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He also hinted that he wished the system was in place in 1997, when Michigan and Nebraska shared the national championship in Osborne's final season as football coach.

"I know in 1997, we were in a difficult situation," Osborne said. "We were undefeated, and Michigan was undefeated, and we very badly wanted to play Michigan and we were pretty much a free agent and able to move at that time, but Michigan had contractual obligations with the Rose Bowl.

In Nebraska, like pretty much every other school, there are always detractors from the head coach. Even when Osborne was coaching, people would say things like, "He's never going to win a championship. We need a guy who can get us to the next level. Blah. Blah. Blah." For Pelini, not only does he have to deal with these exceedingly unrealistic expectations, he also lives in the shadow of what many Nebraska fans considers the second coming of Christ -- Tom Osborne.

Tom Osborne's take on the Big 10 at the spring meetings:

"You have the general feeling here that people are trying to do their best for the collective good," he said Wednesday. "There's not a lot of one-upmanship or somebody out trying to gain an advantage."

Bo Pelini:

"It's a very classy conference," Pelini said. "I've enjoyed working with all the new Big Ten people. It just exudes class, and it's great to be a part of."

Translation: Suck it, Beebe. (And, Texas, too, for that matter.)

They got whatever they got, and they decided not to come. That's OK. I don't have anything to say about that.
...
I've said all I'm going to say. I've had all kinds of e-mails over the years. It's not a problem.

"Naturally, we’re very concerned about keeping our sellout streak going if we can," Osborne added.

So, how much farther can Nebraska go with its stadium? Official capacity is 81,091, but average attendance in 2009 actually was 85,888.

Would you expand by a few thousand seats? Do you take it to 90,000? 100,000?

I definitely wouldn’t go beyond 90,000. Too risky. You saw the empty seats in 2007. The sellout streak is too important to the program. It’s sacred ground.

"I think we'll probably see that, particularly on the defensive side of the ball," he said. "I think the offense can be good. Hopefully it'll fall into place, but there's going to be some close games.
"And I think in some of these first three home games (Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette) that we might be challenged more than people think.
"Everyone has good athletes. Everyone starts the season optimistically. Everyone believes they can get it done. By the fifth, sixth, seventh game, some teams start getting beat down and begin to lose confidence.