Link: https://www.landof10.com/nebraska/nebraska-football-black-friday-iowa-hawkeyes-bill-moos
Nebraska "talking with Iowa" about getting Black Friday game back
by Sean Keeler, Land of 10
Nebraska isn't ready to give up its skin in the Black Friday game just yet.
Jim Tenopir, executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA), the organization that oversees interscholastic competition among high schools in the state, said Cornhuskers athletic director Bill Moos told NSAA officials during a recent meeting that the Big Red has approached Iowa about working to return the Heroes Game to the day after Thanksgiving, where it's been played every November since 2011.
"[Moos] indicated that they were trying to work through that Friday [after] Thanksgiving," Tenopir told Land of 10. "They had been playing Iowa -- for whatever reason, that went by the wayside. And he said that he'd been talking with Iowa about getting that back."
When the Big Ten last September released its 2020 and 2021 conference schedules, one of the biggest surprises was that the Black Friday showdown between the Cornhuskers and Hawkeyes was off the docket.
In those seasons, Iowa will close the regular season with rival Wisconsin while Nebraska faces Minnesota to end league play.
Those games, as of right now, are earmarked for Saturdays. But Iowa athletic director Gary Barta had said he and Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez have discussed moving the Hawkeyes' 2020 and 2021 contests with the Badgers to Black Friday.
Nebraska has played a game on Black Friday every autumn since 1990 and is slated to play Iowa on the day after Thanksgiving this fall and again in 2019.
When 2020 and 2021 schedules were announced, former Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst and then-football coach Mike Riley made statements to Huskers.com on Sept. 12 stumping for an end to the Black Friday tradition. The public outcry in response was such that Eichorst released a statement two days later backpedaling from his earlier comments.
On Sept. 21, Eichorst was fired.
The Cornhuskers would go on to finish the season 4-8, the fewest victories in a Nebraska season since 1961, and Riley was let go the day after a 56-14 Black Friday hammering at home at the hands of Iowa.
Eichorst was replaced by Moos, who in turn replaced Riley with Nebraska alum and Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Scott Frost, fresh off a 13-0 season with Central Florida.
When Tenopir met with Moos and other Cornhuskers officials in March, the new Nebraska athletic director told him the Big Red would "definitely not be having a home [Friday] game" before Thanksgiving weekend, and that "he was going to do everything within his power to keep Nebraska from having a Friday night ballgame [anywhere]."
Moos also admitted that there's only so much he can do on that front. The Big Ten's television contracts with ABC/ESPN, FOX and CBS reportedly run through the 2022-23 school year and are projected to bring fully vested schools an estimated $51 million in broadcast revenue for the 2018 fiscal year. Nebraska became a fully vested member of the Big Ten in the summer of 2017 after receiving only partial broadcast revenue shares during its initial years of membership.
While most Big Ten coaches and athletic directors have refused or begged off of Friday night games, out of respect to high school programs, two that notably haven't also reside in the Big Ten West -- Purdue and Illinois. Nebraska's visit to Champaign last fall, a 28-6 win over the Fighting Illini, was the program's only Friday night appearance last fall.
"They pretty well made a determination that a Friday night home game would not fly," Tenopir said, "and they're trying to steer away from having any Friday night game [on the road]."
Tenopir was one of a handful of state high school activities directors from the Midwest who last May were invited to present their concerns to Big Ten athletic directors and commissioner Jim Delany at the league's spring meetings.
No such invitation was forthcoming in 2018, Tenopir said.
"It's pretty much where we were," he said. "We're ones that kind of got the National Federation [of State High Schools, or NFHS] involved, because of the Friday night aspect. And so there hasn't been a whole lot said beyond our discussions of March. I really don't know anything about where we're at with that."
Tenopir stressed that Moos was "very accommodating" though, and has a sympathetic ear. When it comes to high school Friday nights -- and what those Friday nights mean to Nebraska communities -- he gets it.
"I'm not sure Shawn realized what kind of blowback there'd be on it," Tenopir said of the Big Ten's Friday night football gambit.
"I think Bill is more intuitive as far as what's going on, what's needed with expectations -- not only where the general public is, but also the [Nebraska] administration. And so I think he's got a little bit more of a handle on it than Shawn might have had."
"Winning cures a lot of things. But making smart decisions doesn't hurt."
Nebraska "talking with Iowa" about getting Black Friday game back
by Sean Keeler, Land of 10
Nebraska isn't ready to give up its skin in the Black Friday game just yet.
Jim Tenopir, executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA), the organization that oversees interscholastic competition among high schools in the state, said Cornhuskers athletic director Bill Moos told NSAA officials during a recent meeting that the Big Red has approached Iowa about working to return the Heroes Game to the day after Thanksgiving, where it's been played every November since 2011.
"[Moos] indicated that they were trying to work through that Friday [after] Thanksgiving," Tenopir told Land of 10. "They had been playing Iowa -- for whatever reason, that went by the wayside. And he said that he'd been talking with Iowa about getting that back."
When the Big Ten last September released its 2020 and 2021 conference schedules, one of the biggest surprises was that the Black Friday showdown between the Cornhuskers and Hawkeyes was off the docket.
In those seasons, Iowa will close the regular season with rival Wisconsin while Nebraska faces Minnesota to end league play.
Those games, as of right now, are earmarked for Saturdays. But Iowa athletic director Gary Barta had said he and Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez have discussed moving the Hawkeyes' 2020 and 2021 contests with the Badgers to Black Friday.
Nebraska has played a game on Black Friday every autumn since 1990 and is slated to play Iowa on the day after Thanksgiving this fall and again in 2019.
When 2020 and 2021 schedules were announced, former Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst and then-football coach Mike Riley made statements to Huskers.com on Sept. 12 stumping for an end to the Black Friday tradition. The public outcry in response was such that Eichorst released a statement two days later backpedaling from his earlier comments.
On Sept. 21, Eichorst was fired.
The Cornhuskers would go on to finish the season 4-8, the fewest victories in a Nebraska season since 1961, and Riley was let go the day after a 56-14 Black Friday hammering at home at the hands of Iowa.
Eichorst was replaced by Moos, who in turn replaced Riley with Nebraska alum and Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Scott Frost, fresh off a 13-0 season with Central Florida.
When Tenopir met with Moos and other Cornhuskers officials in March, the new Nebraska athletic director told him the Big Red would "definitely not be having a home [Friday] game" before Thanksgiving weekend, and that "he was going to do everything within his power to keep Nebraska from having a Friday night ballgame [anywhere]."
Moos also admitted that there's only so much he can do on that front. The Big Ten's television contracts with ABC/ESPN, FOX and CBS reportedly run through the 2022-23 school year and are projected to bring fully vested schools an estimated $51 million in broadcast revenue for the 2018 fiscal year. Nebraska became a fully vested member of the Big Ten in the summer of 2017 after receiving only partial broadcast revenue shares during its initial years of membership.
While most Big Ten coaches and athletic directors have refused or begged off of Friday night games, out of respect to high school programs, two that notably haven't also reside in the Big Ten West -- Purdue and Illinois. Nebraska's visit to Champaign last fall, a 28-6 win over the Fighting Illini, was the program's only Friday night appearance last fall.
"They pretty well made a determination that a Friday night home game would not fly," Tenopir said, "and they're trying to steer away from having any Friday night game [on the road]."
Tenopir was one of a handful of state high school activities directors from the Midwest who last May were invited to present their concerns to Big Ten athletic directors and commissioner Jim Delany at the league's spring meetings.
No such invitation was forthcoming in 2018, Tenopir said.
"It's pretty much where we were," he said. "We're ones that kind of got the National Federation [of State High Schools, or NFHS] involved, because of the Friday night aspect. And so there hasn't been a whole lot said beyond our discussions of March. I really don't know anything about where we're at with that."
Tenopir stressed that Moos was "very accommodating" though, and has a sympathetic ear. When it comes to high school Friday nights -- and what those Friday nights mean to Nebraska communities -- he gets it.
"I'm not sure Shawn realized what kind of blowback there'd be on it," Tenopir said of the Big Ten's Friday night football gambit.
"I think Bill is more intuitive as far as what's going on, what's needed with expectations -- not only where the general public is, but also the [Nebraska] administration. And so I think he's got a little bit more of a handle on it than Shawn might have had."
"Winning cures a lot of things. But making smart decisions doesn't hurt."
