Slumping Cornhuskers can't beat best teams

Big 12 Blog

October, 8, 2008

Oct 8

3:13

PM ET

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By Tim Griffin

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

Dirk Chatelain of the Omaha World-Herald had an interesting story this morning that had a couple of mind-blowing statistics that indicated how far Nebraska's mystique had waned in recent years.

Check these factoids and chew on them for a moment:

Among the 65 teams in Bowl Championship Series-affilated conferences, 63 of them have beaten a team higher than 20th in the AP poll since November 2001. The only two teams not to accomplish that feat are Duke and Nebraska.
Nebraska's last win over an opponent ranked that high came on Oct. 27, 2001, when Eric Crouch's Heisman bid was cemented in a 20-10 victory over No. 2 Oklahoma in Lincoln. Since then the Cornhuskers have lost 18 straight games against opponents higher than 20th.

Nebraska will try to bust that streak Saturday in Lubbock against No. 7 Texas Tech.

Here are a couple of other statistics that will place that futility into context. From the time the Big 12 started until the Oklahoma victory in 2001, Nebraska was 13-7 against opponents ranked higher than 20th in the AP poll.

And Chatelain also mentions perhaps the most impressive statistic of all that predated the Big 12's start. At one point during the 1990s, the Cornhuskers won 13 straight games against top 15 opponents.

How the once-mighty have fallen.

Tags:

Uncategorized, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Duke Blue Devils, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Eric Crouch, Oklahoma Sooners

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