Nebraska State

Maingate69

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Apr 6, 2007
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Something I've thought about over the years. What if there was a Nebraska State in GI? A division 1 program with a 40,000 seat stadium and an enrollment of 20,000. Would they want to be in the BIG, or would they want to be in the Pac 10 with Colorado. It's a long way from Scottsbluff to New York and not just in miles. The fans along the eastern border are developing a rivalry with the Iowa. Do the fans out west feel the same?
 

1fansopinion

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Sep 26, 2007
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Something I've thought about over the years. What if there was a Nebraska State in GI? A division 1 program with a 40,000 seat stadium and an enrollment of 20,000. Would they want to be in the BIG, or would they want to be in the Pac 10 with Colorado. It's a long way from Scottsbluff to New York and not just in miles. The fans along the eastern border are developing a rivalry with the Iowa. Do the fans out west feel the same?

They would likely be in the Mountain West, with Colorado State and Wyoming.
 

Maingate69

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Apr 6, 2007
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They would likely be in the Mountain West, with Colorado State and Wyoming.
The way Nebraska loves football if NU's capacity was around 60,000 I think they could draw 40,000 out there. That's probably more than Colorado draws. They would rule the Mountain West and I think NU would still be a player in the BIG. Think of the fun we could have with NU and Nebraska State fans giving each other sxxt.
 
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schuele

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Apr 17, 2005
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This could never work:

Grand Island population = 50,000
Fill that stadium in GI, and its game day population swells to 90,000
Memorial Stadium capacity = 90,000
So if one more person moves to Grand Island, Memorial Stadium is no longer the 3rd largest city on game day. Many, many heads would explode.
 

Buicklife

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Jun 21, 2010
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Something I've thought about over the years. What if there was a Nebraska State in GI? A division 1 program with a 40,000 seat stadium and an enrollment of 20,000. Would they want to be in the BIG, or would they want to be in the Pac 10 with Colorado. It's a long way from Scottsbluff to New York and not just in miles. The fans along the eastern border are developing a rivalry with the Iowa. Do the fans out west feel the same?
Kill your self
 
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Truehuskerfan

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It's an interesting thought, but Nebraska would have to be a lot bigger to have a "Nebraska State" with that kind of enrollment and certainly one that would play at the FBS level.
 
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schuele

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Apr 17, 2005
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Future front-page article:

Grand Island - Today Nebraska State University unveiled plans for Sparky's Wing Sauce Stadium, its new, state-of-the-art, 40,000-seat football facility. People said it would never happen, but that was before the naming rights were sold for untold millions...
 

Maingate69

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Apr 6, 2007
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It's an interesting thought, but Nebraska would have to be a lot bigger to have a "Nebraska State" with that kind of enrollment and certainly one that would play at the FBS level.
Not saying this could happen today but if Nebraska State had been founded in the late 1800's and NU's capacity had not gone beyond 60,000, I think the State could support two schools. The sellout streak could still be alive at 60,000, but there might not be a sellout in GI every game. Oklahoma has double Nebraska's population, they have OU at 80,000, Okie Lite at 60,000, and Tulsa at 30,000. What would they known as, maybe Husker Lite? Ok I'm done.
 
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rez dog 70

Heisman
Sep 11, 2011
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Something I've thought about over the years. What if there was a Nebraska State in GI? A division 1 program with a 40,000 seat stadium and an enrollment of 20,000. Would they want to be in the BIG, or would they want to be in the Pac 10 with Colorado. It's a long way from Scottsbluff to New York and not just in miles. The fans along the eastern border are developing a rivalry with the Iowa. Do the fans out west feel the same?
We already have a Nebraska State... It's called the University of Nebraska.
 
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redfanusa

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hexumhawk

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Sep 24, 2003
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Something Iowa fans have always thought about with ISU being D1.

Most Iowa fans think we would probably at least have a bigger stadium and more money. Granted, Iowa usually gets what it wants in state but there have been a few legacy ISU recruits that Iowa wanted and didnt get.
 

hexumhawk

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Sep 24, 2003
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im looking for the post that requested input from Iowa. Ha ha

You guys have a complex brewing.

The reason I posted is Iowa is one of the few small population states in the midwest that supports two D1 programs in P5 conferences.
Neb- No
Miz-No
Minn- No
Wisconsin- No
Wyoming- No
South D.- No
North D- No

Just trying to help the convo.
 

dinglefritz

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Jan 14, 2011
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You can't spell drunk without UNK.... Kearney State is basically Nebraska State! And it's where I got a piece of paper that allows me to do what I do! Go Lopers?
You know UNK could have pretty easily followed the lead of USD and SDSU and stepped up to D1 IF there was alumni and Regent support for the idea. No way that is happening though.
 
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runningback43

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UNO would have been a better fit following USD and SDSU to the FCS level of football. UNO's football program was way ahead of UNK's when the football program was dropped.
 
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dinglefritz

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UNO would have been a better fit following USD and SDSU to the FCS level of football. UNO's football program was way ahead of UNK's when the football program was dropped.
Probably, but UNK would have been competitive with USD to some degree and it wouldn't have taken much to match the type of resources that USD has. We were talking hypotheticals of a more western "Nebraska State U". The lopers at one time had as much football tradition as USD.
 
A

anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi

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UNO would have been a better fit following USD and SDSU to the FCS level of football. UNO's football program was way ahead of UNK's when the football program was dropped.
But we all know that Trev agreed to kill UNO football and rasslin in exchange for TO promising not to start hockey. It was a super serious hands shake agreement.
 

Maingate69

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In some alternate universe. Nebraska announced today it was accepting a bid to the Big Ten Conference. Citing conference instability it said it would leave the Big 13 including instate rival Nebraska State Prairie Schooners. The rivalry between the skers and the ners has become heated after last year's cut in funding to State's Ag and Vet Med programs. Speculation is that with the disbanding of the Big 13 Nebraska State, Iowa State and Kansas State will be heading to the Mountain West Conference. Tensions continue between metro and out state Nebraska. Alternative universes are interesting.
 
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jflores

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I'm not sure this was a realistic idea. Omaha can't put more than a handful of butts in seats for UNO (I have no idea what UNK draws) and somehow the western most part of the state is supposed to commute to Grand Island and have a dominant lower tier D1 program?

Seems a stretch to me.

All on the basis that West Nebraska is more closely aligned with Pac 12 rivalries. East and West have their disagreements, but we all love our Husker football as is.
 

Maingate69

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Apr 6, 2007
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No one wants to change Husker Football the way it is now
I'm not sure this was a realistic idea. Omaha can't put more than a handful of butts in seats for UNO (I have no idea what UNK draws) and somehow the western most part of the state is supposed to commute to Grand Island and have a dominant lower tier D1 program?

Seems a stretch to me.

All on the basis that West Nebraska is more closely aligned with Pac 12 rivalries. East and West have their disagreements, but we all love our Husker football as is.
No one wants to change Husker Football from the way it is now. I've always enjoyed considering how personal and group decisions long ago could have changed reality now. Was there ever a movement to establish another state school?
 
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jflores

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No one wants to change Husker Football the way it is now

No one wants to change Husker Football from the way it is now. I've always enjoyed considering how personal and group decisions long ago could have changed reality now. Was there ever a movement to establish another state school?

Well, I'm not well versed in the organizational structure of our state educational system...but it always seemed to me that we have a University of Nebraska "system" with the various campuses (Kearney, Omaha, Lincoln) with a large degree of local control. Rather than a completely separate system (ISU vs Iowa).

The wrinkle is that Lincoln is historically the dominant campus in said system.

I guess if that was the case, one could argue that any system that tried to create a Lincoln Jr on the football field has already failed, because UNK and UNO football just simply don't have anywhere near the support.
 

c2o

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Just to save some from further embarrassment, UNO does not have a football program.