Pelini Champion of Nebraska Economy

May 29, 2009 by Steve Hanway

College football seems relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things. But as the dollars involved in the game have grown, so has the power of the game to transform lives. The tuition, room, and board that a college scholarship covers is more valuable than ever. But so is the stimulus provided to a university and surrounding community by a strong athletic program.

Not that it’s any secret. Former athletic director Bill Byrne, often painted as a miser by NU fans, added a $1 million incentive to Tom Osborne’s contract for winning a national championship. That wasn’t just a friendly gift of gratitude. Rather it reflected just a fraction of the impact of a national championship on the finances of the NU athletic department and by extension the University of Nebraska and the city of Lincoln. Winning three national championships surely didn’t hurt NU's finances and by the time Byrne left Lincoln, all of the red ink he'd inherited from Bob Devaney was gone and the program was squarely in the black.

Now that the American economy is hemorrhaging jobs, bringing a little stimulus to the state can mean more than ever. Because it's not just people within the state that spend the money. There's real truth to the term "Husker Nation". We know that more than two-thirds of the visitors to this site live outside the state. When Husker athletics prosper, money pours in from all over the country and even from around the globe. That means jobs and a better standard of living for some Nebraskans. And not solely for athletics. The Beadle center is just one example of the kind of donor-supported projects that thrive in the aftermath of sporting glory.

Pelini's got enough to worry about with Virginia Tech and Oklahoma on the schedule, but in rebuilding the Husker program he can also provide a shot in the arm to the Nebraska economy. It's not part of the job description perhaps, but nevertheless it's something that only he can deliver.

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