Husker Down Year Good for Big 12

For years many years, Nebraska was a perennial powerhouse. That day will come again, but right now, Kansas and Missouri football are sitting comfortably atop the Big 12 North. Many Husker fans have always felt there is a media bias against Nebraska in terms of poll numbers and coverage. But really, media and non-Husker fans were bored of hearing the same things about Nebraska every year. What is grabbing everyone’s attention now is the freak show that is the Big 12.

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This year, Kansas is a sideshow freak. You should be able to see which one of these is not like the other: 2-10, 6-7, 4-7, 7-5, 6-6, 10-0. Whether the Jayhawks are genuinely that good, or they have a low strength of schedule is not the point. Everyone loves a good Cinderella story. Todd Reesing is a good player, but in the national landscape, Kansas does not have the star power. So the attention KU gets is all about the unusual nature of the situation: a team playing as one with only one other winning season is the last five years.

Mizzou is getting national attention because of two things: Chase Daniel & Steady Improvement. While Daniel may not be leading the pack in terms of the Heisman race, he is one of the most exciting talents to watch this year. He has picked apart defenses with 69% completion percentage. And talk about steady improvement for Missouri: 5-6, 7-5, 8-5, 9-1 in the last four years.

With the Huskers out of the spotlight, people are paying attention to the Big 12 stories filling the void. Nationally speaking, the Big 12 has probably jumped above a number of conferences in top team strength this year. While being in the class of the SEC and PAC-10 is great right now, we need Kansas to be undefeated when they play a one-loss Mizzou team. Then, the winner of that game must play a one-loss Oklahoma team in the Big 12 Championship. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck arguing with Big 10 fans as to which conference is stronger. We don’t want to be in that boat right now.

After this year is said and done, the Huskers need to look forward to a few steady seasons of strong improvement to get back in this race. The right coach may have the necessary tools to get us on the horse sooner, but don’t expect a trip to the National Championship next year.