Banners Older Than Nebraska's

When you think of Nebraska football what comes to mind? For me it's an old powerhouse that has had quite the fall from relevance in the college football landscape. The Cornhuskers are often referenced as a team of old success and their fans criticized for the belief that it can find that again; cue up another mention of the mistake to say Bo Pelini's nine win seasons weren't enough. There's another Big Ten team, albeit in another sport, that is much closer to this but somehow escapes the same label despite older success.

Nebraska is in a six season streak of not making a bowl when 6-6 isn't that hard of a mark to hit. This is after a streak of 13 bowls in 15 years, which included Pelini's 66-27 mark over seven seasons. While they weren't a national title contender in that stretch, finishing inside the top 15 once, they made two Big12 and one Big10 championship games. The Cornhuskers also won a Big12 championship in 1999 but didn't play for the National Championship.

For the last Nebraska championship you have to go back to 1997, 25 years ago. Legendary coach Tom Osborne retired and the Cornhuskers never quite achieved that level of success again. Frank Solich took over and coached for six seasons, compiling a 56-19 record, including that Big12 championship, and a 2-3 bowl record (Pelini coached the last bowl). You can follow the fall off with Bill Callahan's 27-22 record, then Pelini, Mike Riley's 19-19 record and the Scott Frost debacle all next.

Pelini had a slight uptick but the program slowly lost its relevance in the national title picture before the debacle of hires took them to the cellar of the Big Ten. The criticism of the program, more so the fan's expectations, is completely just. Yet, you know what's further back than 1997? 1987. While it's a different sport, that's the last Indiana Hoosiers national championship but they somehow don't fall under the same criticism the once dominant Huskers do.

If you're a Big Ten fan and had a run-in with a Hoosier fan then you've inevitably heard “Banners!” On the Big Ten's promotional commercial they are front and center in the pop up for Indiana University. As a Purdue fan I can already hear the criticism of the Boilermaker's lack of titles and Matt Painter's recent March flame outs. So why don't we look at the history and numbers?

Bob Knight is a legendary coach, there is no denying. He coached until the 2000 season, and in those 13 seasons after the last championship he made the NCAA tournament every season but only made it past the Sweet 16 twice. And one was a Final 4 in the 1991-92 season. The 1987-88 season ended in the first round and in eight of those seasons the Hoosiers didn't even make it to the Sweet 16.

Mike Davis took over for Knight and did make it to the championship game in the 2001-02 season, but did not make it to the Sweet 16 in his other five seasons at the helm. Kelvin Sampson had almost two seasons before recruiting violations got him booted with no Sweet 16 appearances. Tom Crean then coached the Hoosiers for nine seasons with only four March invites, three ending in the Sweet 16, and none going beyond that. That is including the 2012-13 season where Indiana was the number one overall seed. It was reported that after their first return to the Sweet 16 the team was given rings for making it that far. Far off from a national championship and quite a mediocre celebration for a 'blue blood' of college basketball.

Archie Miller had four seasons, none with trips to the 68 team bracket. That does include the COVID canceled 2020 where it was likely Indiana would have gotten in, but it wasn't until Mike Woodson came aboard that the Hoosiers ended their five season streak of not being in the bracket. Woodson's team went home after the first round.

Tallying up the numbers since the national championship; Indiana has one national title, Final 4 and Elite 8 appearance each, with six Sweet 16 berths in 35 seasons. That's nine seasons in 35 of finishing inside the top 16 of the tournament. In that same time the Hoosiers have six regular season Big Ten titles (at least a share) and no Tournament titles (which started in 1998). In fact, in the 24 Big Ten tournaments the Hoosiers have only made the title game once.

You can see a similar type of fall of between the two programs, but how do you compare football and basketball success? Admittedly doing some extrapolating, I think it logically makes sense to compare the success in the conferences while also equalizing the type of bowl games to a certain level in the bracket (that's the harder part). Making it to one of the New Year's bowls (Rose, Fiesta, Sugar or Orange) is on the level of at least an Elite 8, if not a Final 4. While there are eight teams in them, argumentatively they are just outside of championship contention similarly to a Final 4. Also for comparison, there are top bowls for each conference for the teams outside of the most important bowls (Capital One for the Big Ten and Cotton for the Big12) that are considered the next set of bowls and because of that I think you can expand them to being on a similar level to a Sweet 16.

With those standards set; IU has at least six shares of the regular season title to Nebraska's two division wins since their last national championships. However, Indiana has only played in one tournament championship, with no wins, while Nebraska has won one. That leans in the Hoosiers favor, though it's close with the Cornhuskers at least hosting a championship game trophy. Since the national championship Nebraska went to the Rose and Fiesta bowl, splitting the two, and has no national championship game appearances. IU has a championship appearance, a Final 4 and an Elite 8 appearance each, making it a slight nod again to the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers have six other Sweet 16 appearances while Nebraska made it to that second tier of bowls three times, losing all three times. Let's also note that bowl games generally stick to not allowing a team to make too many repeat appearances within a window. Bo Pelini went to back-to-back Capital One bowls with a combined 19-6 record before not going the next two seasons with a 17-7 record. He was also 19-7 the two seasons combined before the back-to-back Capital One bowls and went to back-to-back Holiday bowls as a member of the Big12, one of those after they had already announced their intentions to switch conferences. It's an interesting point just for the consideration that the bowl with Big12 ties wouldn't take a team on the way out. It stands to reason that there could have been one or two more of those appearances if not for the repeat appearance rule and possible conspiracy theory. However, that can't be proven and it still wouldn't equal the six comparable feats accomplished by Indiana.

The last thing to compare is the blood of college athletics, recruiting. Both programs featured similar labels at one points so just how much cache does the name still carry? It can further illustrate the picture of the drop off, but it can also demonstrate another level of disappointment. If one program regularly performed higher in recruiting, admittedly a crap shoot because who knows what the players would do as they transition to the next level, it frames the success as possible further disappointment.

247 Sports goes back to 2010 for full football class rankings and 2011 for basketball, a ways off from their last championships, but we'll compare from 2011 for both schools. For Nebraska that eliminates their 26th ranked recruiting class in 2010 which would have been tied for their 5th worst in that stretch. Since 2011 the Cornhuskers have averaged just outside of the 25th best class in 12 seasons, finishing as high as 16 in 2011 (17th in 2019) and outside of the 30th or worse only four times, including last season's 41st ranking. In that time they did not get a single five star commit either. Since 2011 for Indiana they have averaged just beyond the 23rd class in 12 seasons, with four top ten classes and their worst being 52nd in 2019 when they signed only two players. In that time they also signed eight five star players, including one every class from 2011 through 2015.

I find it a bit surprising their classes rank about the same, but the Hoosiers have had the higher classes, and the worst, with more premier talent. In that stretch of 12 classes the Cornhuskers tallied a 75-72 record with six bowl games, none in the last six seasons. Indiana has finished with a 234-143 record with three Sweet 16 appearances and two other tournament bids (2022 obviously isn't finished yet for basketball). That's a 51% to 62% winning percentage and it's safe to say an increase in winning percentage and a March berth are expected for IU. While the winning percentage will favor the Hoosiers, getting into the tournament would tie the bowls Nebraska has gone to. And that's with better recruiting for Indiana.

Indiana has had more success than the Nebraska football team, but not by much, with ten extra seasons to account for. In the 35 seasons IU has missed the tournament 10/35 times (28.6%), while Nebraska has missed a bowl 8/25 (32%). It's a check for Indiana, but a very slight one again.

Mike Woodson snapped the streak of post season absences and looks like he'll have a solid season. He could be the answer that distances Indiana from it's drought and tries to rebuild the success to go along with the reputation, but I believe Matt Rhule will vastly improve Nebraska. For reference, he took Temple to back-to-back ten win seasons and took Baylor to the Big12 championship game and the Sugar bowl in just three seasons. It's possible the comparison of these two programs doesn't really deviate much with him now at the helm in Lincoln. I would argue in the landscape of today's college football that Nebraska has less likely of a chance to play for a championship than IU basketball does, but expansion levels the playing field a bit. It also gives us a more direct comparison of big bowl games to Elite 8's and Final 4's.

Regardless of all that, while all the numbers favor Indiana basketball compared to Nebraska football, it's just barely better. Their championship was longer ago, they've recruited better with similar success and they've had their own recent post season drought. So the question stands; why does Nebraska and their fans get laughed at as a former powerhouse who just remember the glory days while Indiana gets called a blue blood and has the benefit of the doubt with the exact same success rate? The banners are old and dusty and your best years have been far, FAR behind you.