Which Big Ten job opening is more attractive in 2022? Wisconsin or Nebraska?
After Wisconsin’s surprising decision to part ways with Paul Chryst on Sunday, a stat started to trend across Twitter.
Paul Chryst’s record at Wisconsin: 67-27
Bo Pelini’s record at Nebraska: 67-27
The sentiment, by most circulating the tweet, was to infer that the Badgers had made a potential colossal mistake firing a successful head coach just like the Cornhuskers did back in 2014.
“Good is the enemy of great!”
Or something along those lines.
Unfortunately, the stat lacks some context considering Pelini’s time at Nebraska was the equivalent of driving on the highway in the middle lane and never going faster than 72 miles per hour.
Chryst’s tenure at Wisconsin had no such governor.
The Badgers alum initially had things rolling in Madison, winning 10, 11, 13 and 10 games his four of his first five seasons. The decline the last few years has been notable, though (just 9-8 in Big Ten play since 2020), which is why with so much frustration mounting in Madison, AD Chris McIntosh made the midseason move to insert Jim Leonhard as the interim head coach.
Earlier this week, I detailed exactly why — and why now — McIntosh chose to give Leonhard, a Madison lifer and former All-American at Wisconsin, an extended audition to “win” the job.
Badgers faithful want Jim Leonhard to be their next head coach, and right now, he’s the clear favorite for the opening.
But what if Leonhard’s trial run goes poorly? What if McIntosh truly does conduct an open search?
Then suddenly just like the trending tweet, Wisconsin and Nebraska will be compared side-by-side again, swimming in the same waters, for the same candidates.
Kansas head coach Lance Leipold is an obvious No. 1 target — for both schools.
The man has resuscitated a moribund Jayhawks football program. He worked as an assistant at Nebraska, but made his name in his home state of Wisconsin, playing for Wisconsin-Whitewater and then guiding his alma mater to six D-III national titles.
So say Leipold holds the rose for his pick between one of the two Big Ten openings. Which is a better job between Wisconsin and Nebraska in 2022?
CBS Sports, Yahoo! and USA Today all recently ranked the Badgers’ vacancy as the top job currently on the market.
Nebraska was No. 2.
I think the order should be flipped.
WHY NEBRASKA IS A BETTER JOB IN 2022 THAN WISCONSIN
It’s inarguable that Wisconsin is a much better program right now than Nebraska.
Whoever takes over in Lincoln will need a heavy-duty H-VAC to clean up the mess from the last decade of dysfunction. It’s a program that needs an organized builder.
But with both jobs now open in 2022, this is about the future. Five years ago, Wisconsin would be a slam-dunk pick as the more attractive job opening.
College football is a lot different now, though.
To me, Wisconsin has bumped its head on its ceiling in 2022.
It’s a solid, successfully stable program. There’s some staleness in that stability — perhaps it’s time Barry Alvarez’s fingerprints need to be peeled off the program a bit — but the Badgers have an identity. A blueprint.
Is it enough to carry the program to even greater heights, though?
After nearly 30 years of consistency, Wisconsin has decided it wants to sit at the Big Boys Table.
At least that’s what Chryst’s firing indicates.
McIntosh is raising expectations in Madison. He literally said Wisconsin “expects to compete for championships.”
Well, perhaps they did make a mistake canning Chryst then because that’s going to prove even more difficult in a changing Big Ten that will no longer include a cushy division setup when USC and UCLA join the conference in 2024.
The path to the Big Ten title game gets a much more difficult when you trade Minnesota and Northwestern for USC and Penn State on the schedule.
But Nebraska faces the same challenges!
Sure.
But no one in Lincoln is talking about winning a Big Ten title right now. They’re not focused on the upcoming College Football Playoff expansion right now.
“We’ll stop talking about championships and talking about things we used to do,” AD Trev Alberts said after firing Scott Frost.
You don’t even have to give a Cornhuskers fan truth serum to know they’d take the Badgers’ last 10 years — one that even included the weird Gary Anderson years — without hesitation.
They’d be thrilled with a New Year’s Day trip to Florida for a bowl game.
And yet, in a new world of college football, the Cornhuskers — despite the dumpster fire they’ve been of late — are actually better positioned to replicate Wisconsin’s recent success — and maybe more?
Thanks to the Big Ten’s recent billion-dollar media rights deal, both schools are flush with finances.
One school is more willing to spend it, though.
Nebraska has better facilities, with more upgrades soon to come. It has a fan base desperate for relevancy.
Yes, you live in a fishbowl in Lincoln, but support is never in question. They will fill Memorial Stadium come hell or high water.
Meanwhile, Nebraska’s recruiting limitations are a bit overblown, as getting prospects to Lincoln hasn’t been the primary problem for NU of late. It’s been player development.
And with the transfer portal now a key factor in program potential, Nebraska has a significant advantage over Wisconsin in the NIL space.
The Cornhuskers have quickly established a NIL war chest, with four different active collectives. It’s an organized group, too, and according to folks in the know, Nebraska reportedly outbid several programs for some of its top transfers just last cycle.
As the only game — not just in town — but the state, their ability to market their players is an added strength, too. Just ask freshman wideout Decoldest Crawford, the star of the best local NIL commercial to date.
At Wisconsin? Unless Big Cat is going to help organize an influential collective, they’re behind in this arena.
Add it all up and the scales tip slightly in the Cornhuskers’ favor. The jobs are very similar, but one offers greater growth potential with less pressure from the jump.
Whoever takes over in Lincoln has a much steeper hill to climb, but if you zoom out and look towards the future, then Nebraska is a more attractive gig.