1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - The Big Ten is 5-0 this postseason, does that mean Nebraska is better than we thought?: December 29th, 11:45am

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

Austin and Jake talk about the Big Ten Conference's impressive introduction during bowl season, leading Nebraska's fanbase to question whether or not Nebraska is better than people give credit for.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Back to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 to ticking. We're back here with one-on-one with D.P. Once again, D.P. on a plane to Las Vegas. So myself and Austin Oerman, I'm Jake Bocke. in studio with you here kind of breaking down what's going to be a busy week in Nebraska football. We're just talking during the break. I did want to mention. I know this will anger a lot of people, but I always get excited for some PJ flex. How about PJ Fleck 7 and

0 in bowl games at Minnesota now after beating New Mexico? And what was a beautiful matchup of at least uniforms out there, 20 to 17, Minnesota finishes the season at 8 and 5. a very interesting year for Minnesota. Obviously they got blown out in some of the bigger games destroyed by Iowa, 41 to 3, did beat Nebraska, as we know, 24 to 6. But so it's kind of just an interesting year for them to finish. I suppose not all that.

Maybe you would expect Minnesota to yearly finish around 8 and 5. But what do you make of 7 and 0 in bowl games? That's as much as we belittle bowl games and talk this and that about it. That's rather impressive. We also belittle Minnesota And like how they've treated Nebraska Sorry, that's a No, good on PJ Fleck

Bet the mortgage on him every postseason I guess Not betting advice, do not do it You did not hear it from me It was said in jest Goet on PJ Fleck and the Gophers though, right? They know what they stand for They know they're going to go compete But I think it just is that old adage of

You know what travels, right? Defense run game When you're not ready You're familiar with how Minnesota plays It can kind of punch you in the mouth. Now, if you are ready for it and you are familiar with it, it can still punch you in the mouth,

see 24 to 7. But yeah, no, good at PGFLEC. It's just one of those neat little, like, quirks or pieces of trivia that when PJ Fleck loses his next bowl game, oh, do you know PJ Fleck could just rotted off 13 bowl wins in a row before he just lost one?

It's just weird, just funny. That's the fun, that's the joy of college sports is now that we want to see, you know, PJ Fleck in Minnesota happy, but from a statistical kind of nerdy trivia standpoint, hey, that's kind of cool. Look at PJ Fleck go. Yeah, yeah.

you know what one way or the other that's a definitely good way to get like the offseason feelings going well right regardless of maybe you've come up a little bit short in the regular season which is interesting to kind of look back at you know he has nine wins seasons you finish with eight win you know kind of regular seasons eight wins obviously finish with seven um but yeah just kind of boosting it that way in the off season um a couple other bowl games uh to kind of look up in as far as the big 10 goes northwestern uh finish off the season seven and six with a 34 to seven victory over central Michigan. So that's at least good, you know, finish above 500. A little bit surprised to see Penn State destroy Clemson, or at least, you know, win fairly easily, 22 to 10. So the Big 10 is off to

a pretty good start in the bowl season. Are you a cheer for the Big 10? Do you think that's going to help Nebraska look better or something at this point? No, absolutely not. Do you think the Big Ten is cheering for Nebraska against Utah? I think to a degree. I doubt it. You don't think so? I do not have the

same level of loathing for every tier, every team in the conference. Like Penn State beats conference, okay, cool, good for you. We see it once every five years. So be it. Rutgers, if they, you know, beat Kansas State in a bowl game or whatever, hey, cool, look at little old Rutgers go. I'm not rooting for them. I'm not necessarily rooting against them.

But even like the, these bowl games, sure, maybe I'll pull for the big 10 a little bit more. But I'm not rooting for Indiana or Ohio State to win the whole thing just because it'll make Nebraska look better. Yeah, I don't think there's there's a time in place for that, right? I mean, if Nebraska's 10 and 2 and, you know, they're trying to argue to get in the playoffs and stuff like that. And then you definitely can lean in and campaign the Big 10. I did always, I was always impressed at the SEC as much as the heated and heated rivalries they have down there do kind of unify and support, you know, hey, we are the conference. And it's kind of helped, you know, I think the Big 10 in their identity and winning these last couple championships.

It's kind of helped form that. And for the SEC, it was just kind of like, it was such a dominating period for 15, 20 years. It was like, all, well, let's just all jump in on this. Well, the SEC didn't care about Bulls when they lost, right, Bach? If they were playing for the national championship, you know, well, it just didn't matter to the SEC. Look at the rings that George and Alabama are winning.

So we're good. But if they win, oh, yeah, look at the SEC, we're so strong. They had their cake and they ate it, too. It's pretty great. Sick deal. Which the conference, I think the SEC, I try to look up the ranking. 1154. How will it help Nebraska next year? How will Penn State winning a bowl game help Nebraska next year? How will Indiana or Ohio State winning a bowl game help Nebraska next year? If one of those two teams wins the national championship and Nebraska knocks him off, that's the only way. That's the only way that helps Nebraska next year. It has so little to do with anything. So not that I want to wish ill on people, but I have no reason, no clear reason, at least to me, to root for Indiana. Their success isn't Nebraska's success.

They don't get to claim a piece of that. I'm not going to do it. You can't make me. Again, fair enough. And then part of it, too, is just this long losing streak against the top end of the conference and all that.

It's like Nebraska's place is very firmly set where we know kind of where it is. It's not going to be strayed one way or the other because some other teams wins some game. No, Big Bank Hank. The better your opponent's look, the more recruits and money they get. Hope they all lose. I don't know if that's true to quite that next day.

you're not competing for necessarily the same recruits all the time. But yeah, I mean, you want you to look better. You want your direct competition to look worse. It's better for you that way. Now, you want to be good enough that a win over that means something for you, but you don't want them to look so good. Does it increase the rev share of more Big Ten teams win? I don't know.

But again, I, you should have enough money to look better in seven and five on average over any five year span. Go spend it better. So far, Big 10, 5 and O in the postseason. Other conferences as you look at it. 0739. The conference being successful helps Nebraska if they're in the bubble next year as conference looks better.

They won't look back to this year and say, oh, Indiana won last year. So Nebraska deserves to be in this year. I don't know. It works. That's not how it works. It's just not over the long run if the Big 10 continues to get three or four teams in,

maybe, but in any one year and we're still so new in this playoff. I don't think it helps Nebraska to the degree that the rest of you do. I really don't. And again, it's kind of like if all things play out well for Nebraska to be in a playoff race, you know, then maybe there's a potential there. I mean, I do think it helps in general just kind of the perception, right? Perception is reality.

And, you know, at least the perception across the nation if the Big Ten continues to do well in the post-east, I think can kind of help. Okay, that's one of those Big Ten teams. But, I mean, especially if Nebraska loses, to Utah, and it's the only Big Ten team to that point that had lost, and it's like, okay, well, now everybody except for Nebraska is probably being

pulled up by the Big Ten rankings, or the postseason play, and not the Oscars. But I mean, I usually, I like to, but I, and especially I like the idea back when it was more regional. And then you had more kind of a regional argument about, well, yeah, come try to play in the Midwest and, you know,

in November, or, you know, come try to play in the SEC, all that sort of stuff. Now it's just less like, Am I, right? Is the conference, if USC and Redkers win, what does that mean for Nebraska in the middle of the country? Not sure it means a whole lot. If anything. Yeah. If anything.

I just refuse to believe that it means that much. It doesn't hurt Nebraska if the conference wins, but it doesn't help that much. It can't help that much. Well, like the SEC, SEC is two and four in the postseason so far. Is that going to be a major talking point? We'll see. If it continues, it might be. And we've certainly had years where.

this happens and then to your point you can't the SEC well we just didn't want to be there whatever but um it it's interesting again i i think there's at least a talking point there but that's really all it kind of expands to is just kind of talking uh it doesn't obviously do much for on the field and um unless you kind of very narrowly um kind of get into that kind of playoff discussion next year with a few teams um but again so far let's go to the these uh these conference records big 10 5 and no so good start there as we talked with the the the SEC at 2 and 4. The Big 12 is at 2 and 0.

The ACC at 4 and 4. You look at some of the other conferences. American at 4 and 3. Conference USA, 3 and 3, dependent 0 and 1, the Mac 2 and 3, Mountain West, 2 and 5. The Pac 12 1 and 0 in the Sunbelt 2 and 4. So go Big 10. Go big 10. 5 and 0. We just need a chance.

Says not me. No, yeah, except for Austin. He doesn't care. What is it go big 10 or is that too close to go big red? Is it B1G? Is that the chance? Well, the SEC just sounds so good. You can't just go big 10.

Big 10. Big 10. Yeah. Well, you need a thump. Yeah, there you go. Big 10. Big 10. I think BIG would be pretty cool.

If you're going to try to match the SEC, but again, they can't do they have the market cornered on three character chance? I'm not sure. I don't know. It sounds good. But again, I don't care because I'm not rooting for the big 10. So the rest of you have at it. We'll see. Again,

fun to go down that talking point because a lot of different feelings. And again, I don't think it goes too much beyond feelings in words. But then wrap it up for this segment. We've got one more hour of one-on-one coming next with myself and Austin. We'll be back after this. Download our app by searching 93.7, the ticket in your app store. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7, the ticket in the ticket FM.com. Thank you.