Comments on: Column: Welcome to the Big Ten, Nebraska

By: Lou

Lou — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:50:28 +0000

Mistakes aside Bacon, as an NU fan I’ll say it’s good to be in the Big 10. I regard most Big 10 schools like Michigan, OSU, Penn St, Purdue, Iowa, Northwestern, etc as classier outfits than Missouri, Kansas St, Texas Tech, Oklahoma St, and especially the greedy hype-machine that is Texas.

By: John U. Bacon

John U. Bacon — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 18:05:57 +0000

I promised to leave the dialogue to you guys, but Dave B, that got a chuckle. Bravo.

Now back to your regularly scheduled conversation.

-JUB

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:52:06 +0000

There’s no need to continue to rant about Texas. It’s over. It’s done. Leave them in the rear-view mirror. Just stop, please.

I should say in all fairness the basic premise and conclusion of the article is completely valid. Nebraska seeks to raise its academic standing and the Big Ten/CIC is a perfect way to do that. It was stated as one of the motivating factors by Perlman and Osborne.

I do think there seems to be the perception among some in Big Ten country that Nebraska is an “inferior” institution joining its ranks that only brings football to the table – and its rubbing Nebraskans the wrong way. It would explain the knee-jerk reaction from many on this article. That’s why I was so insistent on correcting the graduation rates stated in the article. We have a great opportunity to improve the school with this move, but the “academic gap” is not as huge as the narrative seems to indicate.

I’m certain that the Big Ten presidents were looking at more than just an AAU membership certificate as proof of Nebraska’s academic qualifications for conference membership. Notre Dame is not an AAU member, after all, and I sense plenty of Big Ten desire to bring them into the fold.

By: Brad Hillier

Brad Hillier — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:27:37 +0000

Oh and Thank you for the welcome into the Big10(12).. The mistakes in the piece were noted and you commented on those reasons. By the way the N stands for National Championships (5 of them)… Looking forward to new beginings and new traditions

By: Brad Hillier

Brad Hillier — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:24:27 +0000

@Arvin Face
Its widely known that Texas greed destroyed the SWAC. Even Barry Switzer of Oklahoma warned against bringing Texas into the Big12. The warning should have been taken. Switzer of all people would know slimey and dishonest tactics. But money rules the world and the Big12 was just seeing dollar signs.
Texas wanted everything their way. And did what ever they wanted/needed to to get it. Then they threaten to leave the Big12. Well then Missouri and Colorado start shopping around. Colorado and Nebraska leave. Their empty threat gets them their own t.v. Network (like the YES Network in NY). All that did was fill their pockets even more. Money that thay won’t share with the other schools.
Texas has now destroyed TWO football confrences in order to fill their pockets. So all that tradition Nebraska has with Oklahoma, Kansas, KSU etc is gone. People in Nebraska don’t really like change. So for Osborne and the University to leave all of that history and tradition speaks volumes. So maybe those “conspiracy theories” are true.

By: Dave B

Dave B — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:52:25 +0000

Give the guy a break. One would need to use this “goggle” on the “interweb” thing to get one’s facts correct. That is hard work. He doesn’t realize this information, when you live in Nebraska, is common Nowledge.

By: John U. Bacon

John U. Bacon — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:07:31 +0000

Andrew,

Thanks for that information. I agree, those are generally reliable sources.

For Mike and Lou, as you can see above, I acknowledge my mistakes — which, you’re right, were easily avoidable, but none of which impact any of the points I was making in this short piece. Likewise, I explain in detail my reasons for citing the Big Eight above, and suspect other readers would rather I not repeat it.

As for the joke, it was — how shall I say this? — a joke. And the real punchline comes at the end — which, as you’ll note, is a considerable compliment to Nebraska.

Beyond that, this starts to devolve into one of those internet conversations where no one signs his last name — a tenet of any serious journalism, including letters to the NYT and the WSJ — and therefore feels free to blast off in whatever direction their spleen is pointing, with zero accountability. For such people, corrections, apologies and explanations are never enough — so I’ll respectfully bow out, and let anyone who wants to enjoy the mud.

-JUB

By: John Belz

John Belz — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:00:58 +0000

I still remember participating a USA Today survey about the potential new members of the Big Twelve over a year ago. Nebraska was never mentioned by the USA Today and I had to vote for “other” because they were not list among the candidates. I would comment how Nebraska was totally sick of how Texas had taken over the Big 12 and had changed many things to favorite it and other southern colleges. Many rules were changed to favor colleges in high population areas in the name of money savings. The locations of all the championship athletic events where being moved south. Everything was big and better in Texas (until the next oil bust). Nebraska was tired of having to widen all their doors so the men from Texas could fit their heads through them. All Nebraska wanted was to be treated as a equal.

By: Lou

Lou — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:41:54 +0000

Leaving the Big 8 to join the Big 10? Ummm, hopefully that was a typo–the big 8 hasn’t been in existence since 1996

By: John Belz

John Belz — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:41:08 +0000

Even thought Nebraska was one of the first members of the AAU, it was also the first member kicked out. The AAU has many rules bias toward colleges like Nebraska. First the AAU doesn’t count agricultural research, an area where Nebraska spends most of their research money in. Secondly, the AAU doesn’t count research done at a different location, Nebraska’s medical center is located at Omaha (but still a part of the main campus in Lincoln and no connection to Nebraska at Omaha). Also Nebraska has had one of the largest growth in research in the AAU the last decade and is building at new research center at this moment.