Officiating bias against Frost?
I recall that newbie Nebraska came into the Big Ten favored to challenge for the Big Title in its 1st year joining the league. If you think that caused resentment among the other Big Ten teams, I suspect you’re correct. If you think that caused bias against Nebraska, I suspect you’re correct.
Move forward to 2018. The new head coach for Nebraska just won several coach-of-the-year honors for the 2017 season, lead UCF to a major bowl win over Auburn and declared that UCF deserved to be crowned National Champion. He had a compelling argument since UCF beat Auburn, who had beaten Alabama and Georgia, the two teams that played for the official National Championship. If you think the UCF coach’s statements caused some resentment and bias against him, and some angst among the official National Championship folks, I suspect you’re correct.
Harken back to the post-1997 season when the Nebraska QB lead his team to victory over Tennessee in the bowl game to win the National Championship. Clearly, Nebraska throttled and dominated Tennessee in that championship game. In contrast, Michigan, who shared the National Championship that year with Nebraska, barely defeated a very marginal Washington State in less-than-impressive fashion. Subsequent to that win, the Nebraska QB declared his position that Nebraska deserved to be awarded the National Championship. That declaration by the Nebraska QB, and subsequent share of the National Championship caused significant resentment in the Big Ten, and continues to cause resentment among the Michigan faithful. To this day, Michigan maintains that they were robbed of a consensus 1997 National Championship due to the Nebraska QB’s statements.
So for 2018, Scott Frost, that 1997 National Championship Nebraska QB and 2017 highly-honored deserved National Championship UCF coach, returned to Nebraska, obviously now in the Big Ten. Based on some one-sided officiating seen this year against Nebraska, one has to ask if others set out to ensure a disappointing season in Scott Frost’s Big Ten inaugural season.