Rhule sees the Big Ten's expansion as a positive for Nebraska
When Nebraska joined the Big Ten conference in 2011, it was the 12th league member. With Friday’s expansion adding Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten, the conference will have 18 members in 2024.
Once dubbed the “San Diego of the Big Ten,” NU suddenly finds itself smack dab in the middle of a conference that stretches though all four time zones.
As head coach Matt Rhule looks at the move, he only sees it as a positive for the long run.
“Before I took this job, I spent one day with (former NFL quarterback) Trent Green at CBS,” Rhule said. “He said something to me, ‘You know Matt, I live in Kansas City because I’m doing NFL games every week. I didn’t want to be in New York having to fly, so I’m kind of in the middle of the country and I’m going here, and I’m going there.’ As the Big Ten has become more of a national conference where it stretches from the East Coast to the West Coast, we are in a pretty good spot geographically.”
The Huskers have always recruited the state of California, but this move now will make it that much more attractive for the Big Red, knowing the Huskers are going to have at least one to two West Coast trips per year.
“I think for us, we try to establish ourselves out there,” Rhule said of the West Coast. “When I was at Baylor, there were a lot of people from California because of tax reasons or whatever, they wanted to go to Texas. There’s a lot of people in California that play football, so we’ll continue to recruit the West Coast.”
Rhule has faith in Big Ten and Nebraska leadership when it comes to expansion
Rhule can only worry about winning football games when he looks at his role in all of this.
He said on Saturday he has complete confidence that the leaders of the Big Ten and Nebraska have everyone’s best interest in mind regarding expansion decisions.
“I trust the leadership, and I trust the Big Ten and Tony Petitti,” Rhule said. “Trev (Alberts) is awesome and so communicative with those things. I am kind of in my own little bubble right now, so worried about our team. I think the key for all teams right now as realignment happens, who knows what the future is going to hold? My job is to make sure the University of Nebraska is relevant nationally. I just have a lot of trust in the Big Ten and the leadership. It’s the dominant conference in college football, and we’ll play where they tell us to play.”
With Rhule’s NFL background, he’s also very familiar with what it takes to prepare a team to play cross-country.
He spent many seasons both in Carolina and New York, where they played games in the Pacific time zone. He said being in the Central time zone is an excellent spot for the Husker in the new-look Big Ten.
“Teams are going to have to come and play here in cold temperatures. They are going to have to play in the wind,” Rhule said. “We are going to have a 2 ½ hour flight here, and a 2 ½ flight there. But I think the impact for the sports on the West Coast having to fly to the East Coast, and more importantly, the East Coast having to fly to the West Coast. If you are on the East Coast and you are flying to the West Coast, some teams will try and go a day early, but the research says it’s a day per time zone. If you go the East Coast and fly to the West Coast and you come back at 5 in the morning, it usually takes you until the next Thursday to get ready for that. I think it’s going to be great for our Olympic sports. There are a lot of great schools we can play here, but think about having to do a weekend run in softball where you are on the West Coast and have to come all the way back to the East Coast. Where you look at our Olympic sports, it’s a manageable trip, instead of the five or six-hour trips the other teams have to do.
“I think the broadening of the conference could be really good for the University of Nebraska because we are central and in the middle of it. The weather will be good in football for us, and also, the travel will be more manageable than maybe for some of the other teams.”
