Nebraska, really lightened up schedule!!

[Wingback]

Yea but its not like we schedule like this intentionally or consistently. Schedules are made years in advance, when these games were scheduled UCONN was an upstart independant and Utah was just another team from the MWC. Neither of those games was scheduled with the thinking that we're going to really beef up the competition in 2010/2011, it just happen to work out that both of those programs have made really big strides.On the other hand, when Nebraska scheduled Washington they were a top 10 program. Which basically means Nebby signed up knowing they'd get a shot at a big program, our schedule just fell together that way. I really hate defending Nebraska here but they also just played USC and Va Tech, and they play Tennessee after their home and home with UW, they have shown they'll answer the call when the big boys are looking for a game. There are plenty of big time programs that play a much softer schedule. Okay now I have to go puke for sticking up for the big red.

Even though I know you had to go "puke" after this post, heitclone, I admire you for making it.

Now don't get me wrong, I am fed up and sick and tired of all of the "cupcake" games in September and early October. I have referred to three of Nebraska's non-conference games from last year as "shouldn't have been on the schedule" games on CF and other various message boards. In my opinion, it is an absolute disgrace for teams to schedule like that.

I am certainly not saying that anybody should commit suicide when they schedule, but what we are seeing with all too many programs, including Nebraska, is scheduling wins. It is dispicable. But then, it is easy to find the culprit in all of this. The culprit is money! Money has become such a huge factor, Nebraska and any other team of national prominence absolutely have to win three of their four non-conference games, if not all four of them. To get to a good paying bowl game, you have to win at least nine games and possibly ten.

To make things worse at Nebraska, they hired an absolute moron in Steve Pederson as Athletic Director, who went out and made one of the worst coaching hires in college football history when he brought in Bill Callahan. In my opinion, to cover his tracks, he made it a habit of scheduling the likes of Southwestern College of Meatcutters, Oklahoma City Truck Driving Institute and Toledo Cab Drivers School in order to ensure Callahan got enough wins to keep the both of them off the "hot seat."

In my opinion, a BCS Conference school should NEVER EVER under any circumstance schedule an FCS opponent. If they do, they should automatically be excluded from a BCS bowl game. Period!

With Nebraska now embarking on what will most likely be a nine game conference schedule, they should always have one team of national prominence (and as others have stated, we all need to remember that these schedules are made up years in advance, so a team of national prominence could fall from grace and make the schedule look weaker than it was at the time the contracts were inked), a BCS conference team that is typically mid pack in their conference or I could even accept a team that is a lower level team in their conference (someone like Indiana, Duke, etc.), and then you could get away with maybe scheduling a mid-level team from the WAC or Mountain West.

This past winter, in an article in either the Lincoln Journal Star or the Omaha World Herald, Tom Osborne was quoted as saying that he and Bo had discussed scheduling and both of them agreed that the Nebraska schedule needed a serious upgrade. Jeff Jamrog is on board and I believe we will see it happen.

No BCS level team should be playing teams that you, me and nine other guys could beat!

 

[woodie]

so now we can change their name to the ***** fuskers.
we need to beat their@$$ this fall.
GO CYCLONES.

 

[ketelmeister]

I know they dropped San Diego State from this years schedule...and one other I believe.

 

[WalkingCY]

Washington's gonna get ya Nebby.

 

[hawkeyescott]

Tech and KSU build decent teams scheduling cupcakes, yet we schedule giants.

Really, here are the teams ISU has played in the non conference since 2002 (including this year):

Illinois St (1)
Army (2)
Toledo (2)
UNLV (2)
UNI (5)
Kent St (3)
South Dakota St (1)
North Dakota St (1)
Northern Illinois (2)
Ohio (1)
Florida St (1)
Tenn Tech (1)
Troy St (1)
UConn (1)
Utah (1)
Iowa (9)

It's not like ISU plays a nonconference schedule like they do this year every year. ISU is just as guilty of playing cupcakes just like Nebraska or Iowa for that matter. Not counting games against Iowa, ISU hasn't played a BCS team in the nonconference for the past 8 years.

 

[MrReality]

I know they dropped San Diego State from this years schedule...and one other I believe.

San Diego State has never been on the Nebraska schedule. They play South Dakota State this year. Nebraska has never dropped an opponent that was on their schedule. Like I said before, they had teams back out of their agreement to play Nebraska, but not the other way around.

 

[becrisgreg]

Good God, I can't believe we are still debating this. Regardless of its evolution Nebraska's schedule is an absolute joke this year. In their defense Washington is down, way down from when the game was originally scheduled. However the other 3 games are embarrassing. Using the "time" argument defending the Washington game as quality, also works against Nebraska as the other 3 opponents would not have been DI when scheduled they were DIAA, or DII.

In a 4 game non - conference schedule respectable is:

1 game against another BCS school home and away series
1 game against a MAC/WAC/Service Academy program 2 or 3 for 1
1/2 games against a low level DI program (always home), or an occasional game against a IAA program that makes regional sense ie. UNI.

Nebraska's schedule this year is against a down (way down), yet formerly respectable BCS team (giving credit is on the road), 1 lowest level DI team that recently transitioned to DI, a transitional DI team, and a transitional IAA team. Any way you slice it, is a weak, weak schedule.

 

[stlcardinals5]

The game that I would put money on is the Nebraska - Kansas State game. That has "trap-game" written all over it, as Nebraska hosts Texas the following week. If there's one game Nebraska has circled on their calendar it's the UT game.

as a husker i 100% agree. could be looking ahead to texas, and its always tough for us playing there.

 

[Wesley]

Maybe NE does not need a qb for the first four games.

 

[stlcardinals5]

When Nebraska played USC, Notre Dame, Penn State, etc...those games were all scheduled by Bill Byrne. Pederson did set up the games agains UCLA, Tennessee, and Miami I believer. My problem with Pederson is the rest of the games. Granted, those are getting tougher and tougher to schedule because the little guys (Fresno State, Utah, Boise State, Souther Miss, etc...) all want return dates now and more $. There is no doubt that scheduling is getting very difficult for the BCS conference ADs. If the Big 12 goes to a 9 game conference schedule it will get even tougher because teams "need" 7 home games for the revenue.

Also, Nebraska has not dropped anyone from their schedule to schedule an easier opponent. Whoever it was that said that is 100% wrong. It's also laughable to think they are scheduling these cupcakes to ensure the sellout streak remains intact. It's quite the opposite. It's the crappy teams that they have to sell single game tickets the week of, and most of the time it's because the opponent returned tickets.

I'm not saying Nebraska will or has ever had the toughest nonconference schedules. I think Byrne did a pretty good job of putting together decent noncon schedules and Osborne has done a decent job of making it better for the next 4 years or so. There are definitely teams that have tougher schedules year in and year out. OU always has tough non-con schedule. Colorado use to have some of the toughest year in and year out. Nebraska is usually in the middle of the pack, but last year and this year are pretty weak. As a fan, I think it sucks. I'd much rather see them play Fresno State than Western Kentucky.

i agree, but in years past we have played teams like that. we played southern miss in 03 and 04. pitt and southern miss in 04. we had wake forest and pitt in 05. then from 06 to now its gone downhill. i guess in 07 we had nevada wake and usc. but i would like to see the fresno states and boise states of the world. next year we play at wyoming and we get wash at home. then southern miss and at ucla. then it gets really good, wyoming, at southern miss, ucla. so it gets better. it sounds like well only get 3 non con games in the big 10 so our non con is going to be pretty tough compared to most. and who knows where ucla when we play them? we scheduled washington way in advance, miami, tenn, ucla, same deal. but i feel as if we scheduled easier opponents because they were rest games and we could sell out anyways. colorado has to schedule big games to draw fans. but i would rather see a schedule like it was in the t.o. days where we would play teams like florida st, penn st. and clemson all in one year.

 

[MrReality]

i agree, but in years past we have played teams like that. we played southern miss in 03 and 04. pitt and southern miss in 04. we had wake forest and pitt in 05. then from 06 to now its gone downhill. i guess in 07 we had nevada wake and usc. but i would like to see the fresno states and boise states of the world. next year we play at wyoming and we get wash at home. then southern miss and at ucla. then it gets really good, wyoming, at southern miss, ucla. so it gets better. it sounds like well only get 3 non con games in the big 10 so our non con is going to be pretty tough compared to most. and who knows where ucla when we play them? we scheduled washington way in advance, miami, tenn, ucla, same deal. but i feel as if we scheduled easier opponents because they were rest games and we could sell out anyways. colorado has to schedule big games to draw fans. but i would rather see a schedule like it was in the t.o. days where we would play teams like florida st, penn st. and clemson all in one year.

Blame Steve Pederson for the crap schedule we have this year. Osborne added the Fresno State, Wyoming, and Southern Miss games back on our schedule soon after he took over.

Scheduling is getting really tough for these AD's and it's only going to get tougher once the Big 12 and Big 10 go to 9 game conference schedules.

 

[stlcardinals5]

Blame Steve Pederson for the crap schedule we have this year. Osborne added the Fresno State, Wyoming, and Southern Miss games back on our schedule soon after he took over.

Scheduling is getting really tough for these AD's and it's only going to get tougher once the Big 12 and Big 10 go to 9 game conference schedules.

i think we can blame steve pederson for a lot of things. idk why delaney wans 9 games. the big 12 does 8 and im almost positive the acc and sec do 8 as well. it makes things more complicated and difficult.