It's a Big Ten World. Is Nebraska just living in it?
Not in most sports, minus the one that matters most.
It wasn’t close. On Sunday UCLA methodically and expertly plucked South Carolina for a 28-point win in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament championship, the third-largest win in the game’s history and the Bruins first national title. And now—like, tonight—the Big Ten has the chance to do something unprecedented.
If Michigan can beat Connecticut in the men’s title game in Indianapolis, the Big Ten would become the first conference to claim the football, men’s and women’s basketball national titles in the same year. The Wolverines were favored by 6.5 points Sunday night and have ripped through the bracket, becoming the first team to score 90-plus points and win by double-digits in every tournament game. Should Michigan complete its dominant run, it would be the Big Ten’s first title in men’s basketball since Michigan State in 1999–00.
These were already viewed as boom times for the Big Ten given Indiana’s football national title earlier this year, making it three straight for the conference where, less than 20 years ago, the commissioner felt compelled to write an “open letter” explaining why his conference couldn’t beat the SEC in the biggest games. But the Big Ten can beat its chest about football now, and it’s still the most important sport by multiples when it comes to fan mindshare. Sweep the basketball titles—the next two most-popular sports—and the drumbeat will be thunderous.
Prepare for so many trend stories.1 The Big Ten will have a third event (three major titles in one year) on top of a third event (three straight football championships), and you typically only need three to make a basic case for “there’s something happening here.”
As a conference member for 15 seasons, it’s good for Nebraska to be in this company. It makes arguing easier, at least. But the success of affiliated others almost always prompts some introspection as well.
What’s Nebraska’s place in the Big Ten’s recent run of high-profile results? As with most things in college athletics, this is mostly a football discussion, but in this case it’s partly a football discussion because, well, a lot of other things have been going great at NU of late.
The men’s basketball team just had its best season ever. Women’s basketball made its third-straight tournament, marking five appearances in nine seasons under Amy Williams. Wrestling has back-to-back top-three national finishes. Softball was ranked in the top-five last week, baseball the top-20, and both teams swept over the weekend. While Nebraska volleyball’s lone loss of the season last December was a surprising gut punch, it was still the lone loss of the season.
Near the end of the 2023–24 seasons, it looked like Nebraska could finish in the top-20 of the Director’s Cup2 for the first time since joining the Big Ten. The Huskers didn’t quite get there, finishing 22nd, but that improved a spot last year and this year looks even more promising. Not a bad run considering NU finished 49th in 2021–22, its lowest ranking ever in this tally that’s been kept since 1993.
And this recent run has happened without a breakout contribution from football.3 No need for a list of scare stats here when one will do: Since joining the Big Ten in 2011, Nebraska football has finished two seasons ranked in the final top-25. Even worse, it was the first two, 2011 and 2012.
Not exactly what the Big Ten thought it was getting upon Nebraska’s arrival, when the Huskers could still be viewed as a heavyweight alongside Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. Since then, Nebraska football has been (perhaps generously) middle of the pack, surpassed by teams both maddening and nearly unthinkable to the person considering the Huskers’ Big Ten future in 2010.
The most fascinating Husker hypothetical of 2026 so far has to be former AD Bill Moos’s admission that he explored a return to the Big 12. Leave aside the rationality of such a decision and just focus on what it would’ve felt like.
I guess it would’ve been nice-ish for a brief hit of nostalgia, though I think real Nebraska nostalgia is for the Big Eight.4 Who knows what would’ve happened to the Big 12 if the Huskers had returned, but as the conference stands now it’s an alliance of survivors who couldn’t get a spot in the most desirable compounds. I haven’t polled Colorado fans, but my guess is, after the Big Ten’s hostile takeover of the Pac-12 forced a CU return to the Big 12, few Buffs fans have experienced much, “ah, back where we belong,” feelings. Conferences aren’t where any team belongs anymore, it’s just where they get their bargaining power.
From a football-only perspective, the Moos move might’ve meant slightly better fortunes on Saturdays. At least for a bit, though I’m not sure NU football would’ve returned to the Big 12 with the same exalted status it entered the Big Ten. And with all of the changes that would’ve still presumably come after, say, a 2022 re-entry to the Big 12, the best-case scenario probably would’ve been playing slightly better football in a slightly lesser league.5
Worth it? Not in light of Nebraska’s recent success in most other sports. Not when the Big Ten is perhaps peaking. Those other Husker programs and coaches—some new, some not—found ways to adapt to a new league and the realities of a changing national landscape. Volleyball, the gold standard in Lincoln this century, is better because it plays in the Big Ten. Basketball is. Wrestling has to be. Maybe you could make the case that baseball and softball don’t get the same upside, but the downside hasn’t been drastic either.
But until football figures it out, the Big Ten’s overall success and standing, however long it lasts, is bound to feel like something good happening to somebody else.
That’s not just a Nebraska thing, it’s a football thing, but it might be uniquely hard in Nebraska to separate the two.
Just trying to beat the crowd before Michigan probably adds the third jewel. Though it should be noted, UConn is 6-0 in men’s championship games.
This is the National Association of College Directors of Athletics competition for measuring department-wide success.
Though making a bowl game the past two seasons does contribute some points in the Director’s Cup.
Being able to realistically drive to any conference road game without planning a family vacation is a nice perk.
For significantly less revenue, though I’m trying to keep money out of this.