Excellent column from LSJ columnist Graham Couch on "perception"

[SelectionSunday]

This guy "gets it" as a columnist, and always has. He's fair, and unlike a lot of media he doesn't get sucked in to hyperbole when evaluating teams or conferences. His goal isn't to form public opinion (read: ESPN), a rarity in today's blog-osphere shock-talk/write media. Someone that actually sticks to facts. ... refreshing.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/...14/09/29/couch-column-huskers-bully/16460475/

 

[MaxyJR1]

Interesting part of the column.

"There was no other explanation for the cover (unless SI's editors stopped watching college football in 2001), because Nebraska hadn't been a bully in the Big 12 in nearly a decade, finishing 40-33 in conference play in its final nine years.

The Huskers are 17-8 in their new league, with one division title, but yet to bully.

Not their fault. Just a miscalculation by a magazine looking to antagonize for the purpose of sales. The Huskers, in 2011, perfectly illustrated the lasting gap between perception and reality. The pithy conference evaluations from pundits these days are still mostly bunk.

Nebraska didn't get worse by joining the Big Ten. The Huskers just joined a league playing a similar level of football. And so they've had similar results.

Just as Missouri and Texas A&M didn't suddenly have better athletes by joining the SEC. They just joined a league that's been strong at the top for a decade, and markets itself brazenly and selectively — conveniently forgetting to mention Missouri and Texas A&M are a combined 20-14 in their two seasons in SEC play, after finishing a combined 16-17 in their last two go-rounds in the Big 12."