Sure would be nice having the Huskers visiting Austin.
Sure would be nice having the Huskers visiting Austin.
Against Texas A&M.I'm all for that. As a non-conference game.
NU bolted that Texas-run/league office-abetted autocracy because no one at the top cared much about 11 of the B12 members. Texas was the B12’s Godfather; everyone else just a lowly button man. (Exhibit A: the Longhorn Network.) Unless you’re ex-UT AD DeLoss “Mr. Big” Dodds (with B12 commish Dan Beebe in hapless cahoots), that’s no way to run a collegial organization supposedly based on mutual benefit/shared interests. Arrogantly lacking any sense of obligation to fellow B12 schools, UT acted in nonstop bad faith, with Beebe like an on-the-take official that UT owned. (Dodds: “Texas doesn’t keep up with the Jones’. We are the Jones’.”) Having been rescued from a dying SWC, it handled its B12 invitation with all the grace of a home invasion.
But it couldn’t have happened without the approval and support of the ADs from NU’s former B8 partners, who quickly became UT’s de facto co-conspirators. Conference meetings became like gatherings of the Five Families – those with less muscle deferred to UT’s self-appointed Made Man, even to their own detriment. Like Sal Tesia ditching Team Corleone for the Barzinis, they had no qualms about turning on an old colleague for a new SWC amigo … willing accomplices/reliable rubber stamps in joining the other Goodfellas in habitually siding with Mr. Big. What Texas wanted, Texas got – and their acquiescence made it possible. The cumulative impact of all those votes in solidarity with UT shaped the B12 into what it was by 2010.
They were blind to the eventual consequences of their own actions in siding with Texas on every significant vote. (Ex-officials from Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas St. have all expressed regret about their decision-making during that era.) Nebraska, on an unsustainable run of success, was atop the early B12. The others saw alignment with Texas as a way of undercutting NU’s power … a short-sighted, enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend approach. They fixated on what NU had done recently, failing to consider that a smallish university from an out-of-the-way, low-population state with solid-but-not-elite financial backing likely couldn’t out-compete a vastly resourced and unscrupulous UT over the long haul. With an eye on immediate results, they disregarded the long-term effect.
And we saw what happened after Texas flipped the B12’s culture in just a few years.
I am honestly not sure of what the academic benefits have been.
Yea, and the other school aren't going back either. I think the conditions that led to the mass exodus still exist: less money (except for Colorado), the Longhorn Network still stands, and most importantly, nobody trusts Texas not to blow up the league like they almost did before the exodus.
But we can spell.NO! Big 12 has Nothig to offer
I'm all for that. As a non-conference game.
You should be a writer.NU bolted that Texas-run/league office-abetted autocracy because no one at the top cared much about 11 of the B12 members. Texas was the B12’s Godfather; everyone else just a lowly button man. (Exhibit A: the Longhorn Network.) Unless you’re ex-UT AD DeLoss “Mr. Big” Dodds (with B12 commish Dan Beebe in hapless cahoots), that’s no way to run a collegial organization supposedly based on mutual benefit/shared interests. Arrogantly lacking any sense of obligation to fellow B12 schools, UT acted in nonstop bad faith, with Beebe like an on-the-take official that UT owned. (Dodds: “Texas doesn’t keep up with the Jones’. We are the Jones’.”) Having been rescued from a dying SWC, it handled its B12 invitation with all the grace of a home invasion.
But it couldn’t have happened without the approval and support of the ADs from NU’s former B8 partners, who quickly became UT’s de facto co-conspirators. Conference meetings became like gatherings of the Five Families – those with less muscle deferred to UT’s self-appointed Made Man, even to their own detriment. Like Sal Tesia ditching Team Corleone for the Barzinis, they had no qualms about turning on an old colleague for a new SWC amigo … willing accomplices/reliable rubber stamps in joining the other Goodfellas in habitually siding with Mr. Big. What Texas wanted, Texas got – and their acquiescence made it possible. The cumulative impact of all those votes in solidarity with UT shaped the B12 into what it was by 2010.
They were blind to the eventual consequences of their own actions in siding with Texas on every significant vote. (Ex-officials from Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas St. have all expressed regret about their decision-making during that era.) Nebraska, on an unsustainable run of success, was atop the early B12. The others saw alignment with Texas as a way of undercutting NU’s power … a short-sighted, enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend approach. They fixated on what NU had done recently, failing to consider that a smallish university from an out-of-the-way, low-population state with solid-but-not-elite financial backing likely couldn’t out-compete a vastly resourced and unscrupulous UT over the long haul. With an eye on immediate results, they disregarded the long-term effect.
And we saw what happened after Texas flipped the B12’s culture in just a few years.
Stop it. You're using facts and logic.Here are a few. I'm sure I'm missing many.
It's a better academic neighborhood. This is an indirect benefit. Because the university's peers are better, it is perceived as better.
Undergraduates: The ability to take classes at other BIG universities that are not available at UNL (in person and online). Easy transfer of credits between BIG universities. Access to some fellowship money otherwise unavailable, including summer research opportunities. Students from BIG states, who otherwise would never have given the university a first look, more often put us on their lists.
Graduate students: Ability to spend a year doing research at another BIG school at no additional cost. Undergraduates from BIG universities, who otherwise would never have given UNL graduate programs a first look, more often put us on their lists.
Faculty, administration and research: A variety of academic leadership training programs. A variety of research collaborations. Benefits for faculty hiring (UNL has been able to hire some new faculty, and poach some existing faculty from other universities, it otherwise would have had difficulty attracting, in part because the university is in a better academic neighborhood).
Operations: Consortium purchasing power. Information technology collaborations. Library collaborations that increase access to collections and increase purchasing power.
The Big 12 has very few collaborations like these.