Nebraska Football: Five Ways Adding Huskers To Big Ten Affects Minnesota Gophers

Welcome to the Big Ten, Husker fans.  I hope Nebraska is the only team to join the Big Ten in this go-round, but I highly doubt it will be at this point. 

If the league just adds Nebraska during this offseason, it will make for some interesting speculation about how the conference should split up the divisions.

The most logical scenario would be to split the teams in an East/West alignment.  Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Northwestern would form the West,  while Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana, Ohio State, and Penn State would make up the East.

Traditionally, it looks like the East has a little more power for football, but it’s not that unbalanced.  Wisconsin, Iowa, and Nebraska have all put very powerful teams on the field in the past decade.

Assuming the conference splits East/West, this really helps the Gophers.  Their biggest rivals—Iowa and Wisconsin—will be on the schedule every year. 

That’s a good thing.

The second positive to Nebraska’s inclusion into the Big Ten is the almost certainty of a conference championship game. 

It’s an exciting addition to the conference and a huge monetary boost.  The chance to play a one-game playoff for a trip to the Rose Bowl should have fans across the Big Ten excited.

While Nebraska certainly gives the Big Ten another football powerhouse, it doesn’t exactly boost the conference’s basketball credibility.  The Cornhuskers are first and foremost a football school, but Nebraska hasn’t exactly lit the college basketball world on fire.

That’s potentially good news for the Gophers basketball team.  If the conference splits as I envision it will, the Gophers should have a legit chance to win the West division of the Big Ten.  Illinois and Wisconsin also figure to be near the top of the standings, but Nebraska, Iowa, and Northwestern all have a lot of work to do if they want to earn a spot at the top.

Adding Nebraska to the Big Ten also gives the Gophers more of a national presence.  Due to their previous title-winning squads, the Huskers have developed a wide fan base that stretches all over the country.  Husker fans from coast to coast are going to tune in to see their Huskers take on the Gophers. 

That’s good for the program—unless the Huskers put another 84-13 drubbing on the Gophs, but let's try to forget that happened.

The final way that Nebraska’s inclusion helps the Gophers and the Big Ten as a whole is that it preserves the conference’s Midwestern roots.  While all of the Big East schools are brimming with positives that would make them great candidates to join the Big 10, they just don’t fit in geographically.

Granted, it’s not that much further from Indianapolis to Lincoln than it is to the Big Apple, but New York City just doesn’t have a Big Ten feel to it. 

I’m sure New York is still a very attractive market to the conference, but the Big Ten will thrive with or without Rutgers/Syracuse/UConn. 

The Big Ten was ready for a change, and I think they made a great choice in extending an invitation to the University of Nebraska, as it will benefit their school as well as teams like the Gophers.

So welcome aboard, Huskers.