Adding Nebraska has been the Big Ten's worst mistake in its history

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Zeppelin Gopher said:
Nebraska was an awesome addition. It's an easy drive from Minnesota, super fun road trip, great place to watch a game and party for the weekend.

Maryland...meh, I can live with them (although they do feel like an ACC school).

Rutgers was beyond stupid, they add nothing to the conference.
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Again, MD and Rutgers add two huge and highly coveted media markets. Like it or not, adding them has been very good financially for the conference.
 

Goldteam said:
Nebraska fans were just like Penn State fans..........they thought they would take over the Big 10

I've enjoyed the carnage myself.
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Indeed, they found out the BigTen from top to bottom in all sports how tough this conference is in my opinion. I also, believe the same thing would happen to a small private school in South Bend.
 

I understand why they brought in Rutgers, but that is just a terrible athletic program top to bottom. Mizzou or Virginia would have been better options overall.
 

Face The Facts said:
The number of "Big Games" it provides is meaningless.

The battle BTN had up front was getting on the right number of cable sports packages as necessary to make BTN happen.

Does the West Coast care about the original Big 10 teams? Not enough to include on a sport package.
Add Penn St... okay, getting close.
Add Nebraska... okay, now we're getting phone calls that it needs to be an option. They had to get that percentage high enough in all of these non-Big Ten areas to make it a national brand, and adding Nebraska did that.
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I've lived on the west coast since 1996. BTN was added to my lineup the very first year it was available, Fall of 2007, years before Nebraska joined. It's never not been available, regardless of where I've lived (california/washington) or what provider I've used (DirecTV/cable).
 

discochris said:
I understand why they brought in Rutgers, but that is just a terrible athletic program top to bottom. Mizzou or Virginia would have been better options overall.
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Women's Basketball?
 


GuyFawkes said:
I might be in minority but I feel like Nebraska fits in nicely in the B1G, I see them more of rivalries than I do with northwestern and Illinois. Maryland and Rutgers still do nothing for me, and I honestly don't care if they ever become successful, they just don't seem like B1G teams to me. Stick to the Midwest, I want to have the ability to drive to road games.
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How do you feel about Penn State, then?
 

John Galt said:
Couldn't have said it better. I'd argue that Nebraska is already our 3rd biggest rival in football behind Wisky and Iowa.
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Gross.

3rd biggest draw, that is probably exactly correct ... but because so many Neb fans show up in Minny for the games.
 

Word said:
Canadian colleges currently aren't very good at hockey.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk
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I think top Canadian prospects go right into the semi-pro Juniors leagues and then get drafted by the NHL into their farm systems, from there? Closer to MLB system?
 

PMWinSTP said:
Again, MD and Rutgers add two huge and highly coveted media markets. Like it or not, adding them has been very good financially for the conference.
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Exactly correct. Amazing people still don't understand this.

And that it doesn't matter if Rutgers/Maryland are any good or if NYC/DC markets care about them at all. How many Michigan, Penn St, etc. alumni and fans in those markets?? They all got to have BTN on basic tier instead of a sports package, because of the Rutgers/Maryland adds.


A good chunk of that $50M that Minnesota gets from the Big Ten every year is because of the TV deals. That money pays for our huge coaching salaries and our shiny new facilities.
 



People talk about Nebraska being a "horrible" research school and that is absolute garbage. They are still a very highly regarded research university. The reason the AAU kicked them out is because the hospital is a separate campus and they do not count USDA sponsored agricultural research. They were and are a good fit, even if they didn't bring 100 million TV's like Rutgers and Maryland. I'd argue culture-wise a much better fit than Rutgers or Maryland.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Again, MD and Rutgers add two huge and highly coveted media markets. Like it or not, adding them has been very good financially for the conference.
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MD and Rutgers were added under the misguided premise of adding more cable subscribers to our league footprint. Something that became outdated very quickly (obviously Delaney didn't foresee start of the cord-cutting era).
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
The reason the AAU kicked them out is because the hospital is a separate campus and they do not count USDA sponsored agricultural research.
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Did these things change after they became AAU? Did the hospital move?
 




GopherBuddy said:
The AAU changed it's membership criteria:

"the association as a whole adopted revised criteria that compared AAU institutions with nonmembers on research dollars and eliminated the assumption that current members would automatically continue on."
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Ouster-Opens-a-Painful-Debate/127364

Nebraska had been a member for 102 years according to the article.
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After reading that, it really looks like Nebraska got the shaft like someone not getting admitted to a club because they were dressed wrong.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
People talk about Nebraska being a "horrible" research school and that is absolute garbage. They are still a very highly regarded research university. The reason the AAU kicked them out is because the hospital is a separate campus and they do not count USDA sponsored agricultural research. They were and are a good fit, even if they didn't bring 100 million TV's like Rutgers and Maryland. I'd argue culture-wise a much better fit than Rutgers or Maryland.
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Nebraska is at the bottom of the Big Ten in academics, way at the bottom. Culture wise? What do we have in common with Nebraska? The U is an urban school and Lincoln is in the middle of nowhere.
 

maroonfive said:
Nebraska is at the bottom of the Big Ten in academics, way at the bottom. Culture wise? What do we have in common with Nebraska? The U is an urban school and Lincoln is in the middle of nowhere.
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That's not really true...Lincoln is a decent sized city and UNL is an urban campus.
 

discochris said:
After reading that, it really looks like Nebraska got the shaft like someone not getting admitted to a club because they were dressed wrong.
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They should have ditched the overalls and the DeKalb ball cap.
 

MnplsGopher said:
The BTN's negotiating rule has always been, to the best of my knowledge, that all cable systems in Big Ten states (states that have a Big Ten school) must carry the channel on the normal tier (same tier as ESPN), or else they can't carry the channel at all. For other states, it can be in a special "sports package" or other add-
On my cable BTN is extra.....espn is included
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Face The Facts said:
The OP is wrong.

Nebraska was a great add to further bolster the Big Ten's national brand.
It was necessary and has paid great dividends.

Nebraska fans are passionate, but more importantly, they are dispersed through several large markets including Chicago. In the building of the BTN, passionate fans like Nebraska were needed to get the larger, nationwide exposure.

Rutgers can be ripped on for many reasons, but getting on all the TV's in NJ and maybe more in NY has definitely paid off, as has MD in the DC area.

The Big Ten is the largest national brand of any college conference despite the football not being of the level of the SEC, or the basketball being equal to the ACC.
But adding Nebraska was needed greatly to provide more western and central / southern exposure.

Nebraska coming to the Big Ten got the entire Big 12 country watching Big Ten football because Nebraska was either loved or hated. Just like if OSU or Michigan changed conferences now, the rest of the Big Ten would watch to hope they sucked.
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Where I'm at in Texas, not at all. Nebraska is forgotten.
 

MnplsGopher said:
Mentioned this in the Week 5 other games thread, but want to state it more forcefully, and see if anyone cares to comment (agree, disagree, bring up other facts or opinions, tell me I'm an idiot, and such). So without further ado:


I grow more firm in my conviction that adding Nebraska was the worst mistake in Big Ten history.

Never was a worthy academic/research school. Tiny market. Maryland and Rutgers have these in spades, at least.

They were supposed to deliver an Ohio St level football program, and have absolutely failed. The conditions that allowed them to succeed 15-20 years ago are gone and are never coming back. I believe its ceiling on the football field is somewhere in the spectrum of NW to Iowa. I don't think it can achieve Wisconsin levels of success. Zero chance at achieving Ohio St levels.
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MINI G - "They were supposed to deliver an Ohio St level football program."

What did you major in?


You should be happy. Now the Gophers can step up, take Nebraska's place and show the B10 that you are worthy of staying in the B10.

Are you speaking about football? They fill their football stadium, about 75,000, even when they play their spring game. You should be happy that the "N" raises the big 10s attendance levels

I doubt you could qualify to attend Nebraska in any real program. You're a short term thinker vs a long term realist.
 
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But without Nebraska in the B1G we could never have had the Bits of Broken Chair trophy.
 

If you think Nebraska will be down for 3 more years you would be wrong.

Right now Nebraska brings in more money in TV, for the B10, and filling their stadium for their program, than you could wish for.
 
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GSUsTALON said:
If you think Nebraska will be down for 3 more years you would be wrong.

Right now Nebraska brings in more money in TV, for the B10, and filling their stadium for their program, than you could wish for.
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I could swear you said you were done posting here after the GSU game. We get enough troll tripe here from certain others.
 

maroonfive said:
Nebraska is at the bottom of the Big Ten in academics, way at the bottom. Culture wise? What do we have in common with Nebraska? The U is an urban school and Lincoln is in the middle of nowhere.
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You realize Lincoln is larger than probably half of the other B1G schools? Don't disagree that overall academically it brings up the rear but it also has more Academic All-Americans than any other school.
 

Texas-Gopher said:
Where I'm at in Texas, not at all. Nebraska is forgotten.
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Have a buddy from Missouri, still follows Nebraska closely and roots against them. The hate still runs runs deep for Nebby in the Big XII.
 


PMWinSTP said:
Have a buddy from Missouri, still follows Nebraska closely and roots against them. The hate still runs runs deep for Nebby in the Big XII.
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I can see it more so in Big 8 country. K-State, KU, Iowa St, Missouri, I believe have all played Nebraska 100 times or something like that. Oklahoma had a great rivalry with them, but OU has zoomed way past them now.

Texas schools were late to the Big 8 party, and I can see they don't really notice the loss of Nebraska as much.
 

GSUsTALON said:
MINI G - "They were supposed to deliver an Ohio St level football program."

What did you major in?


You should be happy. Now the Gophers can step up, take Nebraska's place and show the B10 that you are worthy of staying in the B10.

Are you speaking about football? They fill their football stadium, about 75,000, even when they play their spring game. You should be happy that the "N" raises the big 10s attendance levels

I doubt you could qualify to attend Nebraska in any real program. You're a short term thinker vs a long term realist.
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Gophers are a charter a member of the B1G, we're not getting kicked out. MN is very successful in B1G athletics overall, it's just the important ones we struggle with. Academically MN is superior to Nebraska. MN is upper half, on par with Wi just behind NW and Michigan
 

Vandy said:
I could swear you said you were done posting here after the GSU game. We get enough troll tripe here from certain others.
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Talon’s girlfriend is a Nebraska fan. My guess is that’s her posting on his account.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Nebraska has a great and devoted fan base. I’ve been to several games there (sister in law is a season ticket holder) and if there is one thing that Nebraskans love its their Cornhuskers. But for as passionate as they are, they always treated me and other opposing team’s fans well. Our program/fans should take some notes from them and their overall success. They are “down” right now but I don’t agree that they weren’t a good add to the conference.
 

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