The attention surrounding the Big 12 Championship has centered on Nebraska's Big 12 discontent, rumors regarding the quarterback position and longing looks back at one of college football's most storied rivalries.

Somehow lost in the shuffle is a Nebraska team who, a year ago, came within a second of winning a Big 12 title.

The team wears wristbands that read "Finish" and ":01," and though the second inscription on the wristband is most often linked to Texas, the larger goal was a Big 12 title.

As sweet as a win against Texas in October would have been, it didn't derail the Huskers' shot at a Big 12 title. Nebraska still racked up 10 wins. It got back. It's 60 minutes from achieving the goal that agonizingly slipped out of its hands with an errant kickoff, personal foul and one second added to the clock to set up a conference-winning field goal for the Longhorns.

"When we started the season, the goals are always the player's goals," offensive coordinator Shawn Watson told reporters this week. "Our goal as a team has always been, because they said it, was to be the Big 12 champions. It's important, obviously, for our players because they've worked all winter, all summer, worked through the season. It's an important game for them and for all of us."

For all the talk of the series' history, what happened in 1971 matters very little to these Huskers. What happened in 2009 does. Most of them were there. They'll take the field at Cowboys Stadium on Saturday remembering well what watching that field goal slip through the uprights felt like.

Those 60 minutes on the field will be spent making sure they don't feel it again.

There were no guarantees Nebraska could get back to Dallas. They did.

Now, all that's left to do is finish.