by joining this league, Nebraska erased it's entire tradition and standing in the other leagues (8 & 12) and basically started over at square 1.
throw in all the coaching changes, and different offensive and defensive styles, and you have an identity crisis of not only who you are, but how you prepare and play coupled with some ancient history of who you used to be as your standard.
It's really more like starting a new team from scratch. It is why I say joining the B1G was the nail in the coffin for Husker football.
One could argue that they should revisit that 500 million expansion idea, and just live on the B1G money and try to be somewhat competitive, like all the other smart schools in the league do.
Husker football is like retired and getting a check now.
Well it's one way to look at it.
This. I hated to see NU leave the Big 12, when they did I told anyone that would listen that NU just lost its recruiting and regional fanbase. NU’s new prime TV region: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, etc..there was simply no generation after generation love of NU as a school with kids, families, and high schools in the BIG region. How do you expect to recruit in Ohio against Ohio St? Kids, moms, and dads, for over the last 100 years have dreamed of sending their kids to Oh St. Other BIG schools been recruiting these states since football was invented.
Nebraska does not have the population base to have enough high-end talent to support a national title contender.
So Nebraska left a recruiting base and fanbase that had some brand knowledge and respect.
Hate to say it, but it was pretty arrogant for NU to think it could leave the Big 12 and go to the BIG and walk in to prime recruiting states like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and pull big time recruits immediately, fast enough to keep the program out of mediocrity in the BIG and then falling further behind.
Then, you destroy all of your rivalry games and the familiarity of fans you had from the Big 12. You destroy one of the all time best rivalry games on thanksgiving day. Oklahoma State fans thank you.
It takes decades (takes 18 years to develop a recruit), to overcome the branding and the familiarity all of these parents, high school kids and coaches have with the original BIG teams, it is a multiple generational issue. Could take 30-40 years.
Kids you are recruiting today have never seen NU perform at the highest levels of college football and the kids that see you play the most are in the TV footprint of the BIG have generations of families with BIG degrees and pulling for their BIG teams.
Tough deal, NU acted out emotion to leave the Big 12 and I felt never thought this all the way out.
Unfortunately, I am not surprised what has happened to NU football.