by John Walters
Those of you who frequent this site, er, frequently, know how I feel about Sports In The Time of Covid-19: don’t play. But Scott Frost’s declaration of independence yesterday got me to thinking.
See, Frost, who bolted from Stanford after his freshman season for a better situation (back in his home state of Nebraska), and then bolted from Central Florida after a few season as coach for a better situation (back in his home state of Nebraska), has demonstrated via his actions: either he really, really loves Nebraska or he really, really loves Scott Frost.
I’d wager it’s both.
The upshot of this is that Frost has said Nebraska is willing to go outside of the Big Ten to play football games this fall, even though the Big Ten just canceled its autumn season. In other words, we’re members of the Big Ten (when it suits us) but sometimes we’re not (when it doesn’t).
Welcome to Notre Dame football, Scott.
And so here’s the part where I get to my proposal: Notre Dame, alone among the major football powers, is not answerable to a conference commissioner (even though it got further into bed with the ACC a week or so earlier). What if Notre Dame offered to host Nebraska this season? And what if a few other renegade schools choose to Husker Du the same as Frost’s Follies?
Let’s play this out: Every major conference (except probably the SEC because if there’s one thing southerners know how to do, it’s to keep fighting a war long after it’s been lost) cancels fall football. But within each conference a renegade program or two goes full-tilt Nebraska. And so these schools, along with Notre Dame, play a round-robin schedule. We may all even discover that we like this way, way better than seeing the same schools play one another in the same region year after year after year.
Wow. Thank you, Covid-19. We may finally get a national football schedule like some of us have been craving forever.
Something I think people overlook: When a school is in a conference, there is both an academic and athletics component. Nebraska is a vastly better school now because of its affiliation with the Big Ten than the Big 12. Having to match academic pedigree with Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue, etc. forced Nebraska to up its academic game.
If there is a so-called Independence movement, as you stated above, there would have to be larger repercussions across the entire campus. For example, Nebraska just announced in April that any in-state resident (no matter age) with a household income less than $60,000/year doesn’t have to pay tuition if they are a full-time student.
Does Nebraska do this in the Big 12, where they received less money? I don’t know. But it is another side of the story that needs me examined.
I’m more disturbed that none of the MH readers have a comment on Andie Case.
Beautiful voice. Added them to Spotify. Reminds me a lot of the Pentatonix group.