne's watch to get those players to come to Nebraska, and a lot of funny business went on to keep them on the field on Saturdays. In short, despite Osborne's aw-shucks, good guy image, they were dirty as hell. After Ozzie retired, they made a conscious effort to try to be a little more law abiding. That didn't help their W/L.
If Frost can't bring them back now, I doubt anyone will be able to.
Eh it often feels that way, then a team turns around. Who ever thought Clemson would be the major national power? Or maybe closer to the Nebraska situation, that a Notre Dame team that had become more irrelevant not just than Stanford but possibly even Navy would be in the CFP hunt pretty regularly? Is Norman Oklahoma really that interesting of a place to live? etc.
This. Toss-up between him and Paterno for most phony. Truth is they both won big but their "methods" weren't cleaner than Switzer, Sherrill, or any of the other ones Paterno didn't want to leave the world of college football to.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
This is BS. They've won 9 games six times in the last ten years. They hired a dolt to replace Pelini and it hurt. With Scott Frost, they're recruiting in the top half of the conference. I'd be willing to bet they get back to 8 wins by next season.
The opportunity is there for them. They are on the right side of that conference to do so. How the B10 allows Ohio St, Mich, PSU, and even MSU all on one side still amazes me today. Basically it is Iowa and Wisky 2 good solid programs and maybe a year here or there for the other schools but it is not like the east, where you will always be behind those 3/4 programs.
