Osborne says images and perceptions influence polls By Derek Samson _ Senior Reporter At one time, a rated football team wouldn't drop in the polls after beating another rated team — especially if the team in front of it lost. But for Coach Tom Osborne and his sccond and third-ranked Cornhuskcrs, those days arc long gone. After beating No. 16 Kansas State 17-6 in Manhattan Saturday, Nebraska was in for a big surprise from the polls on Sunday. Then-No. 1 Florida lost to Auburn, but the second-ranked Huskersdidn’l take over the lop spot. Penn State — which beat Michigan on Saturday —jumped to No. 1 in both polls. Nebraska remained No. 2 in the USA TO DAY/CNN coaches’ poll, but Colorado moved ahead of the Huskcrs in the Associated Press poll after an impressive win over Oklahoma. Osborne said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that the polls had changed dra matically over the years. “There was a time when if you were ranked fifth and a team ahead of you lost, then you moved up a notch,” he said. “Now you see a lot more shake-ups and juggling one way or an other. I think a lot of it has to do with percep tion. A lot of it has to do with commentary. “Teams arc the hot teams nationally, and they are talked up on all the TV shows, and other teams kind of fall out of favor." Osborne said it wasn’t that long ago when Nebraska was one of the country’s hot teams. “We were a hot team early on when Tommie Frazier was healthy, and we beat West Virginia by quite a bit.” Osborne'said. “We thought we got more credit than we deserved. At the time 1 thought, ‘Man, all the sudden everybody loves us. and we've only played one game.’ “But everybody saw us, and we were pretty dominant. So I think the thing you have to do is just play the rest of the season and shake it out.” For now. Osborne isn't focusing on the polls as he prepares his team to travel to Missouri on Saturday. “I know there is a lot of agonizing over the polls and who's going to be No. 1.” Osborne said. “I'm honestly just totally engrossed in what's going to happen in Columbia. Mo., and doing well in the Big Eight Conference. Then, hopefully in the end, we re in a position to have a chance to make an impact on the national scene.” ESPN and its College GameDay analysts have contributed to the changing trends in the polls, Osborne said. “I don’t want to plug one network, but if you watch SportsCenter on Saturday night, you pretty much get the line on how people will vole,” he said. “They’ll tell you how to vote, and a lot of people buy into that. They 'll say this team is great, and they’ll repeat that several times in a period of three hours. “They’ll say this team isn’t very good, or this team had a great win. I really think that has come to shape a lot of the balloting.” Osborne said he noticed last year how much the polls had changed. Florida State lost to Notre Dame in Novem ber and. before the Irish fell to Boston College, a rematch was probable for the national cham pionship in the Fiesta Bowl. Instead, Florida Stale — with a loss — played the unbeaten Huskers in the Orange Bowl for the title, even though West Virginia finished the regular season undefeated. “1 think (the polls changing) had a lot to do with last year,” Osborne said. “Florida State was going to be in there no matter what. I m not saying Florida Stale didn’t deserve to be in there, because they were a great team. “1 just think there is more hype and more influence on the votes then there used to be. Osborne said who the hot teams were some times depended on the opponents, which wasn ’ t always right. “I think Florida was the hot team, then they get beat, and now Penn State is,” he said. “There still is a lot attached to a name. If you beat Michigan, that’s a lot more than beating Kansas State. “Yet, there are a lot of name teams like Penn State that would go down to Manhattan and have a heck of a ballgamc on their hands. Image and perception are sometimes more important than reality.” NOTE: ABC will televise the Colorado-Ncbraska game on Oct. 29 at 11 a m. Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet National Book Award-Winning Translator Current Finalist, National Book Award for Poetry Richard Howard A Poetry Reading October 20, 8:00 pm Christlieb Room, Love Library “A Consideration of the Writings of Emily Dickinson” October 21,3:30 pm Room 201, Andrews Hall i Sponsored tv me university of Nebraska Press, me Department of Modem languages and literatures the Department of English, and the University of Nebraska Committee on Gay and lesbian Concerns. Ms(or funding tor this program was provided by the Nebraska Kmamties Council. Nebraska an aviate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. ‘ H U S K E R %, yrfV-_HAMS-o