Published Saturday June 12, 2010
Shatel: As college landscape shifted, Nebraska stood at the epicenter

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2"><!-- displayAd(12, false, false, false, false); --> </script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2"> <!-- displayAd(12, false, false, false, false, true); --> </script>

LINCOLN — If Friday were a football game, you'd want to keep the program.
What a day. Whirlwind day. Important day. Historic day. Hell of a day.
One of the biggest days, if not the biggest, in University of Nebraska history.
The historians can debate that one. What can't be denied is the unmistakable feeling that Friday changed Nebraska.
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2"> <!-- displayAd(33, false, false, false, false); --> </script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript1.2"> <!-- displayAd(33, false, false, false, false, true); --> </script>
Within a breathless, mind-blowing four-hour span, Nebraska went from trying to beat out Missouri for a Big Ten invite to trying to play for the 2011 Big Ten championship.
The Board of Regents meeting. The overflow crowd. The application sent for Big Ten membership.
Four hours later, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is strolling into the campus visitors center with the invite in hand and a red “N" pin on his suit lapel.
The “N" logo and Big Ten logo appearing side by side on a projection screen.
Matt Davison, who helped define the Big 12 with his 1997 catch at Missouri, holding a Big Ten Network microphone with a big grin on his face.
Finally, the nuptials. Do you, Nebraska, take this league to be your lawfully wedded home for the next 100 years?
I can't believe it. All the endless and maddening speculation of the last few months came to life Friday. And it was all larger than life.
Elsewhere, the landscape burned. Missouri was spurned. Texas A&M thinking Southeastern Conference. Texas and its entourage gazing westward. The Pac-10 to Pac-16? Then other leagues would answer, right? Oh, boy, here we go.
College football will never be the same, and it all seemed to start right here, with Lincoln as the epicenter for change, on a day when Big Red football would never be the same.
Goodbye, Manhattan; hello, East Lansing. Goodbye, Boulder; hello, Columbus. Goodbye, Austin; hello, Iowa City.
It was a big day, the biggest day, and nobody was bigger than Harvey Perlman and Tom Osborne.
The chancellor and athletic director/legend-at-large put on a show at the regents meeting. They laid it all out. And while they were at it, they laid out Missouri and Texas. It was powerful. It was clinical. Nebraska, eerily quiet all these weeks, finally spoke up and turned up the volume for all the Big 12 to hear.
Perlman called out Mizzou for being the one to start the expansion circus.
Osborne talked about schools in the Big 12 that were asking NU to stay and all the while selling themselves to not one, not two but three other leagues.
Perlman said the Big 12 presidents wouldn't commit to staying in the league if Colorado and Missouri both left.
And then, in a downright delicious passage, Perlman talked about calling Texas' bluff. And how he asked Texas to commit its TV rights to the Big 12 if it was serious about the league, and how Texas declined.
Brilliant, Harvey. The Steve Pederson years are now forgiven.
Then, finally, the money quote from Osborne: “One team leaving does not break up a conference. Two teams leaving does not break up a conference. Six teams leaving breaks up a conference."
Boom. They should engrave those words on a plaque, or on the side of Memorial Stadium. Maybe put them on the final Big 12 football trophy.
Nobody in the room cheered, but you got the feeling the non-journalists in the room wanted to leap to their feet and roar. Osborne and Perlman were rolling, and, for many, it was like 14 years of frustration flowing out.
Perlman dropped the bomb that NU wanted to start play in the Big Ten in 2011 — one year before the other Big 12 exiles would join the Pac-10. He said he didn't think financial penalties from the Big 12 were appropriate. But who's going to be left in the Big 12 to collect the money anyway?
Finally, Nebraska was calling the shots and dictating terms on its way out the door, all the while pulling down the façade on Texas' Big 12 loyalty. You could hear the ovations from Alliance to Auburn. Even those not on board with this move had to be nodding approval.
Meanwhile, Delany backed up his newest chancellor at the 5 p.m. press conference, saying that one team leaving shouldn't level a conference and that the Big Ten had done fine with 10 teams, then 11. So now even the Big Ten commish was calling Texas' bluff.
The future of the old Big 12 is in the rear-view mirror. Nebraska was quick to look ahead, and suddenly it was OK to talk about an Iowa rivalry and recruiting in the Big Ten and how many times John Cook's dynasty will be on the Big Ten Network.
Save for Bo Pelini, the Ohio State Buckeye, who, when asked about the move, said he's “not an emotional guy.” So Bo will be the same Bo in the new league as the old.
The lack of emotion toward the old Big Eight ties was the one downside to this day. It should not be taken lightly.
What happened here on Friday was the end of a 100-year relationship. Nebraska started the Missouri Valley Conference with Kansas, Missouri and Iowa State, Iowa and Washington U. of St. Louis. Kansas State, Oklahoma, Colorado and Oklahoma State would later make it the Big Six, Big Seven and Big Eight.
NU has been playing Kansas uninterrupted since 1907, the longest-running series in college football. It would be nice to see that series continue as a nonconference game.
We'll see. Emotions are running high now, feelings and traditions have been trampled. NU shot a volley back in the blame game, and that game will probably continue, with greater intensity, as the Big 12 plays out its final year.
And how about that final year? Nebraska's final trips to Ames and Manhattan and Stillwater will be sentimental journeys, including R-rated sentiments sure to be sent NU's way.
Could Oct. 16 — Texas in the house — be any bigger? It is now.
But there won't be any more league trips to Mount Oread in Lawrence or to Folsom Field the day after Thanksgiving, and there won't be a return game to Austin. Nebraska cut the cord with all of that on Friday, in the name of loyalty.
Loyalty to itself.
It was more than the right thing to do. In a world that changes like a twitter post, Nebraska stood up for itself and secured a spot in this game of musical chairs. It secured its future for all the students who will now go into the world with Big Ten degrees and all the quarterbacks who will dream of playing in the Rose Bowl.
Even the master of understatement seemed to get the magnitude of the moment.
Said Osborne: “This is a very important day for Nebraska."
Contact the writer:
444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

Texas' decision still pending, AD says
<cite class="source"></cite>
Texas Likely To Move To Pac-10

Joe Schad on five Big 12 schools poised to join Pac-10


<script id="genVideoInit<% genVideoInitTS %>"> espn.video.embeded.play(); </script><!-- template inline -->AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds says the Longhorns are still "looking at all options" before deciding whether to stay in the crumbling Big 12 or move to another league.
Dodds spoke outside of his stadium suite before Saturday's Texas-TCU baseball game.

He said, "could be" when asked about reports that Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott is traveling to Oklahoma and Texas this weekend to invite Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to join his league.
The Texas and Texas Tech boards of regents have scheduled Tuesday meetings to discuss conference affiliation.
Texas is considered the linchpin to the Big 12's survival after the league lost Nebraska (Big Ten) and Colorado (Pac-10) in a matter of two days this week.

A source indicated to ESPN's Joe Schad on Friday that Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will join the Pac-10 Conference when a formal offer is made.

Texas A&M is reportedly torn between joining the Pac-10 or Southeastern Conference.

Another source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to ESPN.com's Andy Katz that Texas A&M was looking at the SEC, but the source said he is convinced the Aggies will end up in the Pac-10.

The source said the SEC consideration was fueled by "ego purposes" within Texas A&M, that the Aggies' power brokers sought distance from the Texas decision and didn't want to convey the appearance they were doing everything because of Texas.

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said Friday he is still working to convince the remaining 10 members to stay put.

"We're working with all those members. We've had a lot of positive feedback about the desire of those institutions to [stay] together," Beebe said. "There's been a lot of speculation about people going west ... I'm going all the way to the final whistle. I'm playing it out as hard and fast as I can."

Texas Tech has also scheduled a special board of regents meeting for Tuesday, at which the formalization of an acceptance to the Pac-10 could occur, a Big 12 source told ESPN's Schad.

Yeah, of course the MWC is eying the leftover Big 12 teams. Why wouldn't they. That doesn't mean that the Big 12 North wants to study viable options first. I'm telling you, a Big East/Big 12 North + perhaps Baylor/Tech is going to happen if the Big Ten takes from the Big East. They might even change the name of the conference. Alot of Big East football teams are sick of having all these non-football schools where they could make a new conference and get much more revenue.

The Big East, Big Twelve, and Big Ten should form a super-conference and call it the East-ish 22.

Sounds good to me.

5K bitches.

I don't get what the Big 10 is doing. If their goal by expanding is to enhance the exposure of their TV network and to expand into new/growing markets (i.e. the sun belt) I fail to see how adding Nebraska accomplishes this.

Adding Nebraska is not going to get the Big 10 Network into homes in the Southeast... adding Nebraska is not going to get people in sun belt markets more excited about Big 10 football/sports... what is the point?

This is an example of expanding for the sake of expanding. Yes they'll now have enough teams for a conference football championship, but Jim Delaney stated all along this was not the ultimate goal of Big 10 expansion.

oh **** off laz. you're a perfectly reasonable guy until it comes to kansas jayhawk anything. calm the **** down and **** off.

and yeah, somebody said the schools were 'tied together' in conference via kansas state legislation.

I can't say this enough for your post: **** off.

considering there are a ton of states where the major universities are in different conferences I don't understand why the KBOR keeps pushing this.

I go away for a golf junket and the conference collapses. See you all in the MWC.
Posted via Mobile Device

the KBOR does not need to approve nor condone what member institutions do as far as conference affiliation. They have recommended that they think it is in KU and KSU's best interests to remain in the same conference, but that is merely a suggestion.

Perhaps it was a way, they thought, to flush Notre Dame out and scare them into joining. It would appear, if that were the case, that Notre Dame doesn't give a damn and left the Big 10 having to accept a team that they wanted, just not quite yet...? It does let them have 12 teams though, and lets them have a championship game now as well (not that they couldn't before).

I do not see why they should stop at 12 teams though. I imagine it is up to the PAC now, but I am guessing they have plans to expand to 16 quickly if needed.

They probably need to have all the teams sign on. For TV viewership, the push East makes sense. But maybe some of the teams are worried that if they pick up some of these Big East teams who don't make buckoo bucks of football revenue then that would make the total payout per team less?? I don't know, just brainstorming. ONLY picking up Nebraska doesn't make much sense based on the stuff they are spouting out. It makes sense to me because it gives the the opportunity to play a championship game and brings in a huge traditional football powerhouse.

Agree.

I think the Big Ten, rightly or wrongly, is worried about its ego and doesn't want to look like the one solely responsible for destroying conferences and starting the domino effect.

The took Nebraska and can say they only wanted to go to 12 to get a football championship game. Then the Pac-10 reacted and added 6 Big 12 teams, effectively blowing up the conference.

The Big Ten can then say they didn't have a choice but to add a few more teams to compete with the new Pac-10/16, and can add 2-4 more teams.

Who knows which teams that will be, but if the Pac-10 truly adds the 5 from the Big 12 South, it will be the beginning, not the end, of realignment.

Wait, is that official now?

No i don't think so, that is just my theory.