Eventually, all the saber rattling from Nebraska ended up with the modern equivalent of a gumblebee – a heinous administrative statement that effectively waved the white flag at the Cornhuskers and played football this fall … or even bailed out on the Big Ten alhiel.
“The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is a full-fledged member of the Big Ten Conference,” the school said in a statement. “It is a unique pearl and athletic and academic alliance.
“We have the biggest fans in university athletics. This has been a difficult and disappointing week. We all look forward to the day when we can rejoice in our student-athletes, on the field and in the arena. ”
This was all predicted because it was predictable. Money. Media rights. The case. And that’s before Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told Yahoo Sports that Nebraska would not be playing anywhere this fall “and be a member of the Big Ten Conference.”
The Huskers were part of (but certainly not all of) an unusually messy dispute for the button-down 125-year-old league. It ended as it always does, with everyone falling in line.
That does not mean it was an exercise in full futility for the Huskers.
Nebraska made his point – to his fans, to their players and to potential recruits. The message was clear: It wanted to play desperately, the program is very much in its state and it is ready to lift some windmills to fight for what it believes in.
Head coach Scott Frost and the Nebraska Cornhuskers look forward to a game on September 21, 2019. (Michael Hickey / Getty Images)
If nothing else, it got everyone talking about Big Red, which is not happening much these days.
It will be painful for everyone at the conference if college football is played elsewhere this season. There is no occurrence. For Nebraska, it will be especially rough when the Big 12, their old league, gives it a go. There is no guarantee that will happen.
And if it does, at least Nebraska reminds everyone how much money it makes in the Big Ten (about $ 54 million a year, or about $ 15 million more than the Big 12 average). In a bad situation, it’s something.
Most intriguing, however, is Nebraska, the new villain of its new conference, one who can mock and root out the founding. The Big Ten offered Nebraska a lifeline in 2011, during conference change, when fighters looked like the Big 12 could escape.
The Huskers rewarded the Big Ten with a mediocre (and less wordy) on-field product and now … this?
Ohio State complaining is one thing. Nebraska? At least Rutgers and Maryland knew their place.
However, this could be a good thing. It’s at least one thing that’s better than ignored or forgotten.
Lately, Nebraska had just become a date on the schedule. Schools struggling to sell tickets (Illinois, Indiana, etc.) liked them because the Big Red traveling army of fans would fill the stands and parking lots. The traditional forces of the league, meanwhile, got a wreck that they could handle handy.
Since joining the league, Nebraska has been 7-16 overall against Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin, but has not beaten any of them since 2013. Meanwhile, five consecutive losses have been lost in Iowa.
You would not think that a black hat would be appropriate for a program famous for such niceties as trying to lure team players to games and releasing bright balloons after the first Husker score.
Yet we are here. Maybe an unexpected identity is better than none.
Somehow it fits. Nebraska is a state that rewards individualism. Many windswept plains where you earn for yourself, not the suburbs of Chicago or Columbus. Just continuing with the plan may not make sense.
And Frost is not the kind of man who goes backwards. Ea. He is a small-town product that Nebraska eventually quarterbacked after a 13-0 national championship in 1997. As a coach, he left UCF after a perfect season in 2018 before returning home, where the remodeling project has been slow (9-15 in the general).
His fierce argument for playing this fall drew a lot of coverage. It changed zero minds in the conference, but it undoubtedly found some sympathetic ears among high school coaches, recruits and parents in the Midwest, if not elsewhere.
It was an oddball marketing attempt. Yet a necessary one. Stuck on the far western fringe of the league, no longer with the kind of access to Texas High School Talent that the Big 12 provided, Nebraska was always a dicey statement as a Big Ten member. The money was guaranteed in the Big Ten. Success was certainly not that.
Almost all of the best recruits in the league footprint live from Chicago and the East. That leaves the Huskers fighting a long way from home in the backyard of many other programs featuring brand names with tradition and large stadiums (including independent Notre Dame). It’s slipping up.
Nebraska typically finishes fourth or fifth in the Big Ten recruitment per Rivals.com and between 20-25 nationwide. Not bad, but not good enough. Since joining the league, 39 five-star recruits have signed with Big Ten schools. None with Nebraska.
Maybe his voice helps. It probably can not hurt. The league office may not be too happy with the Huskers now and rival fans may laugh at it, but for Scott Frost and the program, some sort of spark, some sort of narrative change was needed.
Making statements is not a pleasant experience. At least Nebraska fought because being nice and losing games is not much fun either.
