Data Complete - What Do We Know?
My fellow blogger Steve and I work for a research and consulting company during our day jobs. I won’t say which one, but let’s just say you have probably heard of it. In survey research, it is not advisable to make major conclusions based on partial data. You can get a sense of things, but no solid conclusions. It’s better to wait for a complete set of results before you search for hard findings. To put it in football terms – you are what your record says you are. That’s it.
This mentality isn’t too popular in the quick-conclusion world of college football media. But, BRN prefers to swim upstream in that regard. Now, the regular-season results are in for NU. Reviewing those results reveals more than a few positive findings.
9 Wins
The Huskers won 9 games for the first time under Bill Callahan, and that means a lot. For a generation, a 9-win season was the expected benchmark for Husker teams under Tom Osborne. And, the number 9 took on added significance when Frank Solich won that number of games prior to being fired. Yeah, 9 wins in the regular season means something to Callahan and his staff. And, in three years NU has gone from 5 wins, to 7 wins and now 9 wins in the regular season. You don’t need a line chart to know that is progress. It’s not a rocket ride, but it is progress.
Best in the North
Nebraska is champions of the Big 12 North for the first time since 1999. Not coincidentally, they beat all of the teams in the North head to head for the first time since 1999 as well. Okay, so what does that mean? Quite a lot, actually. It means these kids get to be champions of something. It means continued exposure and revenue that come with a conference title game appearance. And it means a 1-game playoff with a BCS birth on the line. I’ll take that.
So, what about the folks who say the North is a division full of weaklings? The collective record of NU’s neighbors can make that hard to argue with. But, Husker backers can take solace in that their team is significantly better than their division mates. What is significant? Try 15 points. That is NU’s average margin of victory over North opponents this year. The only game decided by less than 2 touchdowns was the home win over Kansas. And, the wins included road victories, which had been hard to come by in the Callahan era. So, yeah, the North may be collectively weak. But, the numbers say NU is a full head taller than its North division counterparts.
Competitive with the South
Okay, what does this season tell us about how NU matches up with the better part of the Big 12 South? Well, not too bad. While they were just 1-2 in games against the South, the one win was on the road against a tough Texas A&M team. The Husker’s home loss to Texas hurt, because the Huskers literally had a win in their hands. There are no excuses for the loss to OSU. The Cowboys beat NU, and that loss is what stops me short of saying NU is getting a leg up on the South. But, it is fair to say they are at least competitive with the South division. That has not been the case in recent years. So, that’s another sign of progress.
Time For Post-Season Research
Some folks are already trying to project how NU will fair in the post season. Can they win the Big 12 title game? What bowl will they go to? How would they do against Boise State…Cal…LSU…? Those questions can’t be answered with regular-season results. So, it is time to conduct the post-season experiment. This two-game sample could yield any number of potential outcomes, from a top-10 finish to falling out of the top 25. Only getting on the field will answer these questions.
In the time being, I’m going to relish being the fan of a team that accomplished many regular-season milestones that we haven’t seen in a while.
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