Oklahoma & Nebraska?

Oklahoma has been good from the 50s on and Nebraska was good in the 70s , 80s and some in the 90s. They are both located in rural areas close by each other so why has Nebraska fallen off so much vs OU? Is it bc Neb cut the tx football ties being in the Big10?

Bad coaching hires.

A good coach can recruit Texas without playing here.

1 Like

Leaving the Big 12 hurt them terribly. Yes, after firing Solich they’ve been mediocre. Lincoln is a pretty cool place to catch a game.

1 Like

Nebraska doesn’t give out county scholarships anymore. Their famed walk on program wasn’t exactly a walk on program.

6 Likes

Ok so the walk on program and not playing in Tx. I think the walk on program is the biggest factor since they were good before the big12. I’d say Arkansas was more affected by leaving the TX recruiting base.

1 Like

I’m sure Nebraska feel they have 54 million reasons why they made a good choice to join the B1G.

2 Likes

Joining the Big 12 hurt them the most. All of Nebraska’s best years were in the Big 8.

2 Likes

True , when the big8 was around, Neb and Ou ruled and they could have survived without bringing half of the SWC. Now Neb is on an island in a way and they offer nothing unique to the big 10 for recruits to wanna go there. Big 10s best move would be to invite Houston so Neb gets recruits and the big gets Tx recruits more often. It would be poetic justice and I’m sure Neb would be more than ok with us joining to screw the big12. It could happen.

1 Like

Actually what many of these conferences fail to realize is that regional conferences with a few big dogs at the top was best. Having too many powers in each dilutes the power of teams that used to rule. Arkansas had it good in the SWC , now they are an also ran just getting $ but I don’t they ever rule in the Sec. It hurts the fan bases of former powers but they have less hope.

3 Likes

1 coach for 30 something years never lost more than 3 games. 5 coaches since haven’t lost less than 3 games.

The Neb slip has never made sense to me especially when they move to the B1G.

One reason often cited for the decline of Big Red football is that during the stand up of the Big 12, Nebraska lost its special exemption that allowed Prop 48 players on the roster. These were players who did not meet the NCAA’s eligibility requirements; but instead of attending junior college, they’d lose a year of eligibility but benefit from the school’s academic support to get their scores and grades up. Under Osborne, the University of Nebraska usually had at least 20 Prop 48 players on the roster, if not more. These players were the California, Texas, and Florida kids you’d always see. Also, with every conference having a TV contract, Lincoln just isn’t as appealing to potential recruits anymore. Why go to Lincoln, NE when you can stay in-state and play for slightly lower profile schools like UCF, Cincy or UH and get the same exposure?

Didn’t Nebraska, under Osborne, have one of the highest graduation rates in the country? That exemption must have really worked in favor of the kids – the NCAA can’t allow that.

2 Likes

The fiercest opponent to Big Red continuing with the Prop 48 program entering the Big 12 was everyone’s favorite AD, you guessed it UT’s DeLoss Dodds! My understanding from reading the history of the Big 12 was that this was a very heated issue between him and Osborne, but ultimately Dodds prevailed. Guess DeLoss wanted to do everything within his power to position UT for success in the new Big 12.

1 Like

Isn’t the common thread of Nebraska, A&M, and Arkansas that they all started playing better competition? Maybe we’ve been right all along that UT and the bug12 are pretty wildly overrated. I think we would do fine at resource parity.

That’s part of it, but I would argue that prior to punching out of the Big 12, Mizzou, Colorado, Nebraska, and A&M were not dominating the conference by any standard of measurement. I would argue that all of these schools, perhaps with the exception of CU, which seems better aligned with the PAC12, just got tired of putting up with UT’s arrogance and greed.

2 Likes

Great responses on why the decline happened for Neb. I do agree that Neb shouldn’t have been doing that so UT was right for once.However I really think Neb should have voted no for the expansion back then bc of this. Last question is why is OU still ruling?Are they in a better city or just considered a better destination than Lincoln? I recall watching kill LSU in 2 orange bowls in the late 80s and they seem to be like a prof team playing a college team. It’s amazing we/UH beat Neb in that cotton bowl when they also had Jarvis red wine that unstoppable fb. UH was really good then and it proves if we were in a major conf. , we could more than compete. I wasn’t in Tx then but watching the replay, we played great def. so you can’t say it was all Veer or gimmick, plus the veer was just like the option so we competed straight up from what I saw.

I do remember Ou being pretty bad in the 90s before stoops got there… .

They hired art shell at OU who just stood there it seems and he was terrible in the early 90s which cost them 5 yrs.

2 Likes

Surely not Art Shell, he only coached in the NFL. But Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake were there in the 90’s.