2023 Nebraska Season Thread

[FearlessF]

really don't know

probably can blame it on the Sooners or the Longhorns

[CWSooner]

Probably Iowa Agricultural College.

[Hawkinole]

I looked up the hx of the 1/1/1916 Rose Bowl. Washington St defeated the Brown Bears 14-0. The game was played in a cold quagmire after several days of rain.
It was the 1st Rose Bowl in which a black player played. Eventually, in 1947 the fact that other major conferences were not fully integrated led the Rose Bowl to contract games only with the Pacific Coast Conference and Big Nine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1916_Rose_Bowl

[CWSooner]

That's a nice historical tidbit, Hawkinole.

[FearlessF]

According to Sports Media Watch, which compiles college football TV ratings, NU had at least four games in 2020 that accrued more than 1 million viewers.

The Oct. 24 Big Ten kickoff game against Ohio State led the way with 6.18 million viewers. That figure was just ahead of Nebraska’s 2019 game against the Buckeyes, which drew 6.14 million viewers.

Next up: The Huskers’ 26-20 loss to Iowa, which drew 2.69 viewers on Black Friday. Televised on Fox, the game had wider distribution than NU’s 2019 loss to the Hawkeyes, which was televised on BTN.


https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/football/husker-football-enjoys-strong-tv-ratings-even-in-a-pandemic/article_99f8a5ba-493b-11eb-882c-474c806f5c33.amp.html

Ohio State-Nebraska finished No. 9 overall and No. 3 among Big Ten games. The Big Ten title game between Ohio State and Northwestern (8.03 million viewers) and Ohio State’s win at Penn State (6.53) had more viewers.

Among Big Ten games that didn’t involve Ohio State, Nebraska-Iowa finished seventh among total viewers, behind Michigan-Minnesota (5.12 million), Michigan-Michigan State (4.22), Wisconsin-Michigan (4.69), Wisconsin-Northwestern (4.25), Penn State-Michigan (4.09) and Indiana-Wisconsin (3.82).

[FearlessF]

Outside linebacker JoJo Domann announced Saturday afternoon that he is returning to Nebraska next year and will take advantage of the extra year of eligibility granted to all players by the NCAA due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That, of course, is a major boost for the Blackshirts. Domann not only led Nebraska in tackles (58) and tied for the team lead in tackles for loss (6.5) but he’s a versatile player who in 2020 showed himself capable of holding up against the run and also playing in coverage. He tied senior cornerback Dicaprio Bootle for the team lead with five break-ups, forced two fumbles and recovered one while playing in all eight games.

[FearlessF]

THIS WEEK IN HUSKER HISTORY.............

1951:  WOW’s two-season run of televising all Husker home games is over as the NCAA bans the practice.

1976: Tom Osborne’s pay is set to rise from $29,000 in 1975 to $30,918 in 1976 after he rejected a larger increase.

1996: Sports Illustrated says NCAA and Big 12 rules will put a damper on the Huskers: "Keep your '96 Fiesta Bowl videotapes in a safe place, because you won't see dominance like that again."

https://vault.si.com/vault/1996/01/15/headed-for-a-fall-nebraska-may-win-another-national-title-but-the-days-when-such-a-colossus-ruled-the-game-are-over

In winning its second consecutive national championship,
Nebraska was transcendent that night in the desert--and you're
not going to see the likes of that team again. All season the
Huskers trampled the opposition like a colossus, but in the fall
the supremely talented Frazier, along with 10 other senior
starters, will be gone, Phillips will probably be in the NFL,
and Nebraska's unique talent base will have been eroded by the
rules of the new Big 12--the Big Eight plus Baylor, Texas, Texas
A&M and Texas Tech--which begins play in 1996.

Sure, Nebraska will always be one of the most powerful programs
in college football--along with teams like Florida State,
Michigan and Notre Dame--but beginning next fall the Cornhuskers
will be part of the pack, fighting with Florida (again),
Tennessee, Michigan, Syracuse, Miami and, who knows, maybe even
Kansas State, for a national title.

[CWSooner]

And so it proved to be.  SI was right.  The Big 12 was a disaster for Nebraska football.

[Brutus Buckeye]

If they'd have only added Texas and aTm.... 

[CWSooner]

If they'd have only added Texas and aTm....

Texas Tech and Baylor weren't the problem for Nebraska.
Nebraska and Texas had a power struggle over eligibility rules (among other things) and Texas won.
Nebraska and Oklahoma being in different divisions--and no permanent inter-division matchups--meant that Nebraska's biggest rivalry game got cut to 2 years on/2 years off.
Probably some social and demographic trends that didn't help the Huskers were in play there too.

[FearlessF]

it didn't help that the Huskers had been that dominant for a few seasons

the old Big 8 and the members of the SWC all sided with Texas to bring the Huskers off the pedestal

it worked

and that set to stage for the Huskers move to another conference when there was an opportunity

[Brutus Buckeye]

Had it just been Texas and aTm, it would have been more like adding two teams to the Big 8, and less like fusing two struggling conferences together. It would have been ten teams, no divisions, no interruption to the Oklahoma series, and would have been just as formidable as the Big 12; as Tech and Baylor don't really bring much to the table. Perfect? Maybe not. But certainly tenable. 

[FearlessF]

I would have preferred this, but obviously the state of Texas wanted to protect Baylor and TT.

[CWSooner]

Had it just been Texas and aTm, it would have been more like adding two teams to the Big 8, and less like fusing two struggling conferences together. It would have been ten teams, no divisions, no interruption to the Oklahoma series, and would have been just as formidable as the Big 12; as Tech and Baylor don't really bring much to the table. Perfect? Maybe not. But certainly tenable.

I see your point.
Yes, a 10-team conference as you describe would have been better.  The OU-Nebraska series would have continued unchanged.  Baylor certainly added nothing to the conference, and Texas Tech not much.  A 10-team conference has its advantages too.    But the CCG added significant money even then.
I've always thought that the Big 12 should have been considered a continuation of the Big 8 with additional members.  It wasn't a merger of two conferences; it was an existing conference that hadn't broken up adding four teams from a conference that had broken up.
Had I been Texas, I would have opposed that notion, because I would have been in a conference where OU and Nebraska had 30-some conference championships each and I (Texas) would have had none (in that conference).
As usually seems to happen, Texas' point of view prevailed.  50 million Texans can't be wrong.