OU shares blame for decline of Nebraska football fortunes
Why did Nebraska football fall so far? Blame the Sooners
Nebraska football has fallen, and it can’t get up.
You can blame the formation of the Big 12 or the Cornhuskers’ jump to the Big Ten.
You can blame any one of five coaches since the regal Tom Osborne retired almost a quarter century ago.
You can blame ineffective athletic directors.
You can blame Osborne himself, who casts a mighty shadow and seems to long for the days of the Big Six Conference.
But here’s a new one. Just blame the Sooners.
OU and Nebraska renew Saturday a once-proud rivalry, with a game on Owen Field that appears one-sided.
The Sooners are riding high and mostly have been the duration of the 2000s. Meanwhile, Nebraska has gone five years without a winning season. Twenty years without a major bowl. Twenty-two years without a conference title.
What happened?
Trev Alberts seems a logical guy to ask. Alberts, now the Husker athletic director, was a Nebraska terror back when the Red was Big. But that’s redundant. All the Cornhuskers of the 1990s were terrors.
That’s back when Nebraska football was as consistent as General Motors. As dynastic as television networks.
The Corn Kingdom was unassailable. OU football was great, but the Sooners had their dips. Florida State was incredibly consistent but was a
latecomer to gridiron greatness. Alabama, Notre Dame, Southern Cal, Penn State, Michigan, Georgia. All rose to great heights, but all had their falls.
Not Nebraska. For almost 40 years, the Huskers were a total load. Nebraska won at least nine games for 33 straight years, 1969-2001.
But not anymore.
“The blatant truth, I would argue that some of, if not a lot of, our challenges were self-inflicted,” Alberts said.
We know those stories. The coaching treadmill, going back and forth between Husker ties and fresh faces. Frank Solich to Bill Callahan to Bo Pelini to Mike Riley to Scott Frost. Similar rotation on athletic directors.
Thus, “You have what you have today,” Alberts said. “Which means we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
But along the way, through no fault of the Huskers, the college football landscape changed. And a powerhouse on the Great Plains no longer was assured of its exalted status.
Think of how Nebraska got the drop on most of college football in the first place. The Huskers’ best resource always was the absolute devotion of the state’s residents. No Oklahoma State or Kansas State to divide loyalties.
All 1.4 million Nebraskans in 1970, and all 1.5 million Nebraskans in 1980, and all 1.6 million Nebraskans in 1990, were Cornhusker fanatics. Nebraska had a big stadium, filled it from the time Bob Devaney stepped on campus as coach in 1962 and cashed in.
“Fan support alone, donor support alone, ticket revenue alone, was a differentiator,” Alberts said.
“We had some resources others didn’t have. Allowed us to be first and be leaders with strength and conditioning, investing in the training table, investing in facilities.”
Remember a constant Barry Switzer refrain from the 1980s, how OU needed to keep up with Nebraska? Not Texas. Nebraska.
Then the economics of college football changed. Major television money arrived on the scene.
And that’s where you point fingers at the Sooners. The OU and Georgia lawsuit against the NCAA over television rights finally was settled in 1984, in favor of the universities. No longer did the NCAA control college football TV.
Before, teams were limited to two or three television appearances a year. ABC-TV had the NCAA’s television package. One or two games a day were aired in each market; which means only two or four teams were featured per Saturday.
Nebraska, and OU, were among the Chosen People, while the likes of OSU or Texas Tech or Iowa State might get one telecast per year, and that almost certainly regionally.
Big television money, which today drives everything in college football, was non-existent.
When it arrived, huge stadiums packed to the brim was not the only avenue to big finances.
“That was the real equalizer,” Alberts said. “Revenue was distributed more equitably.”
More schools had access to significant money, which led to increased coaching salaries, football-specific facilities and the rest of the arms race that now is rampant in the sport.
Nebraska’s big advantage on all but a few fellow bluebloods was diminished.
The Huskers’ great fan base remains impressive. But most Power 5 Conference schools have exquisite facilities. All are on television every game. Great players in the Southwest and Deep South and Upper Midwest and California and New Jersey can find enticing campuses without going to Lincoln, Nebraska.
“It’s been a long time since this program has been able to execute and produce at a level that we all aspire to do,” Alberts said. “Yet our fans continue to support us, continue to stand with us. Doesn’t mean they aren’t continuing to be at points frustrated, but people care.”
Nebraska has financial security in the flush-with-cash Big Ten. But so does Wisconsin. So does Iowa. So does Minnesota. So does Northwestern, with maybe a quarter of the fan base of Nebraska’s.
Certain institutions, like OU or Alabama or Ohio State, can rebound from slumps much more quickly. They have geographic advantages over Nebraska.
“We’ve got challenges like anybody else, but wholeheartedly, I wouldn’t have taken this job if I didn’t believe that with some continued hard work, focus, unity of purpose, this program can get back to where we want it to be,” Alberts said.
“It will not be overnight. Ours will be more incremental.”
Can Nebraska get back to where it was? That’s a tough assignment. Can Nebraska get back to shouting distance from where it was? Probably.
But college football history is littered with great programs that declined as cultures changed and American life evolved.
Minnesota. Army. Pittsburgh. Ole Miss. Harvard. Carlisle.
“You always hear the old saying, ‘you never know what you have until it’s gone?’ I personally probably didn’t appreciate the privilege I had” as a player, Alberts said. “You can take for granted success. It can become, sort of, I don’t know, typical. Part of the norm.
“The reality is, you don’t know just how blessed you were, as a state, as an institution, as a former player, until that’s no longer the case.”
And now, the Huskers’ disadvantages have been magnified, their advantages wiped out, and they in part can thank their old friends on the other side of the Big Red Rivalry.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.