[NU Sports] Nebraska

[Mike Nolan]

> Anyways I would have preferred ND (and maybe we still will get them but I doubt it) but Nebraska will add to the conference's reputation (and may even hurt NU bowl game opportunities)

That's an interesting point.  The Big Ten has something like eight bowl
committments now, and if/when the Big XII breaks up there will be a 
scramble among the bowls currently committed to Big XII schools to find 
new committments.  I would expect the Big Ten to be in the middle of 
those negotiations, so it is possible that we may actually pick up 
another 'marquee' bowl committment, possibly two of them.

As a result, I think it is unlikely that a 6-6 Big Ten team will ever
be left at home again.  Of course, we would all prefer that 
Northwestern not have to worry about that, by winning 7 or more games.

Now, how does this affect Northwestern?  Well, playing Nebraska probably
makes it a little harder to get to 6 wins, but on the other hand 
DEFEATING Nebraska (assuming they don't slip back into mediocrity)
will improve Northwestern's bowl position.  

Whether or not that's considered a positive depends on whether it give 
us yet another bowl game in which we are the underdog, I suspect.  (I 
sure hope the Cats get that bowl win monkey off their backs in 2010.)  

And assuming some form of the BCS continues to exist, then having Nebraska
in the conference probably increases the chances that the Big Ten gets 
more than one BCS slot.  In fact, if it turns out that there are five 
or less superconferences, they would probably have to change the BCS 
rules so that a conference could get more than two BCS slots, which
would likely benefit the Big Ten as well. 
--
Mike Nolan