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Remember that time shortly after moving into a new home you left work and … drove to the old residence before realizing you were at the wrong place?
Very soon, Nebraska fans will have to make a similar adjustment — especially when it comes to traveling to see the Hawkeyes, Golden Gophers and other conference opponents.
Welcome to the Big Ten Conference. Yes, the Huskers officially become members Friday, but the real changes for fans begin this fall — when a trip east on Interstate 80 to watch an opponent from Iowa now will mean going straight through Des Moines rather than turning left on I-35.
Or where going to a campus near I-35 no longer means taking the Ames exit but continuing to cross the border into Minnesota.
"I imagine there are some people thinking driving distance, (how) 'I'm going to miss driving to Lawrence or Manhattan or Ames,'" Nebraska executive associate athletic director Marc Boehm says. "But, overall, there's an excitement, because they've never been to that venue. The majority have never been to Madison (Wis.) to see a game, or to Ohio State."
For the record, Boehm has attended football or basketball games in every Big Ten city but Champaign, Ill., and he highly recommends a trip to Madison, which just happens to be where Nebraska will play its first league football game on Oct. 1.
A word of warning on that, and also if you're planning a trip to Minneapolis for the Oct. 22 game against Minnesota: You'll likely need a Plan B to get a ticket, since both schools are strict about the Big Ten's policy of allotting just 3,000 tickets to league opponents.
That's 1,000 fewer than what Big 12 schools offer.
"Demand is really high this year and cutting the allotment by 1,000 is huge," Nebraska athletic ticket manager Holly Adam notes. "We're encouraging people to be resourceful."
The other Big Ten schools have an informal agreement to allot 4,000 tickets to league opponents.
Adam said her office will be notifying fans soon whether they made the cut. Road-game tickets are assigned based on donor priority points and if you're not a heavy hitter, then you'd better know one. NU fans have made 21,000 requests for the Wisconsin game, more than 12,000 for Minnesota, more than 10,000 for Michigan and nearly 7,000 for Penn State.
But Adam has a strong hunch the Huskers will have plenty of support in those stadiums.
"Nebraska fans who live in Big Ten cities are telling people there how they have no idea what it's going to be like when Nebraska comes into town," she said. "It'll be fun."
That was the Big Ten's thinking last June 11, when it announced Nebraska as its 12th and newest member. Before then, the last time the league had expanded was when it approved Penn State in 1990.
Since then, NU athletic administrators and coaches have slowly had to acquaint themselves with some new sets of competition rules.
But "to dwell on those changes is not a big deal," said Gary Bargen, NU's athletic director in charge of compliance. "It's been a great transition because they've worked with us the whole year and some of their rules have even changed to be the same as NCAA rules. Where they might've been above and beyond, now they're moving back close to the way they are in the NCAA."
One of the most significant changes involves "oversigning" scholarships in baseball. While the Big 12 had no policy limiting the practice that teams utilize to protect themselves from losing underclassmen to the Major League Baseball Draft or other attrition, the Big Ten allows only one "oversign" scholarship to be used by no more than two players.
The Big Ten does allow partial academic qualifiers to enroll at member schools while they attempt to gain NCAA eligibility — something the Big 12 turned its back on.
But the totality of switching leagues is "not going to be the difference between North Pole and South Pole," Bargen said.
Boehm did say that expenses to send teams on the road will rise, primarily because most trips now will require air travel. The next academic calendar budget projects the school will spend more than $1 million on such costs. Nebraska also will have to spend some money changing field and sport logos from the Big 12 to the Big Ten.
The Huskers also are likely to have more 11 a.m. kickoffs.
But they and their fans also figure to receive huge benefits from Big Ten Network coverage and being in a league with more top-notch programs.
In basketball, for instance, they'll play an 18-game league schedule — two more than they did in the Big 12. And in the Big Ten, games are played on more days of the week.
Remember that time shortly after moving into a new home you left work and … drove to the old residence before realizing you were at the wrong place?
Very soon, Nebraska fans will have to make a similar adjustment — especially when it comes to traveling to see the Hawkeyes, Golden Gophers and other conference opponents.
Welcome to the Big Ten Conference. Yes, the Huskers officially become members Friday, but the real changes for fans begin this fall — when a trip east on Interstate 80 to watch an opponent from Iowa now will mean going straight through Des Moines rather than turning left on I-35.
Or where going to a campus near I-35 no longer means taking the Ames exit but continuing to cross the border into Minnesota.
"I imagine there are some people thinking driving distance, (how) 'I'm going to miss driving to Lawrence or Manhattan or Ames,'" Nebraska executive associate athletic director Marc Boehm says. "But, overall, there's an excitement, because they've never been to that venue. The majority have never been to Madison (Wis.) to see a game, or to Ohio State."
For the record, Boehm has attended football or basketball games in every Big Ten city but Champaign, Ill., and he highly recommends a trip to Madison, which just happens to be where Nebraska will play its first league football game on Oct. 1.
A word of warning on that, and also if you're planning a trip to Minneapolis for the Oct. 22 game against Minnesota: You'll likely need a Plan B to get a ticket, since both schools are strict about the Big Ten's policy of allotting just 3,000 tickets to league opponents.
That's 1,000 fewer than what Big 12 schools offer.
"Demand is really high this year and cutting the allotment by 1,000 is huge," Nebraska athletic ticket manager Holly Adam notes. "We're encouraging people to be resourceful."
The other Big Ten schools have an informal agreement to allot 4,000 tickets to league opponents.
Adam said her office will be notifying fans soon whether they made the cut. Road-game tickets are assigned based on donor priority points and if you're not a heavy hitter, then you'd better know one. NU fans have made 21,000 requests for the Wisconsin game, more than 12,000 for Minnesota, more than 10,000 for Michigan and nearly 7,000 for Penn State.
But Adam has a strong hunch the Huskers will have plenty of support in those stadiums.
"Nebraska fans who live in Big Ten cities are telling people there how they have no idea what it's going to be like when Nebraska comes into town," she said. "It'll be fun."
That was the Big Ten's thinking last June 11, when it announced Nebraska as its 12th and newest member. Before then, the last time the league had expanded was when it approved Penn State in 1990.
Since then, NU athletic administrators and coaches have slowly had to acquaint themselves with some new sets of competition rules.
But "to dwell on those changes is not a big deal," said Gary Bargen, NU's athletic director in charge of compliance. "It's been a great transition because they've worked with us the whole year and some of their rules have even changed to be the same as NCAA rules. Where they might've been above and beyond, now they're moving back close to the way they are in the NCAA."
One of the most significant changes involves "oversigning" scholarships in baseball. While the Big 12 had no policy limiting the practice that teams utilize to protect themselves from losing underclassmen to the Major League Baseball Draft or other attrition, the Big Ten allows only one "oversign" scholarship to be used by no more than two players.
The Big Ten does allow partial academic qualifiers to enroll at member schools while they attempt to gain NCAA eligibility — something the Big 12 turned its back on.
But the totality of switching leagues is "not going to be the difference between North Pole and South Pole," Bargen said.
Boehm did say that expenses to send teams on the road will rise, primarily because most trips now will require air travel. The next academic calendar budget projects the school will spend more than $1 million on such costs. Nebraska also will have to spend some money changing field and sport logos from the Big 12 to the Big Ten.
The Huskers also are likely to have more 11 a.m. kickoffs.
But they and their fans also figure to receive huge benefits from Big Ten Network coverage and being in a league with more top-notch programs.
In basketball, for instance, they'll play an 18-game league schedule — two more than they did in the Big 12. And in the Big Ten, games are played on more days of the week.
Going up on campus today, nebraska's new banners.
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