re: Is Iowa a better CFB program than Nebraska?

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They have not played in a major bowl in 25 years

They have played in just 4 bowls over the last 11 years with the Music city being their most prestigious, and that’s pre playoff expansion before it was elevated in prominence.

They just ended a streak of 7 straight losing seasons with a pair of 7-6 records.

They haven’t finished .500 or better in league play since 2016.

They haven’t had a consensus AA since they joined the league.

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They've lost 4+ games 22 years in a row.

For those of us that were born in the 70s and our formative years were the 80s, in 1986 did anybody consider the Minnesota Golden Gophers a national football power, a blue blood? No, of course not. But that program had 7 national titles, the most recent coming in 1960, just 26 years prior.

Nebraska is now what Minnesota used to be, a faded blue blood that has lost that status.

Honestly, Iowa fans need to own that one. That loss to NDSU was rough. Still, NDSU is no slouch of a program. FCS in name only during that run.

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In any case, winning the national title without having to go through the best opponent was advantageous.

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Was it though? Nebraska had to play #3 Miami in Miami's own stadium. Penn State got to play #11 Oregon at a truly neutral site.

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Nebraska really needed to stay in a conference with some Texas schools. They are in a recruiting deadzone and cut off the pipeline they had to Texas talent.

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That’s always an interesting angle people have but Nebraska’s heyday took place mostly in the Big 8 - before hooking up with the Texas schools, forming the Big XII, and tapping into any Texas pipeline.

As to the topic of the OP, yes - Iowa has clearly been the better program than NU these past couple of decades.

It seems like every few years something "big" happens and it gives Nebraska fans hope, but then nothing comes out of it. The last good team they had when when they had Suh and almost beat Texas in the conference championship game. They got rid of Pelini and hired Mike Riley who was an absolute terrible hire and set them back even more. Then it was a big deal when they hired Frost and they thought he would be the hero to bring them back to relevance - instead he had a drinking problem and was a huge fail. Then they were able to get Dylan Raiola and they thought he would make them a contender, but instead he was completely immobile and didn't fit their offense so now he's gone to Oregon. They hired Matt Rhule who was considered to be a big get at the time based on his past turnarounds at Temple and Baylor but he has proven to be a dud who can only beat the cupcakes and not any teams with a pulse. I think he's something like 0-29 against ranked teams. This year they have a decent QB and a good-looking freshman RB but again they won't know how much progress they've really made until conference play starts. Seems like the past couple of seasons they've started like 5-1 or 6-1 but then finish the season barely .500 because they can't beat any good teams.

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In any case, winning the national title without having to go through the best opponent was advantageous.

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Was it though? Nebraska had to play #3 Miami in Miami's own stadium. Penn State got to play #11 Oregon at a truly neutral site.

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When I said “advantageous,” I meant in comparison to the Solich and Pelini eras that were part of the BCS and (for one year) the playoff system. Any Osborne successor would not have been able to avoid a future Top 2 opponent in the postseason, as Osborne did twice. And maybe Osborne beats them both, but he didn’t even have to play them. Yes, that was advantageous compared to the BCS/playoff era.

And yes, playing Miami in the Orange Bowl in 1994 was no joke and possibly tougher than playing PSU on a neutral field.

But there are a couple of things to consider:

1. The Orange Bowl was a tough venue, but Miami was really only in a spoiler role. Even with a win over Nebraska, they would have needed Oregon to beat PSU in the Rose Bowl the next day to win the natty - which everyone knew was very unlikely. So while Miami may have had the Orange Bowl in its favor against Nebraska, PSU would have had more to play for in a neutral site game.

2. Miami possessed the single best weapon against Nebraska: a strong defensive front. Nebraska never scored much against elite personnel in the trenches that they couldn’t push around. Even with average offensive play, you had a good chance against Nebraska in those days if you had some studs in the defensive front. Most of the games Osborne lost were by scores like 14-7 or 21-14, not 42-35.

PSU (while better overall than Miami) was not a defensive team. However, they were not a soft team either. Paterno and a DC I won’t name also had experience against Nebraska. So while offensive-oriented that particular year, PSU wouldn’t have been nearly as unprepared for the Nebraska offense as Florida was the next year.

If I had to bet my life on it, I would take Nebraska over PSU. But PSU was damn good and certainly capable of winning. Too bad they didn’t get a chance to play.

Iowa is absolutely a better program now.

Nebraska should be as consistently good as OU at least. There’s certainly a rabid and national fan base (at least there was).

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Iowa is a way better program than ISU

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honestly I’m just fricking around a bit

Your fellow Iowa fan “the third leg” is an angry sensitive guy and I’m just saying shite to get him going