BREAKING: Nebraska fires Bo Pelini

You gotta win some big games, Coach... (photo courtesy AP)

LINCOLN--Apparently seven consecutive winning seasons and an overall 67-27 record are not enough to keep a job as head coach of the University of Nebraska football program.

Mark "Bo" Pelini was relieved of his coaching duties this morning, after dropping two of his last three regular season games this season. He ended his Nebraska tenure by losing to #20 Wisconsin, #25 Minnesota, and then defeating Iowa in a shootout yesterday.

This was Pelini's first head coaching gig, and he never really established the Cornhuskers as a national championship-contending team. Consistency is one thing - Pelini won at least nine games every season. However, people in power in Lincoln apparently did not believe Pelini's leadership could take Nebraska to the next level in the Big Ten, or the BCS for that matter. He never won a conference championship at Nebraska, and we all know that's the death knell for a high profile college coach.

"Earlier this morning, I informed coach Bo Pelini of our decision to move forward in a new direction. Coach Pelini served our University admirably for seven years and led our football program’s transition to the Big Ten Conference,” Shawn Eichorst, Nebraska's athletic director, said in a press release this morning. “We wish Coach Pelini and his wonderful family all the best and thank him for his dedicated service to the University."

UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman expressed his confidence in Eichorst.

“I fully support Shawn’s decision to make a change in the leadership of our football program, and wish Bo and his family all of the best," Perlman said in a press release. "I am confident that Shawn will find the best coach, teacher and fit for this University and for our football program."

According to the Lincoln, NE Journal-Star's HuskerExtra, per Pelini's last contract, NU is on the hook to pay him $7.65 million, owing him $150,000 monthly for the next 51 months. All assistants coaches, and football strength coach James Dobson, were on contract until January 2016. They would be owed a total of just over $3.1 million combined.

A press conference is scheduled for 1 p.m.

More coming...