(see also: The Troubling Gap Between Texas...and Everyone Else)

Smaller is better: Athletic director Tom Osborne may not enjoy doing it, but he needs to ask whether golf and tennis programs, which ate up more than $2 million in expenses compared to a little over $100,000 in revenue, are truly necessary, especially when fan support is scant and the men’s golf team conducts its home meets in Nebraska City.

A no-spin zone on baseball: Osborne needs to closely watch Nebraska’s baseball program over the next year and assess whether Mike Anderson has the coaching skill and recruiting acumen to lead NU into the next decade. Not whether he did or didn’t make the grade five years ago.

Volleyball bucks: Osborne needs to consider whether Nebraska’s volleyball team should make the full-time leap from the NU Coliseum to the Bob Devaney Sports Center, where the Huskers can draw twice as many season-ticket holders and the sport can pay for itself. The Coliseum can still be used once or twice a year, for specific big matches, and Osborne can institute a tiered season ticket system for those coveted seats.

Grapplers: He needs to promote the Nebraska wrestling team smarter and harder, especially considering Omaha’s Qwest Center is hosting the 2010 NCAA Championships. NU’s squad has an outside shot at the national title next year, and a solid first semester schedule. Bo Pelini’s a good friend of wrestling coach Mark Manning; maybe it’s time for a TV ad.

Tough questions: He needs to ask, now that Nebraska has a terrific coaching staff, whether the operational side of the football program is being run as efficiently as it could be. Osborne is respected enough to make hard inquiries and necessary adjustments.

Help hoops: He has to figure out some way, any way, to get 10,000 Husker basketball fans inside Devaney before Kansas comes to town. The men’s basketball team was ninth in the Big 12 for revenue while the women’s team was 11th. If that means a better schedule for men and free tickets for the women, so be it. People have to see the product before they buy the product.

To that end, Osborne has wisely vowed to resolve the arena issue within the next year, whether it’s full-speed ahead on some Haymarket palace, or a revamp of Devaney. Wisely, Osborne won’t allow the athletic department to get dragged into city politics and the mercurial nature of Lincoln voters. Lincoln will do what it does, and considering the city can’t devise a way to get across town in 15 minutes, the arena may end up being a long shot. Good to see Osborne has a contingency plan at Devaney. Now, if he can just get some reasonable parking around it.

Spend football donor dollars wisely: Not blow them on baubles and trinkets, like ribbon boards inside Memorial Stadium. Enough of that stuff. The stadium experience is fine. It’s a football game, not a light show. Dump the media guides if you have to do it. Reporters know how to go online, and Huskers.com is a fine Web site anyhow. Spend it on people – coaches, administrators, down-the-line support staffers. Nebraska can’t afford to lose talent over a thousand here or there. In other words: Do what it takes to retain offensive coordinator Shawn Watson.

Beat Texas – and the rest of the Big 12 - where the Longhorns haven’t thought to fight: Osborne’s ahead of the game there with his student life complex initiative, which can be turned into one of Bo Pelini’s best recruiting tools when it is completed.

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See also: A Conversation with Phil Steele

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We take a few minutes – but not much more than that – to address ESPN’s lengthy “Outside The Lines” story on the dismissal of two Nebraska wrestlers, Paul Donahoe and Kenny Jordan, from the program after the two of them appeared naked on a pornographic Web site, and were discovered last fall.

It’s a messy tale, really, the case of Donohoe and Jordan, who, depending on who or what you believe, finally exhausted all of their chances at NU or were dismissed because of, well, moral turpitude.

We don’t doubt that ESPN initially pursued the story hoping it was the latter. Hoping that, to some extent, it could show head coach Mark Manning and athletic director Tom Osborne as squeamish Christians trying to rid NU of the sin of homosexuality. The gay vs. God debate is a hot one these days. Just check out Ms. California.

Donahoe and Jordan suggest the thesis through reverse logic –they were noted troublemakers who hadn’t been kicked off the team yet, so why now? - and dredge up Osborne’s handling of the Lawrence Phillips situation in 1995, which Osborne himself questioned in his book, “On Solid Ground.” Jordan claims Lincoln was in an uproar over it. Funny, we don’t recall that. For a day, maybe. But it was football season, and Bo Pelini’s first. Bo's sideline demeanor was more of a story. Nobody really had the time for naked wrestlers.

But, ultimately, the story reveals – and to this end, it is fair – that the talented, charismatic Donahoe had crossed the line one too many times and Jordan, who had a couple misdemeanor assaults on his record, was caught following the wrong guy, making the same kind of foolish mistakes. Manning and Osborne, meanwhile, try not to betray the confidence of Donahoe and Jordan, even after they’ve left the program.

Donahoe, initially some kind of crusader, accuses NU’s coaching staff of a whole host of “crimes,” then rescinds his claims a month later, saying he “must have been on drugs.” He seems just smart, well-spoken and troubled enough to get himself in some serious trouble one day. Based on the story, you’d hope, one way or another, he’s getting help.

Jordan, meanwhile, accuses the NU coaching staff of leaving the wrestlers broke and down $800-$1000 after poker games. Nebraska assistant Mike Greenfield wisely admits to having played the poker games, but suggesting the amount wagered was more $40-$50.

Either way, the poker games, you’d think, are over for good. Given how skittish the NCAA is about money and gambling of any kind, poker should be the last thing on the coach-team bonding menu.

The rest of the “juicy” stuff – a fight between two wrestlers, underage drinking, citations for parties, petty theft and DUIs – is all pretty common. Well, folks, it is. Young guys run afoul of the law a lot more these days, partially because of rotten influences (some of whom can be found on ESPN) and partially because the ceiling of the law is closing in on all of us. We live in a surveillance society. As Greenfield put it:

"You'll find out pretty quickly there have been a lot of kids who have had chances in our program, just like any program in the country. Is it going to be a straight, smooth road with 18- to 22-year-old males? No. We're going to try to do the right thing, and we're going to try to help them."

Shouldn’t coaches try to do that? Shouldn’t anyone? One could argue that, based on the evidence, NU should have cut Donahoe loose before the porn flap. Maybe Manning gets a similar wrestler later in his career, and handles him differently.

But, unless you’re in it, it’s hard to appreciate the concept of family on a college team. Some teams, of course, never achieve that. But some do, and when they do, you struggle to cut ties, to give up on one member of the family.

It is more than just the legal and broadly moral – as journalism defines morality, which is to say painfully legalistic – implications at stake. It’s the emotional bonds. And journalism so often bleeds out emotions from the story to pick at the truth, when the truth has as much to do with emotions than anything.

The real story to us? A wrestler who was once part of a family, is ashamed and angry for being taken out of it, initially vengeful, and now remorseful.

In other words, a story all of us know, in some way or another. Which is why we have compassion for Donahoe, and an appreciation of the complexities that is Manning’s job.

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Before the finals round of the Big 12 Championships, Nebraska’s wrestling team sat in the locker room normally used by NU’s volleyball squad.

The Cornhuskers trailed No. 3 Iowa State by 64-58, and the Cyclones had seven wrestlers in the finals. NU only had five. Those odds are nearly impossible, and don’t typically equal a conference title.

But Nebraska looked at the glass Big 12 trophy, one of many won by the volleyball team, that was sitting in that locker room, staring right back at them.

“We got this,” undefeated 157-pounder Jordan Burroughs told his teammates.

And so Nebraska did, catching the Cyclones by the 184-pound finals and surpassing them on Craig Brester’s upset of No. 1 Jake Varner at 197. ISU managed to forge a tie with top-ranked David Zabriskie’s 3-1 win the heavyweight match, but it was the kind of tie, frankly, that felt like a Husker win.

Yes, NU beat ISU, 70-70, for its first Big 12 Championship and the first male Big 12 title of any kind since 2007.

“Nebraska wrestling is all heart, and all hard work,” NU coach Mark Manning said. “A lot of people didn’t think we had a chance…I love this team, and I love these guys.”

Said Brester: “Everybody though ISU was too deep for us. But we knew if we do what we can, we’d hope to get the job done.”

NU won four individual titles – needing every one of them – out of their upper weight wrestlers: Burroughs won at 157; Brandon Browne, just two weeks after the death of his mother, Thayes, won an emotional title at 174; Vince Jones won at 184 and Brester, the meet’s outstanding wrestler, beat Varner – a defensive stalwart whom many had seen as untouchable – 4-3 in his third try this season.

That match clinched the tie for the Huskers. Brester notched a takedown with nine seconds left in the second period to get a 3-0 lead, then held on the third period, resisting a final-minute flurry of moves and shots by Varner, to win the match. It felt like a national title match, and it’s likely that Brester and Varner will meet for a fourth time at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis.

“The No. 1 guy and we were tied with ISU,” Brester said. “There’s not gonna be a bigger match.

The Husker fans inside the Coliseum roared as Brester was presented to all four sides of the arena as the winner. Manning picked Brester off the ground as he left the mat, then Brester and Varner, in one of those great moments, crossed path in the cool down area as Varner made his way to an indoor racquetball court, slamming the glass screen behind him.

How’d Brester get the takedown on Varner? He slipped a throw attempt by Varner, who lost his balance. Brester then wheeled his way around for the two points, and didn’t let Varner escape before time expired.

“It was a kind of a scramble, and I got the takedown,” Brester said.

Browne’s victory was no less dramatic. He got a takedown of Mizzou’s Raymond Jordan with four seconds left in the match, which touched a giant celebration from the Plattsmouth senior. Browne hadn’t wrestled since the death of his mother right before the ISU dual, and took five days off before preparing for the Big 12 meet.

As Browne left the mat, he hugged his brother, 197-pounder Cameron Browne, and his father in the hallway. Browne took a half-minute to collect himself after reporters asked him the first question.

“It’s the first meet my dad gone to without (his mother) since I was kid,” Browne said. “It’s unbelievable. Unbelievable. To have this be my last match here, you can’t ask for anything more.”

Said Manning: “To go through what he went through, he comes out and beats two great competitors…I told the team, ‘no team in the country has gone through adversity like you have.’”

Burroughs won a closer-than-expected match over Mizzou’s Michael Chandler, beating him 6-4. Burroughs gave up only his second takedown of the year. And Jones, at 184, beat ISU’s Jerome Ward for the third time this season, 3-0. Stephen Dwyer was the only NU wrestler not to win his title match, losing in overtime to Nick Marable, 3-1.

He didn’t win a title, but redshirt freshman heavyweight Tucker Lane won crucial points in his division with an upset of third-ranked Jared Rosholt in the consolation match, 3-2. Lane scored an early takedown and successfully fended off Rosholt in the closing minute of the match for the win. In the semifinals, Lane nearly beat No. 1 David Zabriskie, controlling the match for the full seven minutes before falling in triple overtime, 3-1.

Every Husker wrestler except 141-pounder Curtis Salazar won a match Saturday. At 125, redshirt freshman Andy Pokorny pinned Missouri’s Troy Dolan in an opening match before losing two straight. Sophomore Matt Vacanti beat Todd Schavrien 7-2, then narrowly lost to No. 1 seed Nick Fanthorpe, then lost to Schavrien 4-3 in a match that had Husker fans booing the referees for not calling a stalling penalty. Vacanti recovered, though, to win a challenge match over Oklahoma’s Brian Shelton – one of Vacanti’s best wins of the year. Ironically, Shelton didn’t have to challenge Vacanti, and if he hadn’t, Nebraska could not have forged the tie for the title.

For the night, NU automatically qualified six wrestlers for the NCAA Championships, and planned to get two more wild card bids with Vacanti and Sanders. Eight bids would put the Huskers right in the hunt in St. Louis. Iowa will be the prohibitive favorite, but Nebraska’s upper weight wrestlers could again pull a coup.

After all, they just did.

“It’s a very mature group,” Manning said. “They just keep on getting better and keep on fighting. They epitomize what this state’s all about.”

Undefeated Burroughs worth the price of admission

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Since the Big Eight became the Big 12 in 1996, Nebraska’s wrestling team has won as many league championships as the number of ghost orchids in a pine forest. Oklahoma State has ruled the roost for most of those tournaments, with Iowa State and Oklahoma picking up the table scraps.

NU’s best chance was last year, when it rolled into the tourney with the nation’s No. 2 team, but finished second to ISU at what coach Mark Manning calls a “mini-BCS bowl.”

Manning recalled the frustration of that missed opportunity in 2008 by pausing and shaking his head a little. His team dropped some key consolation matches that provided the Cyclones with their final margin of victory.

But now, ranked fourth and bunched closely with No. 3 Iowa State and No. 5 Missouri, Nebraska could get an even better shot in 2009. The Huskers host the event in the NU Coliseum Saturday. No bags. No travel. No hassle. Plenty of rest. And enough sterling wrestlers in the upper weights to make a run at the crown.

The mini-BCS has come to Lincoln. With just five teams in the Big 12, the meet is a one-day event Saturday, with fourth and fifth seed matches starting at 11 a.m., semifinals at noon, consolation matches at 4 p.m., and finals, which will be televised live on Fox Sports Network, at 7.

“Fans are in for a great treat,” Manning said. “A lot of close matches and a lot of great matchups. It’s gonna be a great day for wrestling fans… you can’t really hide. You don’t really have an easy match. Every match will be highly contested.”

Leaning in the entryway of the NU wrestling room Tuesday, Manning said it would be a “great accomplishment,” if the Huskers, who finished 17-3-1 in their dual season and took first at the Las Vegas Invitational back in December, were able to nip ISU and Mizzou for its first league crown.

But, he said, it’ll take energy, aggression, and maybe a little surprise at one of the lower weights, where Nebraska has struggled at times during the season. Generally, though, NU hopes to rely on their cache of strong upper weight wrestlers, beginning with undefeated and third-ranked 157-pounder Jordan Burroughs and continuing through No. 15 heavyweight Tucker Lane.

Burroughs, No. 3 174-pounder Brandon Browne and No. 11 184-pounder Vince Jones should all be favorites at their weights. At 165, 197 and heavyweight, NU’s Stephen Dwyer, Craig Brester and Lane have already technically qualified for the NCAA Championships, as the Big 12 was allotted five bids for each weight class. That’s how strong they are.

Brester, ranked second, will likely have to beat No. 4 Max Askren of Missouri – Brester’s won two straight – and Iowa State’s top-ranked Jake Varner – Brester’s lost two straight – to claim the league crown. No. 8 Dwyer will need to avenge losses to Mizzou’s Nick Marable and ISU’s Jon Reader to win his first award.

“It’s definitely a pretty stacked weight class,” Dwyer said, adding that, aside from nationals, the Big 12 meet is as “big time” as NU’s season gets.

“I haven’t won a Big 12 championship,” he said. “And I really want to.”

Lane, just a redshirt freshman, has the toughest draw. If he can survive a 4/5 piggyback match against Oklahoma’s Nathan Fernandez, he’ll be staring at the nation’s top three wrestlers: Iowa State’s David Zabriskie, Missouri’s Mark Ellis and Oklahoma State’s Jared Rosholt. Lane split with Zabriskie, lost narrowly to Rosholt and didn’t face Ellis.

“It was a big week of preparation for me,” Lane said. “They’re all tough guys with a lot of experience wrestling in big matches.”

Nebraska’s biggest team competition should be ISU, who stunned the Huskers 30-10 in a dual two weeks ago at the NU Coliseum. The Huskers wrestled, however, without Browne, who lost his mother, and 125-pounder Andy Pokorny, who missed weight.

In a teleconference Wednesday, Manning called the Cyclones the team to beat, since they have balance throughout the weight classes, and could beat NU at those three key upper weights.

Iowa State coach Cael Sanderson played down the “favorite” tag.

“Maybe that’s just a strategy or something,” Sanderson said. “Just like any other team, we’ve got to wrestle, get in there and get the job done. With only a few rounds of wrestling, just one match can have a significant impact and make a big difference in the outcome.”

Watch out for Missouri, too. The Tigers beat ISU in a dual, almost did the same to Nebraska, and have the one wrestler, Michael Chandler, who has given Burroughs any sort of trouble this year at 157 pounds. Like the Huskers, though, Mizzou is not particularly strong in the lower weights.

MU coach Brian Smith said a Big 12 title would be “another step” that many deemed unthinkable just a decade ago.

“When I first got here I was laughed when I said we would do that, but I know we’re right in the hunt,” Smith said. “We’ve been in the hunt for the last couple years…it would also be meaningful to the entire state and the athletic department at Missouri because they’ve never won an overall Big 12 male championship.”

Both programs should bring vocal fans to Lincoln, Brester said. Dwyer, meanwhile, said he remembers the Oklahoma State contingent quite well. The Cowboys have few top-end wrestlers, but might gobble up a couple titles in the lower weights. Oklahoma probably brings up the rear with a young team, but could act as spoiler to NU, ISU or Mizzou.

Put the fans of all five programs into NU Coliseum, and the joint might jump like it does for Husker volleyball.

Dwyer said he’ll take that over a road trip any day.

“It’s so much less strenuous on your body,” he said. “I love wrestling at home.”

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