10 years ago today: A day for the Husker history books and a staredown with Texas

Thursday marks the 10-year anniversary of Nebraska's acceptance into the Big Ten. The story below ran in the June 12, 2010 edition of the Lincoln Journal Star.

So this is what it takes to get to the Big Ten: bags under your eyes, shrewd negotiations and a respectful silence even when everyone around you can’t keep their yaps shut.

Harvey Perlman had remained silent for weeks as speculation swirled and backroom sources floated anything and everything — sometimes taking Nebraska to task for being the bad egg that was going to cause the Big 12 to crumble. But now, finally, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor was ready to punch back. Camera lights shining. ESPN in the house. The entire intercollegiate athletic community leaning in for a listen.

Game on.

“I will today ask you to authorize the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to apply for membership into the Big Ten Conference,” Perlman told the NU Board of Regents on Friday.

Less than four hours later, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany was standing at a news conference in Lincoln wearing a red and-white tie and an “N” pin on his suit coat.

After unanimous approval from the Board of Regents and the  Big Ten’s CEOs, Nebraska had become the 12th team to join the Big Ten.

“I think for the next 50 or 100 years, Nebraska is going to make us a better conference than what we were the day before they joined us,” Delany said.

June 11, 2010. A day for the Husker history books.

But historic triumphs often don’t come without some anxious moments.

The road to Friday’s declaration was not an easy one — filled with immense speculation, a staredown with Texas and an ultimatum that Perlman and athletic director Tom Osborne ultimately just smacked like a pinata.

Just a week ago, Perlman left the Big 12 meetings in Kansas City with his peers telling him Nebraska needed to commit to the conference by Monday this week.

The Nebraska brass found this request more than a bit odd, especially because others in the Big 12 were flirting with other conferences.

“Some of the schools that were urging us to stay, we found some of them had talked to not only one other conference or two but even three,” Osborne said.

Perlman responded to the ultimatum by firing off a few questions of his own to his fellow Big 12 chancellors and presidents.

After all, there were reports out that six other Big 12 schools were looking to go to the Pac-10.

OK, Perlman asked, what if Nebraska stayed and potential Big Ten target Missouri left? Would those six schools stay in the Big 12?

Yes, was the answer.

OK, Perlman then asked, if Nebraska stayed and Colorado left for the Pac-10, would those six schools stay in the Big 12? Yes.

OK, how about if both Colorado and Missouri left?

The answer: The six schools could not make a commitment that they would stay in the Big 12.

Strike one.

“I then asked what would be the nature of the commitment that they would expect from an institution in order to stay in the Big 12,” Perlman said. “And what they talked about was a public statement; unequivocal commitment to the Big 12 by the president and chancellor of the university.”

In response, Perlman said there’s only one way you can fully commit long term to a conference, and that is you assign the media rights to your athletic contests to the conference for the long term.

Perlman asked if the Big 12 members were willing to do that.

“The University of Texas made it clear they were not able to do that,” Perlman said.

Strike two.

Perlman said he then received a phone message on Wednesday from Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe in which it was articulated that a commitment was wanted from Nebraska through at least 2016.

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“Neither Tom nor I thought that was a very long-term commitment to the Big 12, and we felt that our obligation to the University of Nebraska was to protect it from the vulnerability of being without a conference altogether,” Perlman said.

Strike three.

Still, there were no assurances Nebraska would be taken by the Big Ten. Perlman put his Black-Berry through a workout.

“I called Jim and I called some members of the presidential leadership immediately after and told them the circumstance: If Nebraska was a school that the Big Ten wanted to consider, then my options were very difficult. I also told him that was my problem, not his,” Perlman said.

Certainly Delany was interested in Nebraska. He had held informal discussions with Perlman for three to four weeks before the Big 12 meetings.

As Delany put it Friday, the Big 12 meetings “expedited our opportunity.”

“This beautiful girl, quite honestly, wasn’t going to be there forever,” he said.

Now the plan is for Nebraska to start competing in the Big Ten by fall 2011. Osborne said he felt the Big Ten’s TV network would help recruiting and enhance many of the school’s sports. He also said that when he asked coaches in two different meetings about a potential move to the Big Ten, the vote each time was 100 percent in favor of the move.

“The reason that’s important is because these are the people that are going to have to make it work,” Osborne said.

Osborne pointed out that the move was not based on any disputes with Texas or the fact that the Big 12 championship game was set to be played in the Longhorns’ backyard at Cowboys Stadium through 2013. He said it isn’t easy leaving longstanding conference relationships with some old Big Eight schools. Just this week, he had conversations with Kansas State coach Bill Snyder and Kansas coach Turner Gill.

“This is not about any type of vindictiveness or animosity,” Osborne said. “You don’t make a decision of this size based on where you’re going to play (a conference) championship game.”

Certainly it was a move made with some self-preservation in mind in the midst of an unstable collegiate conference landscape.

“You can choose to sit by, wait and watch what happens and then answer people who will say, ‘When you saw this coming, why didn’t you do something?’” Board of Regents Chairman Bob Phares said. “Or you can be proactive to protect the best interests of the university and the state of Nebraska.”

Big 12 commish Beebe said Friday he didn’t feel deceived by what Nebraska or Colorado — which accepted a Pac-10 bid on Thursday — indicated during last week’s conference meetings.

“I think everybody’s been honorable,” Beebe said. “I can’t pretend to supplant my opinion for those (regents’) boards. … I’m not on their campuses. I can’t feel what they feel. But they have been honorable in the way they treated us.”

Beebe noted that he spoke with Delany about Nebraska on Friday morning and that Delany indicated to him his league wouldn’t be seeking more Big 12 members if it decides to expand further.

That could be bad news for Missouri, which had hopes of a Big Ten bid. Husker football coach Bo Pelini said he was excited about the shift but also didn’t want to look too far ahead given that there’s still one more year of Big 12 football.

“Everyone knows my philosophy,” Pelini said. “You concentrate on the task at hand, and the task at hand comes this September.”

As much as anything, Nebraska officials were giddy about joining such a prestigious academic conference. Like Nebraska, all the schools in the Big Ten are among the 63 research-intensive institutions that make up the Association of American Universities.

University of Nebraska President J.B. Milliken said the school has enjoyed successes and great relationships in the Big 12, but he also noted the academic benefits of the Big Ten and said change is inevitable in college athletics.

“And this is not the first time that we have made changes in our conference affiliation — each of our affiliations is part of a rich athletic tradition at the University of Nebraska,” Milliken said.

Indeed, Nebraska has seen changes before. NU joined the Big 6 in 1928, which beget the Big 7 in 1948, which beget the Big Eight in 1960, which beget the Big 12 in 1996.

Now, a new chapter.

It’s off to Iowa City, to Happy Valley, to Madison, to the “Big House” in Ann Arbor, to the “Horseshoe” in Columbus.

“This is the right move at the right time,” Osborne said. “It’s the right thing to do for Nebraska."

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