https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Nebraska_Cornhuskers_football_team
First off I had forgotten back then there were 4 non conference games. 3 of those should be easy wins. Although Pelini barely won the opener with Wyoming. He lost to UCLA the #16 team. So either way he gets an advantage over Frost with the extra non conference.
But let’s get into the big ten schedule. Are there opponents who back then were awful who now are not? Yeah Northwestern and Purdue were real bad that year. Combined they only won 1 conference game all season. There is just no big ten west team as bad as Purdue was then. And Northwestern had a terrible year and their only conference win was Illinois. But they nearly beat Nebraska. But those are 2 games that might be toss ups now but back then should have been wins based on how bad they were. That’s another +1 in expected wins for Nebraska (0.5 + 0.5).
Michigan and Michigan State kinda switched places back then. Pelini lost to the good one and beat the bad one. Same basic expectation many fans have now of Frost.
Minnesota was probably a little worse than now and Pelini lost to them anyway.
Iowa stays pretty constant. Pelini got blown out.
Wisconsin same deal. Except Pelini didn’t have to play Wisconsin who finished that year with a 9-4 record. Instead he got Penn State who finished 7-5. He got an easier team than he would get now. And he won. So I’ll give him another +1.
Just those factors make a 9 win season then seem similar to achieving a 6 win season under the current scheduling regime. And we haven’t thrown in Ohio State who I guess is taking the place of Southern Miss which finished the season 1-11. And the fact that Illinois is probably better now than it was then.
I really don’t see the argument that Pelini would have been able to even consistently make bowl games under the schedules that exist today for Nebraska. He got a pretty sweet deal in a way as he can point to his record here and look superior while benefiting from a schedule that was just about 3-4 games easier (at least in this year).
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