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Yearly Out of Conference Game?

TwinsRRUs

Recruiting Coordinator
Oct 1, 2011
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Some teams play the same team every year in their out of conference schedule:

Iowa vs Iowa State (129 miles)
Clemson vs South Carolina (131 miles)
Georgia vs Georgia Tech (70 miles)
Florida vs Florida State (143 miles)
Pitt vs West Virginia (75 miles)
Notre Dame vs Michigan State (150 miles)
Notre Dame vs USC (2100 miles)​

Nebraska has always had their out of conference games change up almost yearly, with some home-and-home games and some only in Lincoln games.

These games can derail a high potential season. Teams that play each other every year know the tendencies of each other and many of the games always end up being close.

With the exception of Notre Dame vs USC, these schools are all within 150 miles of each other. We don't have the luxury of being that close to anyone except KSU.

If you could choose one FBS school within 550 miles of Lincoln to play in our out of conference schedule every year for the next 30+ years, who would you pick and why?

Kansas State Wildcats (137 miles)
Kansas Jayhawks (194 miles)
Iowa State Cyclones (222 miles)
Missouri Tigers (320 miles)
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (386 miles)
Oklahoma State Cowboys (391 miles)
Arkansas Razorbacks (427 miles)
Oklahoma Sooners (440 miles)
Northern Illinois Huskies (458 miles)
Colorado State Rams (466 miles)
Wyoming Cowboys (493 miles)
Colorado Buffaloes (502 miles)
Air Force Falcons (546 miles)
 
Obvious choice is OU but you can still do a big week 1 game like Florida and Michigan did in Dallas this year. The Big 10 isn’t exactly the AFC East. High profile schools need to be on the spotlight as much as possible and frankly we don’t have the luxury to play Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, and a yearly big cross over like Ohio State does.

Imagine Nebraska opening up the season against a SEC team in Jerry’s world, our yearly tilt with Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and whoever we play against in our crossovers..

People talk about how nice it was for recruiting to have Frost on ESPN during he bowl season.. well That’s how you stay on ESPN. Not by playing South Alabama on the Big Ten Network.
 
Get OU and K-State on the future schedules, 2 years on, 2 years off rotating them. SCREW Colorado, they're not worthy of playing Nebraska anymore (beyond what they're scheduled to play the next few years)! N
 
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Some teams play the same team every year in their out of conference schedule:

Iowa vs Iowa State (129 miles)
Clemson vs South Carolina (131 miles)
Georgia vs Georgia Tech (70 miles)
Florida vs Florida State (143 miles)
Pitt vs West Virginia (75 miles)
Notre Dame vs Michigan State (150 miles)
Notre Dame vs USC (2100 miles)​

Nebraska has always had their out of conference games change up almost yearly, with some home-and-home games and some only in Lincoln games.

These games can derail a high potential season. Teams that play each other every year know the tendencies of each other and many of the games always end up being close.

With the exception of Notre Dame vs USC, these schools are all within 150 miles of each other. We don't have the luxury of being that close to anyone except KSU.

If you could choose one FBS school within 550 miles of Lincoln to play in our out of conference schedule every year for the next 30+ years, who would you pick and why?

Kansas State Wildcats (137 miles)
Kansas Jayhawks (194 miles)
Iowa State Cyclones (222 miles)
Missouri Tigers (320 miles)
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (386 miles)
Oklahoma State Cowboys (391 miles)
Arkansas Razorbacks (427 miles)
Oklahoma Sooners (440 miles)
Northern Illinois Huskies (458 miles)
Colorado State Rams (466 miles)
Wyoming Cowboys (493 miles)
Colorado Buffaloes (502 miles)
Air Force Falcons (546 miles)

Sooners - choose the wrench
 
Obvious choice is OU but you can still do a big week 1 game like Florida and Michigan did in Dallas this year. The Big 10 isn’t exactly the AFC East. High profile schools need to be on the spotlight as much as possible and frankly we don’t have the luxury to play Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, and a yearly big cross over like Ohio State does.

Imagine Nebraska opening up the season against a SEC team in Jerry’s world, our yearly tilt with Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and whoever we play against in our crossovers..

People talk about how nice it was for recruiting to have Frost on ESPN during he bowl season.. well That’s how you stay on ESPN. Not by playing South Alabama on the Big Ten Network.
Not sure how the profit sharing goes in those games at Jerry world. Not sure we could pencil in a lost home game.
 
Get OU and K-State on the future schedules, 2 years on, 2 years off rotating them. SCREW Colorado, they're not worthy of playing Nebraska anymore (beyond what they're scheduled to play the next few years)! N
K-State? They aren't very relevant now. How relevant do you think they will be when Snyder retires in a year or two?
 
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Some teams play the same team every year in their out of conference schedule:

Iowa vs Iowa State (129 miles)
Clemson vs South Carolina (131 miles)
Georgia vs Georgia Tech (70 miles)
Florida vs Florida State (143 miles)
Pitt vs West Virginia (75 miles)
Notre Dame vs Michigan State (150 miles)
Notre Dame vs USC (2100 miles)​

Nebraska has always had their out of conference games change up almost yearly, with some home-and-home games and some only in Lincoln games.

These games can derail a high potential season. Teams that play each other every year know the tendencies of each other and many of the games always end up being close.

With the exception of Notre Dame vs USC, these schools are all within 150 miles of each other. We don't have the luxury of being that close to anyone except KSU.

If you could choose one FBS school within 550 miles of Lincoln to play in our out of conference schedule every year for the next 30+ years, who would you pick and why?

Kansas State Wildcats (137 miles)
Kansas Jayhawks (194 miles)
Iowa State Cyclones (222 miles)
Missouri Tigers (320 miles)
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (386 miles)
Oklahoma State Cowboys (391 miles)
Arkansas Razorbacks (427 miles)
Oklahoma Sooners (440 miles)
Northern Illinois Huskies (458 miles)
Colorado State Rams (466 miles)
Wyoming Cowboys (493 miles)
Colorado Buffaloes (502 miles)
Air Force Falcons (546 miles)
 
I don't like the idea, personally. I like scheduling different teams. UCLA, Washington, Miami, Oregon, were all interesting games. Locking in every year to a single team would get boring in my opinion.

I somewhat agree. When we ended up playing Washington 3 times in 2 seasons, it started out fun and ended boring due to that quick 3rd meeting.

I like scheduling different P5 teams as well. That definitely keeps fans interested most times.

If the B1G west is going to remain "weak" and hurt our strength of schedule every year (if we end up being on the fringe of the playlffs), then a good out of conference rivalry type game would help.
 
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K-State? They aren't very relevant now. How relevant do you think they will be when Snyder retires in a year or two?
K-State is a pretty decent household name in college football and a Power 5, unless you prefer the likes of Arky State, Northern Illinois, or Troy every year. Plus, K-State is in close proximity of Lincoln and just might be good without Snyder.
 
K-State is a pretty decent household name in college football and a Power 5, unless you prefer the likes of Arky State, Northern Illinois, or Troy every year. Plus, K-State is in close proximity of Lincoln and just might be good without Snyder.
Agree that it is close but if you could only pick one team, then I think it has to be one that would be chosen as the game of the day and get ESPN gameday there, have national implications, and help with recruiting. I don't think KSU brings that to the table long term
 
Agree that it is close but if you could only pick one team, then I think it has to be one that would be chosen as the game of the day and get ESPN gameday there, have national implications, and help with recruiting. I don't think KSU brings that to the table long term
OU would be the team of choice for most here, but I would bet that they're not interested in year after year games with Nebraska, the Huskers need OU more than OU needs the Huskers.

Maybe if OU fell flat on it's face again like they did back with Schnelly and Blake, they might consider a long term series with Nebraska to help pump them up, but for now, OU is in the drivers seat when it comes to how long term the relationship would be.
 
Not sure how the profit sharing goes in those games at Jerry world. Not sure we could pencil in a lost home game.

Michigan was promised 6 million this year to play Florida. Might stink for season ticket holders but they did get to but 20 spring game tickets before anyone else, so all in all I'd call that fair.

Neutral site games gives the average Joe the ability to catch a big marquee road game. Also could really bolster alumni bases out of the region. I'm Sure alumni in the DFW area would love to have the spot light and host tailgates, pre game day socials, etc..

Oh and we national coverage and off season buzz for weeks leading up to the game. As the summer came to an end, all ESPN would talk about was Michigan v. Florida and Alabama v. Florida State.

Lot of upside for a program like Nebraska, trying to get back into the national spotlight while they resurrect this program.
 
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OU would be the team of choice for most here, but I would bet that they're not interested in year after year games with Nebraska, the Huskers need OU more than OU needs the Huskers.

Maybe if OU fell flat on it's face again like they did back with Schnelly and Blake, they might consider a long term series with Nebraska to help pump them up, but for now, OU is in the drivers seat when it comes to how long term the relationship would be.
Not going to get a disagreement from me. Totally agree with you. I am going at it from awishlist not from a what would be a slam dunk reality. Finding that 1 scenario will be hard
 
Michigan was promised 6 million this year to play Florida. Might stink for season ticket holders but they did get to but 20 spring game tickets before anyone else, so all in all I'd call that fair.

Neutral site games gives the average Joe the ability to catch a big marquee road game. Also could really bolster alumni bases out of the region. I'm Sure alumni in the DFW area would love to have the spot light and host tailgates, pre game day socials, etc..

Oh and we national coverage and off season buzz for weeks leading up to the game. As the summer came to an end, all ESPN would talk about was Michigan v. Florida and Alabama v. Florida State.

Lot of upside for a program like Nebraska, trying to get back into the national spotlight while they resurrect this program.
As far as the spring game and season tickets, that one is still bafflingly me. I talked to 2 of my friends who are also season ticket holders and NONE of us were notified about that fiasco. Heck I read about it on here and by that time it was too late.
 
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I am just glad that Frost might have this team turned around by the time we do play ou again. Can you imagine the butt whooping we would have taken this year.

Man, what an anniversary celebration that would have been.
 
part of the motivation for some programs in scheduling out of conference games is to highlight their program in a certain geographical area for recruiting purposes

in this regard we benefit a heck of a lot more traveling to S California, Florida or Texas than vice versa. There is not much motivation for a Texas or aTm to travel to Lincoln Nebraska from a recruiting standpoint in fact many of these programs will flat out refuse - why would they travel to Lincoln only to have the TV announcers highlight all the positives about the fans, history of the program, etc when you know Nebraska is going to be in your backyard recruiting.

USC is much better off doing a home and home with Florida or Texas as those programs have enough home grown talent they aren't going to be sniffing around in your recruiting area
 
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Realize this is a hypothetical question, but it is in our best interest to play different FBS schools around the country.

Wished we would have played Tennessee the last two years but the series was postponed till 2026 and 2027 but in return we had an opportunity to play Oregon which was great...

Love to play games and travel to different parts on the country to watch the Big Red play.
 
Realize this is a hypothetical question, but it is in our best interest to play different FBS schools around the country.

Wished we would have played Tennessee the last two years but the series was postponed till 2026 and 2027 but in return we had an opportunity to play Oregon which was great...

Love to play games and travel to different parts on the country to watch the Big Red play.

I think you are in line with most Husker fans that attend games. We always hear stories about Husker fans traveling everywhere and having a great time.

If we went to a schedule of having the same P5 school on the schedule every year, NU would attempt to only schedule home games for the remaining 2 out of conference games most years, depending on the B1G 5 away games/4 home games schedule and said P5 school home/away schedule.

That would leave very few away games to anywhere else in the country besides the away conference games. Your point is extremely valid.

It is definitely best to continue to find a different team to play every couple of years for our bigger out of conference game, rather than to keep a common opponent due to the 9 game schedule in conference play. If the conference goes back to 8 games, then I could see NU possibly finding a solid team to play every year.

I wouldn't mind playing Air Force, Tulsa, or Colorado State a few times.
 
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I think you are in line with most Husker fans that attend games. We always hear stories about Husker fans traveling everywhere and having a great time.

If we went to a schedule of having the same P5 school on the schedule every year, NU would attempt to only schedule home games for the remaining 2 out of conference games most years, depending on the B1G 5 away games/4 home games schedule and said P5 school home/away schedule.

That would leave very few away games to anywhere else in the country besides the away conference games. Your point is extremely valid.

It is definitely best to continue to find a different team to play every couple of years for our bigger out of conference game, rather than to keep a common opponent due to the 9 game schedule in conference play. If the conference goes back to 8 games, then I could see NU possibly finding a solid team to play every year.

I wouldn't mind playing Air Force, Tulsa, or Colorado State a few times.

Delany won't go back to 8 games even though he should if the SEC is not budging...

Love traveling to away games looking forward to going to Boulder despite their trashy fans, been there a handful of times and it was one of the top 5 atmosphers I've been too.
 
I don't like this idea one bit. I like playing new teams all the time. If we had to, I would go with KU since they are close by and the fan-bases get along fairly well. Oklahoma might seem like the obvious pick, but they wanted texass as their rival and they ended the every year thing with us when the big 12 was born. You can go back to your cheating wife if you want to, but I'm just going to have to pass.
 
We need to play teams in states we want to recruit in
So those kids can point to a few spots where their parents can see them play within driving distance

Georgia tech
Florida
Miami
South Florida
UCLA
Fresno state
 
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I don't like the idea, personally. I like scheduling different teams. UCLA, Washington, Miami, Oregon, were all interesting games. Locking in every year to a single team would get boring in my opinion.
Exactly-and it's hard to find anybody, except OU that would fit the situations of any of the 7 pairs of teams in the original post. The first 4 are intrastate rivalries, which doesn't even apply to our situation since there are no other D-I teams in Nebraska. The next 2 are border state rivalries, with Pitt-West Virginia a longstanding rivalry between two teams that used to be in the same conference and Notre Dame-Michigan State a more recent one brought about because of the proximity of the two schools.
In that respect, you could look at KU, KSU or even ISU-but there never really was much of a rivalry with KU or ISU because the series with those two was so lopsided, and although KSU really was kind of a rivalry in the late 90s and early to mid 2000s since they actually beat us 5 times in the 7 years from 1998-2004, the rivalry feel with them had largely ended by the time we left the Big 12 since we beat them the last 6 years we played. I just can't see too many of our fans getting excited about reinstituting a yearly series with KSU and definitely not KU or ISU.
A yearly NU-OU series would be more like Notre Dame-USC, a game between two of college football's traditional powers. I'm sure you could get some Husker fans behind playing OU every year again, but I really doubt OU would agree to it, and I think we're better off playing other teams anyway. Personally, I've always been glad that we didn't have some natural nonconference rival that we felt compelled to play every year, especially now with only 3 nonconference games.
 
Exactly-and it's hard to find anybody, except OU that would fit the situations of any of the 7 pairs of teams in the original post. The first 4 are intrastate rivalries, which doesn't even apply to our situation since there are no other D-I teams in Nebraska. The next 2 are border state rivalries, with Pitt-West Virginia a longstanding rivalry between two teams that used to be in the same conference and Notre Dame-Michigan State a more recent one brought about because of the proximity of the two schools.
In that respect, you could look at KU, KSU or even ISU-but there never really was much of a rivalry with KU or ISU because the series with those two was so lopsided, and although KSU really was kind of a rivalry in the late 90s and early to mid 2000s since they actually beat us 5 times in the 7 years from 1998-2004, the rivalry feel with them had largely ended by the time we left the Big 12 since we beat them the last 6 years we played. I just can't see too many of our fans getting excited about reinstituting a yearly series with KSU and definitely not KU or ISU.
A yearly NU-OU series would be more like Notre Dame-USC, a game between two of college football's traditional powers. I'm sure you could get some Husker fans behind playing OU every year again, but I really doubt OU would agree to it, and I think we're better off playing other teams anyway. Personally, I've always been glad that we didn't have some natural nonconference rival that we felt compelled to play every year, especially now with only 3 nonconference games.
Bingo. Well said
 
I wouldn't mind seeing us play a border state every year. Iowa State or Kansas State.. but I also like the idea of playing a state we recruit in. Miami used to be a pretty good rivalry back in the day. I could see us playing the U annually.
 
Playing K-State does nothing for us except give a short drive. I'd rather play different schools in different areas of the country. Gives us an excuse to travel to new places, take in a pro game somewhere, etc. I'll pass on playing the same non-conference team each year.
 
Playing K-State does nothing for us except give a short drive. I'd rather play different schools in different areas of the country. Gives us an excuse to travel to new places, take in a pro game somewhere, etc. I'll pass on playing the same non-conference team each year.
K-State sucks about as much as Iowa. Why would we want to play them every year?
 
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Ki
I think it would be nice to rotate the Big 12, or at least the Big 8 teams, just because it would be nice to see us playing all the old boys again.
Like playing Colorado this year and next. I like that too. And it would be fun to play some of our old Big 8 foes again now and then.
I just don't like the idea of locking into a single team year after year. It robs us of flexibility and variety. We need recruiting exposure across the country so playing teams from those hotbeds is a great way to do that.

The only team I would even remotely consider playing every year would be OU. But I would not want to do that until we are at their level again. Otherwise, that is a probable loss most years right at the start of the season.
 
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Ki

Like playing Colorado this year and next. I like that too. And it would be fun to play some of our old Big 8 foes again now and then.
I just don't like the idea of locking into a single team year after year. It robs us of flexibility and variety. We need recruiting exposure across the country so playing teams from those hotbeds is a great way to do that.

The only team I would even remotely consider playing every year would be OU. But I would not want to do that until we are at their level again. Otherwise, that is a probable loss most years right at the start of the season.

Colorado makes sense

Close
Easy to recruit/ flights Denver population density
Have recruited some good players from there
In state competition for talent is not great
Doesn’t seem to be as hotly contested for recruits as in other areas
Some residual rivalry thing from years past

They don’t care about football at cu so easy to get tickets
Denver is great and easy place to travel to
 
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Oklahoma for sure but they don't want to play Nebraska regularly. If you go back to the formation of the Big 12, Oklahoma officials opted out of an annual game with NU because they said they already had a rivalry with Texas. Eliminate a major opponent and your chances of a better record at the end of year increase.
 
Ki

Like playing Colorado this year and next. I like that too. And it would be fun to play some of our old Big 8 foes again now and then.
I just don't like the idea of locking into a single team year after year. It robs us of flexibility and variety. We need recruiting exposure across the country so playing teams from those hotbeds is a great way to do that.

The only team I would even remotely consider playing every year would be OU. But I would not want to do that until we are at their level again. Otherwise, that is a probable loss most years right at the start of the season.

I would even argue Missouri, good guys out of MO.
 
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