Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish
(Post 11060363)
Since the break up of the old Big 12, those that left have mostly found what they were looking for: athletically, academically, culturally.
Colorado broke with the central time zone crowd and joined the west coast, fulfilling their yearning to be a coastal cultural oasis among frosted mountaintops.
Texas A&M showed that they could be courted and valued without Texas and found a cultural home for their angry East Texas militaristic traditions among the Confederate yearning of the Old South.
Missouri seemed to be searching for an identity and were open to adopting whichever identity was available. They began with important talk of their rightful place among the large public academic heavy weights of the Big Ten, then after turning tides, fully embraced the elite college football reputation of the SEC, even after being shoehorned in to the East division in a modern day Missouri Compromise.
The most successful and historic program that left the Big 12 was Nebraska. Their reasons for leaving were academic, cultural and athletic. They were upset with the power of Texas and the SWC voting bloc in the political machinations of the Big 12, they had largely lost ground competitively, and they felt stifled academically in the Big 12 among the land grants and the tier twos and wished to step up to the big time public ivies of the Big Ten.
Almost immediately there were obstacles: they were unceremoniously dumped by the AAU upon arrival to the Big Ten and were even voted out by some of their new colleagues, their football team continued to compete on the fringe of true national relevance, their cultural reputation now the hicks of the conference.
Nearly everything seems to be going right for the Husker football team. Nebraska currently has a legitimate Heisman contender on paper in Ameer Abdullah, a 7-1 team on track for a Big Ten title game berth and either a re-match against top 10 Michigan St or Ohio St. But on the national scene, Nebraska is an after thought.
Ranked 16th in the Coaches and 17th in the AP the Huskers must be shocked that no one seems to be paying them much mine. or perhaps they've become used to being out of the national eye, even accepted their new role as a national underdog after years of being despised as a national power.
Still it is hard to imagine that the Nebraska fan base does not notice that they are the 14th ranked one loss team in the coach's behind 4 SEC team and 3 Big 12 teams all with one loss. Perhaps most infuriating is that two loss LSU jumped Nebraska in the AP.
To complete the humiliation, Ameer Abdullah is not a top 5 Heisman candidate despite his FBS leading rushing numbers and highlight reel plays.
Like some Greek tragedy, Nebraska attempted to escape the shadow of Texas only to become even more irrelevant. The shadow of Texas has been replaced by the shadow of mediocrity offered by the Big Ten. the Big Ten is now widely seen as an inferior conference to the SEC, the PAC-12 and yes, the Big 12.
There may be escape from the droughts of the Texas sun, but there is no escape from the foul reputation of the ever expanding Big Ten. It is there that by choice the Cornhuskers till a barren field and a harvest of dust
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