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You'll see the excuse often on message boards, in comments and across the Internet. Someone will inevitably suggest Nebraska isn't providing enough air support to the Nebraska football staff for their recruiting needs. With a so-called "national" recruiting strategy, it makes sense for Nebraska's coaches to have access to the skies to get those studs to Lincoln.
But the fact of the matter is, Nebraska does have an air force. No, they're not going to carpet-bomb Iowa City or strafe Goldie, but these planes do ferry our coaches around the country.
Known as the Husker Air Force, this airplane "donation" program encourages friends of the program (as it were) to enlist in the "Air Force" and to support the organization through four different routes:
The Husker Air Force has four easy options to participate with Husker Air Force partners - Jet Linx at www.huskerjetcard.com or UltraAir at huskerjet.com. When donors enlist, they can:
purchase hours with Jet Linx or UltraAir donate purchased hours donate personal airplane hours donate cash to the Husker Air Force at the NU Foundation
They even outline the recruiting strategy!
(via Husker Air Force, Football Recruiting Needs)
(They used the word process, which makes me giggle like a two year old. But really, take a look through that as well as the basketball one, some interesting tidbits in them.)
And like many organizations seeking funding, Nebraska provides certain incentives depending on how generous you are.
For $1,000 to $4,999 donors
- Invite to annual event-August practice experience
For $5,000 to $9,999 donors
- Jacket-1st year members
- Model of plane-1st year members
- Invite to annual event-August practice experience
For $10,000 and above donors
- Jacket - 1st year members
- Model of plane -1st year members
- Invite to annual event-August practice experience
- Private event with coaches annually
Oh and that jacket?
@btbowling The jackets are nice at least http://t.co/HF6jFEkRjS
— Matt Burnell (@mdburnell) January 20, 2014
It's a nice jacket. A very nice jacket. Which of course made me want one.
@mdburnell @btbowling LET'S KICKSTARTER THIS. We can call it "Get a jacket for Salt Creek and Stadium and recruits for Nebraska"
— Salt Creek & Stadium (@tamattes) January 20, 2014
Which of course led to this Tweet from Matt Burnell (if you're on Twitter and you like college football, Matt is a great follow. Great insights on X's and O's.)
@tamattes @btbowling Funny you mention that, I bet if they repackaged all of this as a Kickstarter project, the coin would pour in.
— Matt Burnell (@mdburnell) January 20, 2014
Of course, "Get Nebraska Football Some Airplanes" or "Get this random Internet guy a jacket" is probably not a viable idea for Kickstarter. But still, it's an interesting idea - what if you made the barrier to entry lower and offered more incentives? What if you made it easier for fans around the country to get involved in recruiting?
Matt got the ball rolling with the following proposed incentives. (Remember that for these crowd-funding venture, each level of incentive typically includes the previous level.)
$100 - Signed Memorabilia
$500 - Invite to a luncheon
$1000 - Meet and Greet with Nebraska Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst
$5000 - 2 Free Tickets to Any Event
$10,000 - Custom Model Air Force Plane
Over $10,000 - Custom Husker Air Force flight jacket
Of course, this post would be boring if we left it there. So we got creative.
@mdburnell @btbowling $100000 - MEET THE ANONYMOUS SALT CREEK AND STADIUM, BE THE ENVY OF YOUR FRIENDS.
— Salt Creek & Stadium (@tamattes) January 20, 2014
*Must be willing to sign a NDA and never tell your friends.
@tamattes @btbowling $500000 - Replace Papuchis as DC. No, you don't get to call plays. Wait, you know how to stop a jet sweep?
— Matt Burnell (@mdburnell) January 20, 2014
@tamattes @btbowling NO! BAD TIM, YOU RUN THE BALL, YOU RUN IT RIGHT NOW. /hits him on the nose with a rolled up play sheet
— Matt Burnell (@mdburnell) January 20, 2014
And how about we throw in this one:
$5 - Voucher for a free Runza
And for $15, Nebrasketball Coach (and sometimes Wizard) Tim Miles will tweet about your Runza experience.