RSSBot
News Junkie
IRVING, Texas -- If there is to be bad blood in this breakup season of Big 12 football, it apparently will not be shed here and now. As the opening speaker at Big 12 media days, Nebraska coach Bo Pelini attempted a pre-emptive shutdown of discussion about his program's 2011 transition to the Big Ten. "I will not be taking any questions in regards to any Big Ten issues," Pelini said. "We're excited about being in the Big 12 this year."
Pelini's stiff-arm stance didn't hold; he wound up answering the questions. But his answers did not deviate from the Big Red company line of embracing and appreciating this last season in a conference Nebraska defiantly is departing.
"If you start looking ahead," Pelini said, "you'll get stomped in this conference."
So the Cornhuskers are not looking ahead. Not to 2011 and joining up with Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and the rest of the Big Ten. And not even to Oct. 16, and that hotly anticipated showdown with Big 12 rival Texas.
That's the new Nebraska stance. The old stance -- literally putting the date of that game in red letters on a provocative, "Red Out Around the World" athletic department video -- has officially been abandoned.
To its credit, the Nebraska brass ordered an alteration of the video to remove any and all mention of Texas. That was well received by Pelini, who called the video "regrettable" and apparently was not even asked to sign off on it before it was distributed.
"I was on vacation," he said. "I didn't even know about it. ... To be honest with you, I wasn't real happy about it.
"We have a lot of things to do before we even consider Texas or worry about that football game. We've got a lot of work to do in the meantime."
Expect Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe to be in Lincoln for that game. But he, too, has a lot of work to do in the meantime. Part of it is safeguarding against a recrimination festival here during the league's first major media moment after the tumult of June, which saw the Cornhuskers and Colorado declare their allegiances for rival conferences.
Beebe made a point of talking to Pelini at the end of Nebraska's print interview session Monday, and said afterward that he wants this transition period to be as classy as possible.
"I'm going to miss Nebraska and Colorado, but they're fellow members of the conference until they're not," Beebe said. "... It was the very, very strong expression of our board and athletic directors that these relationships are treated well, and both institutions that are departing are treated with the utmost respect.
"It's harder to get that down to the fan level, but we're trying hard to do that."
Among the steps the schools are taking to defuse any tensions is a planned meeting of Texas and Nebraska administrators in Lincoln the night before the two schools play Oct. 16. No truth to the rumor that fans from both schools are encouraged to meet for a group hug outside the stadium and a rendition of "We Are The World."
More...
