throwback

I'm not sure who's on Trev's short list, but I do know Trev goes for it when he finds the person he wants. Trev will not give up after the first "no". Probably not after the second, third, or fourth "no" either. That said, Trev does not like nonsense and behavior that leads to distractions from his coaches. Urb certainly has just a wee bit of nonsense in his past, but so do a lot of the top candidates out there. I'd guess Trev will compromise a bit here for the right person. Going to be a very interesting coaching search with all the zeroes NU will be willing to add to the check and with brand new facilities ready to go.

Jan. 18, 2023 NORTHWESTERN HOOPS RALLIES PAST NEBRASKA .... In one of the oddest decisions of the basketball season, with Nebraska up 11 midway through the second half, Coach Fred Hoiberg ordered his team to only shoot half-court hook shots for the remainder of the game. Northwestern outscored Nebraska 14-0 from there to win. "I thought it was a smart call," Northwestern Coach Chris Collins said. "We weren't ready for it. I mean our guys were doubled over laughing after a couple of their airballs, and that really affected our offense the rest of the way. Fred is a great coach, always thinking outside the box, and I hope he never leaves Nebraska." "I really thought we could deliver the knock-out blow with a couple of Globetrotters-like shots and take the fight out of Northwestern," Hoiberg said. "We'd had our best week of practice on those shots, so we decided before the game to go for it. If I had to do it over again, though, I probably would rethink that decision."

Actually I believe FOX owns ~60% of BTN and the schools each have 1/14th (soon to be 1/16th or less) of the remainder. And if I'm not mistaken, the conference gave FOX a greater share of ownership to make up for the loss of TV windows during the 2020 covid shortened football season. That's why FOX didn't pay the schools less in 2020-21. Upon its formation, I believe FOX's initial investment gave it 51% of BTN and the schools split the final 49%. Which is why we went several years with a smaller share of payouts after joining the B1G, so we could 'buy' into our BTN share. Of course, I could be full of it. It's been that kind of week.

Football broadcasts: Fox and FS1 will televise 24-27 Big Ten football games in 2023 and 30-32 games annually from 2024-29. CBS will televise seven Big Ten football games in 2023 and 14-15 regular season games annually from 2024-29. Every CBS Big Ten football and basketball broadcast will be streamed on Paramount+. NBC will televise 16 Big Ten football games annually in 2023-29, including prime-time games on Labor Day Sunday and Black Friday. All of NBC’s games will be simul-streamed on Peacock. Peacock will televise eight Big Ten football games annually from 2023-29. The Big Ten Network will broadcast 38-41 football games in 2023 and at least that many annually from 2024-29. Football conference championship games split between Fox (2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029), CBS (2024 and 2028) and NBC (2026). Maybe NU-Iowa will now be a night game on NBC every year? Or maybe the B1G pushes USC-UCLA to Black Friday for a prime time game. That seems more likely.

Yeah, you may be right, although I'm sure we'll still get our 20+ BTN games. Maybe Peacock takes some of the non-con games on BTN+ previously? It doesn't really mention BTN+ for men's hoops, but that could just be an oversight.

https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf/big-ten-historic-media-rights-deal-expansion?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=BrettMcMurphy 7 years worth $7B to $8B with escalators built in for future expansion. FOX, NBC, CBS, Peacock, and FS1. Starts at $60M per school in 2023-24 and should be around $100M per school by 2029-30. Could be even more, depending on whether expansion occurs. Sources say league is not done expanding and is focused on ND and other Pac-10/12 schools

I was going to be a smart-ass and say that our only hope to avoid the preseason cellar every year is if the B1G expands to like 32 teams and invites Oregon St & Washington St as #31 and #32. Then I was going to say I think we could be picked between those two teams at least half the time. Then I saw Wazzu won 22 games last season. And the Beavs won 20 games the previous season. I may have cried a little.

It's always oddly comforting to know we can't do worse than preseason expectations.

We're playing in Queens (@ St. John's) .... and we're playing Queens .... I'm not entirely sure where I was planning on going with this, but I'm going to stop here before I type something stupid. Hopefully Fred is going for his 30th career win at NU or already has 30 by the time this game rolls around, but I'm not sure he will. The home part of the non-con schedule blows, but we'd probably be lucky to surpass .500 against the entire non-con.

I'm less focused on summer workouts and more focused on waiting to see how many 3s in a row Keisei makes this year immediately after he returns from Japan with a satchel on his shoulder. Anything less than 10, and we're screwed.

When schools reach out on this topic, I assume Warren's phone system automatically forwards these requests to FOX? Might as well cut out the middleman.

At some point we reach diminishing returns by adding more schools. If USC & UCLA cause the TV deal to go from $1 B annually to $1.2 B annually, then that's a win for everyone, going from a share of ~$71 M annually (split 14 ways) to ~$75 M annually (split 16 ways). Does anyone beyond N Dame move the needle that much? I'm not sure. I could see N Dame/Stanford coming in together (adding #6 Bay Area TV market), but other than that, it's hard to imagine anyone else brings in enough money to prevent a shrinking of each slice of the pie everyone receives. If the goal is to bring in as many teams as possible - grabbing territories "Risk" style to keep the SEC from grabbing them - then, sure, you add as many Pac-12 10 teams as possible & you try to fracture the ACC, so you can grab some of them. However, if it's to maximize payouts to conference members, then you have to be choosier. Since FOX is running the show here, they perhaps have the ability to maximize both of those goals.

N Dame is the next tipping point - if they choose to jump to the B1G, that could implode the ACC, and then it goes crazy. The ACC TV rights deal is so restricting and lengthy that those schools cannot jump unless the whole thing implodes. After Maryland left, the ACC really locked everyone else in for a decade-plus. So the entire league has to implode first.

Sounds like Kansas is mulling a move to the Big East for hoops and end their football program go independent in football. Also sounds like USC and UCLA were the ones that reached out, not the other way around. Will be interesting to see if others out west now also try to jump ship. Looking at you Oregon & Washington.

I mean, based on our recent history in early-season games, they're all concerning.

If the B1G is going to expand to 16 to try to keep up with the SEC, this is move that makes the most sense. Not sure the B1G needs to expand, but there's no question that the Maryland-UCLA matchup in late November to decide the Continental Division in football will be must-see TV.

Considering our non-high-major games have been anything but gimmes the past few years, this perhaps isn't the bold scheduling strategy it may seem, Cotton.

By not sending NU to Wisconsin on this schedule, the B1G clearly is making sure we can't spoil Davison's 2023 senior day like we spoiled his 2022 senior day. B1G always has Brad's back.

Actually, the downfall of NU's major sports really went careening out of control after Rose was hired to do football PxP and to be Pederson's yes man on the radio, so I blame him. He's a blowhard & tool of unimaginable proportions.

Good to see the folks with an interest in hoops making this happen, rather than just leaving hoops to have whatever the football NIL leftovers are.

At this point, if we end up over the limit, we just supplement the player with NIL money and let him "walk on". Need to be creative, and I can be very creative when spending other peoples' money. Could be a case where we told super seniors like Lat & Trey that if we have a scholarship available, they can have it, otherwise they have to pay their own way if they come back. Wouldn't be the first program to do that in this post-covid super-senior era.

We should've offered him the first time. Hope we get a second chance & take advantage of it.

Shatel had a column this morning about how a new NU football booster group is forming with a focus on NIL. The group would pay players to come speak to the group. Coaches will still also speak to the groups on occasion too. $5K per person per year, and they are at 75 members already and growing. All the money goes to the players. Members can make extra donations for one-on-one time with players. I assume NU basketball is doing something similar? If not, they should be. Donation to a group like this could be a pretty significant amount split among just 12 players. $100 K and a good job for mom and dad will look like chump change eventually. https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/football/shatel-nil-is-a-boon-for-nebraska-football-even-if-many-old-school-fans-dont/article_89b69032-c2a6-11ec-bbe0-93d60bc12487.html He also discusses how some fans don't like the new world of NIL. I get it, but NIL is here to stay and the NCAA is going to do nothing to police it, as they much prefer this Wild West scenario than paying players officially and introducing their own liability for injuries. So it's either take advantage and play the game, or fall by the wayside. He additionally mentions that the days of the huge locker rooms/practice facilities/etc are probably gone. I agree - boosters are far better off giving their money to the players as a direct way of influencing recruiting. Good thing NU has its major facilities finished or in progress, because I doubt many more facilities like this will be built in the future. Facilities will still play a role in recruiting, but NIL financial promises will be far greater.

I don't want to get into too many details, but he's been in the doghouse pretty much since he started school in the fall. Just a bunch of off-field stuff. It was getting better, but something came to a head earlier this week & the coaches had enough. Short handed on the mound big time, but the pitchers have fought really hard the first two games this weekend. Olsen deserved a way better fate, but this team still doesn't do enough of the little things at the plate or in the field to help the pitchers out. Been a broken record this season, but way too many strikeouts and way too many mistakes in the field. Plus it's pretty tough to win when the two guys you were counting on to carry the offense were 0-for-9 today with multiple Ks and have had rough seasons overall. By the way, I don't think Chick ran through a stop sign in the 8th, I think Coach Harvell was putting up the stop sign for Everitt at 2nd. Still, Chick didn't read the ball off the bat well - there shouldn't have been a play at the plate if he reads it better and is 2-3 steps ahead of where he was. More little things. At this point, they need to focus on just trying to get into the B1G tourney and hope that they're healthier on the mound by then and hope that the offense figures it out by then. RU is a really solid Big Ten team. They look a lot like NU looked last year. They aren't going to beat themselves. Not sure if they can hold off Maryland in the conference race, but they look like an NCAA team in a serious down year for the B1G.

He had plenty of chances, but just couldn't help himself. Too bad, because he's really talented. Between injuries, dead arms, and dismissals, NU's pitching this weekend is a complete wreck. If NU somehow wins this series, it will be one of the more impressive things they've done in a while.