Where did the Huskers go wrong? It's a lengthy list.(athletic performance of University of Nebraska's football team)

Another New Year's Day has passed with no Nebraska sighting. It has happened twice in the last three years--and I know the folks in Cornhusker Nation are keeping count.

This program was 108-16-1 in the 1990s, a record bettered only by Florida State's 109-13-1 mark during that span. But that seemed like ancient history as the Cornhuskers battled Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl. At least Nebraska ended the season on a positive note, thrashing the Wildcats 66-17 and setting the record for points scored in a bowl.

Don't get me wrong. The Alamo Bowl is great for burgeoning programs like Northwestern. But Nebraska, even with the big victory, must feel like a guy from the country club who got caught at the bowling alley.

"Today, it seems that a lot of teams have a lot of talent, and coaches are doing a better job of using that talent where they need to," says Huskers quarterback Eric Crouch. "A lot of teams are out there that can play and match up against anybody.

"With the success this program has had over the years, that's kind of been the mind-set that people get--you've got to be in the national championship game every year, you've got to blow out every team every week. And a lot of times, that's not going to happen."

The gap between Big Red and the rest of the world used to be as thick as a Huskers lineman's neck. Ten years ago, a bowl pairing the Huskers and Wildcats would have been unheard of. But the reality of the 85-scholarship limit has narrowed that gap.

Still, it's hard to explain what went wrong with Nebraska's season--scholarship limit or not. This was supposed to be a team that brought pride to the plains like the big, bad Nebraska teams that won national championships in 1994, '95 and '97. But it didn't happen. Now schools such as Stanford, Oregon State and Purdue have as many Bowl Championship Series appearances as Frank Solich's Huskers.