IMO Nebraska has represented a bully for ESPN over the last decade. Stemming from LP and the '95 Nebraska team beating up on everyone.
something that came up recently b/c of the draft--
since '95, EVERY time current players with "questionable characters" or "baggage" are mentioned, they are compared to CPeter and of course, LP.
most recently they had an article on draftable players with baggage. in the intro, LP and CP were mentioned, they were ESPN's only examples of such players. in the rest of the article, the only other names that came up were very recent.
at the moment its "Maurice Clarett and Lawrence Phillips". but the Clarett part will eventually be dropped. LP will remain for the next century.
The over-hype at the time stemmed from the fact that he'd been been a Hypesman candidate for Nebraska. the hype and constant obsession still lingers for ESPN (and CU fans- what does that say?!).
In 1994 Nebraska was the lovable underdog.
In 1995 ESPN couldn't get enough of LP, and it seems like ever since then they've been more than happy to get in any shots at Nebraska. that year NU was a bunch of criminals that beat up on everyone on and off the field.
In 1997 they were the bully for cheating a beloved Big 10 team for a title, even though they'd already had that gift in '94.
In 2001 they were the bully for losing to CU and still getting in the BCS championship.
In 2003 they were the bully for firing a 9-3 coach.
and for some at ESPN, Nebraska was the bully again at the end of last year for "cheating" Michigan. anyone who remembers the Sportcenter highlights after that game may remember how the show was absolutely dripping with bias. {{for those that don't remember it: "yeah i guess you won" comment after BC's post-game interview. showing only the one highlight that made the Henne fumble look like an incomplete while commenting that UM got jobbed on the ref's replay.}}
maybe this year they may decide we're the lovable underdog again. though with folks like Mark May in there, that may be a stretch.
As far as TV broadcasts, ESPN can broadcast choice Nebraska games on ESPN Classic. and of course we're lucky if we see a Husker win there. What is NU's EClassic record? 2-12-1, something like that.