Buckle up, Bo.
When the parade stops and attention turns back to football — the kind played with young men and shoulder pads — a daunting reality will be waiting for Nebraska.
The next two football seasons are going to be a bear. And I don't mean the Baylor kind.
For all the optimism and momentum that is hitched to coach Bo Pelini's program now, an inescapable X factor must now be considered before weighing in on stuff like BCS bowl bids and conference titles.
Emotion.
The next two seasons will be chock full of it for Nebraska games. Especially on the other sideline.
For NU, the road to what appears to be the final Big 12 championship will start on a Thursday night in Manhattan, Kan. K-State students started preparing for it last night. The Wildcats were already going to be a tough out in that night game environment. Now they might be going to the Mountain West, thanks in part to NU.
Iowa State will have the same motivation in Ames. Oklahoma State, too, in Stillwater. Same with Texas A&M in College Station. The Texas-Nebraska and Missouri-Nebraska games may be a push on the “hate'' scale. It's hard to know who will have the blood-thirsty edge, if any, in those scrums.
How big a deal is this? College kids don't get into politics. Those battles are fought in board rooms. But kids hang around fans and read message boards. They'll hear all the smack talk on campus about Nebraska. It's bound to rub off on them.
It could be that the most emotional scenes at these games will be in the stands. Nebraska fans who travel, beware: You might want to wear your own white and red helmet. Please consider ear plugs. As an anonymous reader posted on a Kansas City Star sports message board, “(Nebraska) don't let the door hit you in the posterior on the way out. And take your fans with you. They are no longer really welcome in Big XII country.''
Nebraskans will be treated like outcasts. Traitors. Whatever. The Big 12 could still stay together as 10. Anybody know a good reason why that can't happen?
They'll all be rooting against the Huskers, although any victory over NU will be small revenge that won't change the reality of college realignment. Still, Pelini's tough guys will get everyone's best shot. They'll have to be tougher, and more single-focused, than usual.
Of course, if Texas and Co. leave this week, the schools left behind can save some venom for Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and O-State. This Big 12 season could be a real hate-fest. Perhaps an appropriate way to go out.
Here's a fitting ending: Nebraska vs. Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game. Now that would be something to root for.
If NU gets to that point, it better catch its breath. The 2011 Big Ten season won't be any easier.
Consider that Pelini and his staff will be trying to learn new personnel and philosophies from Big Ten opponents. They'll also be doing it while getting the Big Ten's best shots.
Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State — even Northwestern — will try to show the Huskers what Big Ten football is all about. They'll use their forearms to welcome NU to the league and also illustrate the point that Nebraska's not going to walk through this thing without some bruises to the legs or ego.
It will all be in good sport, of course. Big Ten schools are already lining up to play NU. Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema posted on his twitter page Saturday that he has asked the Big Ten office to set up a Wisconsin-Nebraska game for the end of the season and come up with a trophy. The Barry Alvarez Cup?
We'll see if the Hawkeyes have something to say about that.
It's not too soon to speculate on divisional lineups. We assume that Nebraska would fit with Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Northwestern. With 12 teams, the rotation could look a lot like the Big 12's rotation: five division games and a rotation of three in the other division every two years. So NU would play Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State at the same rate it plays Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M now.
Should be interesting. Priority One for the Big Ten will be to keep Ohio State vs. Michigan intact every year — and probably for Thanksgiving weekend. Here's the dilemma: If you keep OSU and Michigan in the same division, the winner of their game still has to play a Big Ten title game the following week. That could seem anticlimactic. But if you separate them, you run the risk of them playing back-to-back weekends (assuming Michigan gets back up).
Who knows? For now, the possibilities are all new and exciting. The culture is already flipping. On Friday night, one Omaha sports bar already was showing the Big Ten Network. A K-State fan I know lamented, “It's going to be hard to live here next year. Everyone's going to be talking Big Ten.''
It should be a very interesting next two years. In more ways than one.
Contact the writer:
444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com
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