Nebraska Cornhuskers ranked dead last in latest Big Ten academic rankings

It’s long been known that the Nebraska Cornhuskers don’t match up well with anyone in the Big Ten in academics. The university used to be an AAU program, and shortly after joining the conference, it was deprived of that particular honor. 

That softens the blow of the latest rankings because Husker fans who pay attention to this sort of thing know that NU ranked low. However, being at the absolute bottom of the barrel in academics is one of those things that taints the school. That’s one of the reasons there’s been a push of late to get back into the AAU.

The most unfortunate part of the latest US News & World Report rankings is that the Huskers finishing at last in the conference is becoming an annual honor. There’s also the fact that the Nebraska Cornhuskers are lower than usual, thanks to the official addition of the former Pac-12 schools in this list.

There’s also some insult to injury here, but also a bit of a bright spot. The Nebraska Cornhuskers are the only Big Ten school that isn’t in the top 100 academic universities in the country. However, their overall rank of 159th in the US is actually quite impressive when talking about more than 1,000 institutions on the list.

Nebraska Cornhuskers not doing themselves any favors academically in the new Big Ten

When sports fans think of the Big Ten, it’s easy to forget that the conference prides itself on academics, with Northwestern being the cream of the crop. The Wildcats are considered the 9th best school in the country according to these rankings.

The school that is ranked second in the conference might surprise Big Ten fans as well. UCLA is not far behind Northwestern and is ranked 15th in the country. All of this shows that the Nebraska Cornhuskers have some serious work to do to catch up.