quote:
Texas didn’t save the Big 8, which was doing just fine at the time. Texas and aggy were leaving the SWC because it wasn’t sustainable. UT maybe the PAC and aggy maybe to the SEC. The Big 8 was a regional lifeline to them. The Big 8 considered taking 8 from the SWC but the networks didn’t care about half the schools. Anyone would take UT and aggy. Big 8 told them to grab 2 other teams and bring them along. So, 8 from the Big 8 and 4 from the SWC. Texas and aggy didn’t need saving, they could find a home in any conference, but the Big 8 saving Texas is certainly closer to reality than Texas saving the Big 8. NU compromised plenty. They were damaged by the Prop 48 rules and eventually felt marginalized by the power held south of them.

This is correct. The biggest reason the Big 8 and SWC merged is because of the relationship between Texas and OU. The Big 8 was the much more stable conference but knew with the changing landscape of how college football was being distributed, they needed to add Texas.

Oklahoma was the only Big 8 school that had any history with Texas and vice versa. That became evident in the late 2000s when every school was looking out for their own best interest behind closed doors. LHN just became a convenient scapegoat for Colorado, A&M, and Nebraska to make decisions they had always wanted to make.

If Nebraska had the option to join the B1G in 96-97. They would have done so without hesitation. Prop 48 was much less a compromise and more so just common sense. It hurt Nebraska because Tom Osborne turned Nebraska into the Miami of the Midwest.

Although Nebraska didn’t choose to leave the conference solely because of on field performance, going 4-8 against OU and 1-9 against Texas starting with the inception of the Big 12 was certainly a nail in the coffin.

Deloss Dodds being a narcissistic prick certainly didn’t help anything either.

This post was edited on 7/15/23 at 12:10 pm