Tom Osborne revived the lost art of the graceful exit with his retirement announcement this week that essentially boiled down to a few simple thoughts: Hope I helped, time to go, thank you and so long.</p><p>As Nebraska&#x2019;s athletic director, Osborne had accomplished the most important task, stabilizing the football program that was running off the rails &#x2014; although work lies ahead for coach Bo Pelini if the Cornhuskers are to succeed at a level expected by a fan base that remembers what it was like to win national championships.</p><p>The announcement and that expectation prompted a &#x201C;what-if&#x201D; thought and its impact on the national college football scene.</p><p>The past 15 years of Osborne&#x2019;s life have been active, serving three terms in Congress, running for governor, five years as athletic director with some teaching and counseling tossed in. We should all be that productive.</p><p>But that&#x2019;s also 15 years of not doing the job where he was considered the best in his profession &#x2014; coaching football.</p><p>What if that had been Osborne&#x2019;s course? He has said in interviews and books that he was ready for his post-football life and felt the program was in great hands with successor Frank Solich, from his staff.</p><p>Still, because Osborne stepped down at age 60, it&#x2019;s natural to wonder how the Cornhuskers would have fared in the game&#x2019;s shifting landscape, in the Big 12 and nationally.</p><p>Consider what&#x2019;s happened since his dramatic announcement in 1997, after Nebraska had won the Big 12 title and were preparing to meet Tennessee and Peyton Manning in the Orange Bowl.</p><p>The Cornhuskers, who won 13 Big Eight and Big 12 titles in Osborne&#x2019;s 25 years, have won one since then. In that time, Oklahoma has won seven.</p><p>Nationally, since the Huskers split the national title with Michigan in 1997, giving the program its third championship in four years, power has shifted dramatically to the Southeast.</p><p>Of the last 14 championships, 13 have been won by schools in states that essentially don&#x2019;t have long, cold winters. The exception is Ohio State in 2002.</p><p>The post-Osborne champions hail from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, California, Oklahoma and Tennessee. They&#x2019;re also some of the nation&#x2019;s top prospect producing states.</p><p>Nebraska was able to recruit top talent &#x2014; speedy athletes who benefit from outdoor activity for long stretches on the calendar, like quarterback Tommie Frazier from Florida &#x2014; but more of those athletes are staying South.</p><p>Counting back from Nebraska&#x2019;s last title for 14 years, national champions came from all corners of the nation. The South, sure. Miami was still kicking up a storm and Florida State and Florida broke through.</p><p>But you could win from the Northeast (Penn State), Rockies (Colorado, BYU), Midwest (Nebraska, Notre Dame, Michigan) and Northwest (Washington).</p><p>Success in the South, and specifically the SEC with its six straight titles, has endured to a point that it doesn&#x2019;t appear cyclical but a new normal. In breaking down the 2012 national championship race, with the exception of Oregon, we look first at SEC schedules to see where and when its top powers clash.</p><p>Osborne publicly has never second guessed his decision not to coach, but after the adjustments he made over the final years of his career, it&#x2019;s tempting to suggest his program might have best suited to battle the Sooners and Longhorns in his own neighborhood and the SEC on a national scale.</p><p>Remember, Nebraska had lost seven straight bowl games starting in 1988, some in embarrassing fashion. The Cornhuskers couldn&#x2019;t beat the powers at Miami and Florida State so they joined then, or at least started to match them athletically.</p><p>What happened next was the stuff of legend. A five-year stretch produced a 60-3 record and three national title seasons, one of the greatest runs in the game&#x2019;s history.</p><p>With Nebraska&#x2019;s unique strengths &#x2014; the enormous and devoted fan base, an expectation of success, a walk-on program that fed the state&#x2019;s pride &#x2014; Osborne sold the program to a level of athlete that put the Cornhuskers over the top. The combination of talent and chemistry was extraordinary.</p><p>Would the same formula have worked in the new millennium, an Osborne 2.0 version of the Cornhuskers?</p><p>To see the sport pulled firmly in one direction, it would have been fun to see him try.