1 week Ago By Sam McKewon World-Herald Sports Editor
Sam McKewon will be providing mailbags throughout the offseason, culled from edited questions on social media and the Husker Extra text chat system. This mailbag covers Nebraska's potential ceiling in 2025, the House vs. NCAA settlement, its struggles in the NCAA tournament, and how much Dana Holgorsen might operate the offense from under center.
How close are we to every college team having a general manager and we shift to a professional model with contracts and salary caps? The first two items — GMs and contracts of a certain kind — are here once the revenue-sharing era begins. Perhaps the word “agreement” will be used to denote deals between universities and top student-athletes, but, given there’s compensation involved, it’ll function, to some degree, like a contract. And the House vs.
NCAA settlement — not yet approved — does cap how much revenue can be distributed. So in theory, we’d be “there” on that item, too. How soon does the entire enterprise of college athletics involve a players’ union that treats student-athletes like employees? That’s the largest question.
A massive union might be unwieldy, but the settlement may get legal challenges — and media critiques — without a union in place. What’s the win ceiling this fall? I revisit my win range — ceiling and floor — and general prediction on a monthly basis. My ceiling, taking opponents into account, is 10 regular season wins.
Nebraska will head into 2025 a unanimous underdog at Penn State, and then, given NU’s recent track record, you bake in another loss. Ten wins put Nebraska squarely in the hunt for the College Football Playoff. Here’s a question for Husker fans to ponder: Nebraska has games away from home in 2025: vs.
Cincinnati in Kansas City, at Maryland, at Minnesota, at UCLA and at Penn State. If I put the over/under win total, for those five games, at 21⁄2, which are you taking? Over is three wins or more. Under is two or fewer wins.
Let’s say I give you two wins: Cincinnati and Maryland. What’s the third win? At UCLA? The Huskers lost soundly at home to the Bruins. At Minnesota? Nebraska hasn’t won in Minneapolis since 2015.
At Penn State? NU has often played well in Happy Valley, but PSU might be the No. 1 team in the nation. Here’s why I ask: In the last four seasons, Nebraska is 4-16 in games away from home.
(This includes a neutral site loss in Dublin, Ireland.) Coach Matt Rhule’s teams are 2-8. NU hasn’t won three true road games, in a season, since 2014, when the Huskers beat Fresno State, Northwestern and Iowa.
So when I say the ceiling is 10, I’m arguing Nebraska’s best can exceed two wins away from home in 2025. But I haven’t seen enough to think a 4-1 record, on the road, is likely. What’s your guess or thoughts on ratio of under center vs shotgun for Nebraska’s offense? More shotgun than last season — offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen’s system is comfortable there — with a dose of under center snaps for both short yardage plays and an effective outside zone run/playaction pass game.
While Nebraska needs Holgorsen’s expertise in creating in-game rhythm for quarterbacks and playmaker opportunities, Holgorsen surely turned down other playcalling opportunities to embrace NU’s tough-guy style and the Big Ten’s rigors. The College Football Playoff semifinalists all had the ability to blend spread and under center, speed and power. That’s where the Huskers — and Holgorsen — want to go.
Nebraska can win the NIT and Crown but never in the NCAA tournament. Why do you think that is? The Huskers haven’t made the NCAA tournament enough. Eight all-time trips.
Not enough. Nebraska had several terrific teams under former coach Joe Cipirano that didn’t make a smaller field, but may have won a game in a 68-team field. Of the eight Husker teams that made the big dance, the two best — 1991 and 1994 — ran into hot-shooting mid-majors that made 54% and 51% of their shots, respectively.
If Nebraska made more NCAAs — as in, every other year — it would eventually break through with a win. But the Huskers have made just two in the 21 st Century. And they’ve only been close to making it two other times — one of which was this year.
Do "basketball only" schools get the same amount of revenue sharing money as schools with football programs? Yes, they will, if the House vs. NCAA settlement is approved by a federal judge. Schools that don’t field football teams, like Creighton, Marquette and Gonzaga, could use the full $20.
5 million just as athletic departments with football teams would. Of course, programs that field power conference football programs have larger media rights payoffs than non-football schools. The Big East has an excellent TV deal — for basketball.
Its overall take pales in comparison to the Big Ten. Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington all joined the Big Ten for that media payout; that’s how lucrative it is. Can Big East teams find a way to push its revenue-sharing budget for men’s hoops to $7 million? Possibly.
And in theory Big Ten teams won’t be willing to match it because they’re choose to allocate upwards of $16 million to football. As the revenue-sharing pool grows each year — and it’s supposed to — more and more money could be freed up to pay basketball players. In theory.
And there’s also this: Not everyone wants to play at Xavier, Marquette, Providence and Creighton. Plenty of terrific players do — all four programs have fared far better than Nebraska over the last decade — but some basketball players want the power football conference university experience. Consider, for example, national champion Florida.
Its best player, Walter Clayton, began his career at Iona under Rick Pitino. He didn’t follow Pitino to St. John’s two seasons ago, and he didn’t leave UF for SJU last summer, either.
Florida perhaps used NIL money to stave off St. John’s, but the point remains: The Big East lost on a player to the SEC team. Twice.
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