This weekend the Big Ten officially welcomed Nebraska into the fold with a one-hour “Welcome Special”. The special had its high points. We learned that Nebraska head football coach Bo Pelini proposed to his wife using his Ohio St. championship ring. (No word yet on whether this counted as a recruiting violation.) Mike Hall did a fantastic behind-the-scenes tour of the football team’s practice facility, locker room, and player’s lounge. (He even dominated one of the players in ping-pong.) And we learned that Ndamukong Suh has a lot of money. Either that or putting an iPad in every locker is less expensive then I think.

But the special included very little college basketball coverage. Stories about football fans releasing balloons into the sky received more air time than Nebraska head basketball coach “Doc” Sadler. We did learn that Sadler got his nickname from a character on Gunsmoke. And Sadler noted that despite the Big Ten’s reputation as a plodding un-athletic conference, based on his film study, the Big Ten actually had more athletes than he expected. But I’m not sure that kind of faint praise is going to ingratiate him to other Big Ten fans.

After Sadler’s short interview, Mike DeCourcy spoke briefly about Nebraska basketball. He gave a very pessimistic view of the team’s prospects, noting that Nebraska struggled to win on the road and had trouble scoring points last season. The first point might make Ken Pomeroy pull out his hair after his recent discussions about how winning on the road is not necessarily indicative of anything. But the second point is definitely confirmed by the tempo free stats. Nebraska was 116th in the nation in adjusted offense last year, and 308th in adjusted tempo. In other words, expect more games in the 50s. Worse yet, Nebraska’s one truly efficient offensive player, Lance Jeter, graduated this off-season.

DeCourcy went on to emphasize that Nebraska basketball would succeed by recruiting the players that Ohio St., Michigan St., and Indiana do not want. But unless Nebraska basketball was planning on joining the Mid-America Conference, it is hard to view that statement as anything other than depressing.

A kinder, more optimistic analyst might have highlighted that Doc Sadler came out of the Eddie Sutton - Bill Self, coaching tree, and that Sadler can coach elite defense. But the truth is that no one really cares what the basketball team brings to the table. Expansion was about football, not basketball. And when the conference adds the 4th winningest program in NCAA football history, you can understand why the basketball team is quickly forgotten.

I would have loved to have seen similar programming on Utah and Colorado joining the Pac-12, but most indications are that a Pac-12 network is at least 15 months away. For years the Big Ten was slow to change. The Big Ten was one of the last conferences to launch a post-season basketball tournament. The Big Ten spent years claiming that a football championship game was not worth the trouble. But somehow the TV network remains ahead of the curve. After four years, the BTN is still the only major conference that can produce glorified hype videos on a national basis. And while that may not swing the recruiting wars, it does make a difference to alumni scattered across the country. Whether they live in Los Angeles or New York City, Big Ten fans can still celebrate like they live in a college town. And on Friday they had reason to celebrate. The 12-team era is here.