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Is it time to go home?

I had this discussion the other day with a friend. He told me we needed to go back to the big 12 because our football program hasn't been any good since we left. I called him an idiot. Blaming our football competitiveness on the conference IS idiotic. We should be thankful for the big check considering what we have brought to the table.
 
I haven't forgotten.

Pre-BTN, I caught maybe 4 Husker games a year on TV. My dad (in Neb.) would record them to VHS tapes, or eventually to disc, and he'd mail them to me. I'd still only get maybe 7 games a year and I'd be watching them the following Wednesday night.

BTN is worth the move alone.
Damn near every NU game was on tv prior to the BIG. Maybe one PPV game a year. I hated the Big 10 before, and I hate the BIG now. All you needed was fox sports southwest. Living in Oregon you probably had something like fox sports northwest.
 
I had this discussion the other day with a friend. He told me we needed to go back to the big 12 because our football program hasn't been any good since we left. I called him an idiot. Blaming our football competitiveness on the conference IS idiotic. We should be thankful for the big check considering what we have brought to the table.

a good question, which can't really be answered is.. Would NU have fallen this far if they had stayed in the Big12? I am sure NU has lost out on players because of being in the Big 10..
 
You're right, but even if we start winning this fall, I don't know if I'll live long enough to become 'comfortable' or 'fond' of being in the B1G. This is 100% personal opinion, since I know the money is better, yada, yada, yada, but being in the B1G has always felt like two left shoes to me.

It just feels wrong.
Spot on, it totally sucks. Most of us will be gone before any sort of history is built up within this league, and right now, the small sample size is pretty bleak. But hey, they have more money right?

If they don’t turn it around, you’ll eventually see 65,000 for a game, massive loss of interest from its fan base, less donations, and less merchandise sold. They’ll need those fat checks to offset its other losses.
 



I had this discussion the other day with a friend. He told me we needed to go back to the big 12 because our football program hasn't been any good since we left. I called him an idiot. Blaming our football competitiveness on the conference IS idiotic. We should be thankful for the big check considering what we have brought to the table.
Actually I'd like to see the breakdown of BTN viewership before and after Nebraska became a BIG member. We might have brought a lot more TV's tuned into the BIG which translate to $$$$$.
 
Moving back & living in our parents basement - because they gave our old room to the weird step children/cousins (TCU & West Virginia :confused: ) - sounds way worse than making this commitment / marriage work.

This B1G chick is loaded, sure her family's nasty & mean, but our other siblings left the nest & seem to be doing ok... time to stop feeling sorry for ourselves & make this work.
;)
 
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Moving back & living in our parents basement - because they gave our old room to the weird step children/cousins (TCU & West Virginia :confused: ) - sounds way worse than making this commitment / marriage work.

This B1G chick is loaded, sure her family's nasty & mean, but our other siblings left the nest & seem to be doing ok... time to stop feeling sorry for ourselves & make this work.
;)

those other siblings didn't go to the same place.. :)
 
The Big XII - IV + II (heretofore referred to as the Little XII) gets much more out of NU returning to the conference than NU does. I'm old enough to remember the Big 8. I miss the Big 8 and would go back to it in a heartbeat but that's never going to happen, and neither is NU re-joining the Little XII. The Little XII is a has-been conference with OU being the only team of significance since NU left and the emergence of Clemson as a national power.

This is a long term deal. The Big is more competitive and is a better fit for NU, economically and athletically (at least as soon as Frost finally realizes he needs to get away from a QB-centric offense and put more emphasis on an old-NU style power running game.) The Little XII will always be on shakey ground as long as it has Texas.

The OP article talks a lot about how NU would be good for the conference; nothing about what NU would gain. I won't forget all the other teams Big XII kicking NU to the curb and kowtowing to Texas. To paraphrase the gipper, NU didn't leave the Big XII, the Big XII left NU.
 



Discussions like this only exist because Nebraska is a bad football team. There would be no talk of returning to the Big 12 if we were winning. That article would have never been written if we were most years in position to win the West division. Doesn't mean many won't always have fond memories of the Big 8/12, but this is a really a "I'll take my ball and go home" discussion -- that we've had many, many times in recent years.
For the sake of argument, let’s say we do start winning. Maybe we win the West a couple of times in the next 5 years, and even play decent in the B1G championship game. Do you think we’ll suddenly get better treatment from the league? Or would we have another 20 years of earning our stripes, having to be reminded we are not an original member?

I don’t know what the answer is, but based on our success over the history of our program, the attention we still get nationally (even as a bad team), we are treated well below lesser B1G programs. It seems obvious this ‘probationary internship’ may go well beyond all of our lives. Is that really how we think we should be treated?
 
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Discussions like this only exist because Nebraska is a bad football team. There would be no talk of returning to the Big 12 if we were winning. That article would have never been written if we were most years in position to win the West division. Doesn't mean many won't always have fond memories of the Big 8/12, but this is a really a "I'll take my ball and go home" discussion -- that we've had many, many times in recent years.

I've seen this position mentioned in regards to Nebraska going back to the Big Xll. Nebraska isn't a good football team so there's talk amongst fans of wanting to leave for the perceived reason that we can't hack it. It's assumed that if we had been winning more, there'd be no talk of leaving and everything would be just fine. I get it and you're probably representing the thoughts of some Husker fans, but not everyone.

I think we can all agree that the money and academics is nice, so lets say the winning was at the level of the Bo Pelini era with one modification, no blowout losses. That's 9-10 win seasons with 3-4 losses a year being close and competitive. There's probably a Big Ten West title or two in there and the inevitable loss to Ohio St in the Big Ten CCG. That sounds pretty good and i'd be happy with that.

But winning aside, Nebraska being in the Big Ten still wouldn't feel right to me. It just doesn't look right. A decade later and we still look like we're a Big Xll team trying to make it work in a conference we don't belong in.

There is the sentiment that winning cures all, but it doesn't change the fact that we lost the one and only truly great rivalry we ever had, Oklahoma. I feel confident in saying that we will never have another one like it. People hate Iowa, but how does that hate compare to the hate for Texas? Does anyone else honestly care about playing any Big Ten team other than maybe Wisconsin and Iowa because they continually beat us and they're who Nebraska usually has to beat to get to a CCG? Is the only intrigue in the Big Ten because we are a bad football team?

Think of the flip side of that, Nebraska beats Wisconsin and Iowa along with the rest of the Big Ten West most of the time and what do you have? The Big Xll North, only you've replaced teams you have long history and rivalries with, for strangers.

In an alternate timeline of us winning more, this thread and others like it would still exist because to some us, the Big Ten doesn't feel right. To some of us, the Big Xll has and will always be, home.
 
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The Big XII was never home, the Big 8 was home. The Big XII was like home after you fall on hard times and have to take in some renters who don't follow the rules and also don't break the word of the law -- think "Pacific Heights".

We're not going back to the Big 8, we're not going to have Thanksgiving games against Oklahoma, not going to play games against Colorado and Missouri.

I do kind of miss Ron Franklin on Raycom PPV for the first three games of the season... LOL.
 
Discussions like this only exist because Nebraska is a bad football team. There would be no talk of returning to the Big 12 if we were winning. That article would have never been written if we were most years in position to win the West division. Doesn't mean many won't always have fond memories of the Big 8/12, but this is a really a "I'll take my ball and go home" discussion -- that we've had many, many times in recent years.
I don’t agree. We all want to win and it would make everything better. But it wouldn’t change the fact that I’d father drive to Oklahoma and Texas to watch Husker football than Michigan or Ohio. Not to mention the old Big 8 rivals. Winning would be nice, but it wouldn’t change my feelings about the two conferences. As I said before though, it doesn’t matter. We aren’t leaving the B1G.
 



I've seen this position mentioned in regards to Nebraska going back to the Big Xll. Nebraska isn't a good football team so there's talk amongst fans of wanting to leave for the perceived reason that we can't hack it. It's assumed that if we had been winning more, there'd be no talk of leaving and everything would be just fine. I get it and you're probably representing the thoughts of some Husker fans, but not everyone.

I think we can all agree that the money and academics is nice, so lets say the winning was at the level of the Bo Pelini era with one modification, no blowout losses. That's 9-10 win seasons with 3-4 losses a year being close and competitive. There's probably a Big Ten West title or two in there and the inevitable loss to Ohio St in the Big Ten CCG. That sounds pretty good and i'd be happy with that.

But winning aside, Nebraska being in the Big Ten still wouldn't feel right to me. It just doesn't look right. A decade later and we still look like we're a Big Xll team trying to make it work in a conference we don't belong in.

There is the sentiment that winning cures all, but it doesn't change the fact that we lost the one and only truly great rivalry we ever had, Oklahoma. I feel confident in saying that we will never have another one like it. People hate Iowa, but how does that hate compare to the hate for Texas? Does anyone else honestly care about playing any Big Ten team other than maybe Wisconsin and Iowa because they continually beat us and they're who Nebraska usually has to beat to get to a CCG? Is the only intrigue in the Big Ten because we are a bad football team?

Think of the flip side of that, Nebraska beats Wisconsin and Iowa along with the rest of the Big Ten West most of the time and what do you have? The Big Xll North, only you've replaced teams you have long history and rivalries with, for strangers.

In an alternate timeline of us winning more, this thread and others like it would still exist because to some us, the Big Ten doesn't feel right. To some of us, the Big Xll has and will always be, home.
I should have just read your post and agreed. Well said.
 


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