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LINCOLN — As the Big Ten works through negotiations for a new TV deal, three key questions hover.
The first: Divisions or no?
The second: Will the Big Ten stick to a Fox/ESPN two-step TV plan for football or open it up to CBS, NBC and Amazon Prime to the exclusion of ESPN?
The third: Will the Big Ten continue to play nine conference games or drop to eight, entering into some sort of scheduling alliance with the ACC and Pac-12?
That final question has been shoved into a lower tier of interest. Most pundits expect the Big Ten will continue its nine-game approach.
If so, consider the league’s uninspiring nonconference slate in 2022 as a harbinger of things to come. After a heady 2021 full of terrific matchups, the list shortens quickly this season.
Purdue at Notre Dame came in No. 12 last year. This year, that game might be fourth.
Michigan doesn’t play a Power Five team in its nonconference slate, opting for Colorado State, Hawaii and Connecticut. The Wolverines will do the same in 2023, playing East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green.
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Nebraska’s Sept. 17 tilt with Oklahoma comes in at No. 2, just behind the jewel of the nonconference schedule, a Sept. 3 primetime battle between Ohio State and Notre Dame.
On the bottom end of the nonconference games, you’ll find some truly embarrassing matchups with bad FCS and FBS programs. Nine league teams — including all of the Big Ten West — will play a FCS team, and the Big Ten has a weird, continuing affinity for UConn, which might not finish in the top half of the Missouri Valley or Big Sky in FCS.
Of course, the MAC meal plan is full effect, and New Mexico State appears on Minnesota and Wisconsin’s plate.
We’ve shortened the list this year to the 10 best games and the five worst but, rest assured, there are more snoozers than thrillers.
The top 10
1. Ohio State vs. Notre Dame, Sept. 3: College Football Playoff knockout game.
2. Nebraska vs. Oklahoma, Sept. 17: Husker fans froth up any time OU comes to town, and most of them can still hear the Oklahoma band’s “Boomer Sooner” in their heads, too.
3. Penn State at Auburn, Sept. 17: Big one for PSU coach James Franklin, who got an expensive new contract after 4-5 and 7-6 seasons.
4. Michigan State at Washington, Sept. 17: The Huskies are in the midst of a big rebuild, but they’ve lost one home game to a Big Ten team in 50 years. Keep an eye on it.
5. Iowa vs. Iowa State, Sept. 10: There’s not quite the heat around this Cy-Hawk game as last season. Hawkeye fans tire of this game, especially when they’ve won seven straight.
6. Wisconsin vs. Washington State, Sept. 10: Fun contrast of styles as Wazzu features quarterback Cam Ward, a transfer from Incarnate Word who threw for 47 touchdowns last season in FCS.
7. Purdue at Syracuse, Sept. 17: If the Boilers are for real, they beat the Orange handily by two scores or more. If not …
8. Minnesota vs. Colorado, Sept. 17: The Gophers humiliated the Buffaloes 30-0 last season in Boulder. The rematch will be much more interesting.
9. Indiana at Cincinnati, Sept. 24: The Hoosiers should have a winning record entering this game. The Bearcats, who open with Arkansas, will be trying to make a second straight run at the College Football Playoff.
10. Illinois vs. Virginia, Sept. 10: Expect points. Lots of them. The Cavaliers won 42-14 last season.
The bottom five
5. Michigan vs. Connecticut, Sept. 17: The Huskies have finished 4-32 the past four years — they skipped the COVID-19 season entirely — and new coach Jim Mora won’t have that program in shape by Week 3 in Ann Arbor.
4. Indiana vs. Idaho, Sept. 10: Indiana, awful in 2021, beat the Vandals 56-14. A similar result in 2022 seems likely.
3. Purdue vs. Indiana State, Sept. 10: The Sycamores lost 44-0 to South Dakota State and 44-2 at North Dakota State last season. Those are KU circa late-’80s kinds of scores.
2. Wisconsin vs. New Mexico State, Sept. 17: Jerry Kill is the new coach in Las Cruces, and he’s inherited a program only slightly better than UConn. After playing at Minnesota and UTEP in games two and three, the Badgers will be the Aggies’ third straight road game. It won’t go well. Set the line at 50.
1. Rutgers vs. Wagner, Sept. 10: Wagner hasn’t won a game since Sept. 28, 2019. Last season, the Seahawks were outscored 424-141. Rutgers should beat Wagner by roughly as much as Maryland has beaten Howard in recent seasons. Those scores: 52-13, 79-0 and 62-0.
Coach snubs Huskers
Athlon’s annual college football preview has a feature other magazines don’t: Opposing coaches anonymously dish on each team. The Husker appetizer is particularly spicy.
“We call it the all-bus team because they look better than anyone else in the West in pregame,” the critique begins. “Long, tall dudes, really athletic, then after a quarter or so, you stop worrying because they’re usually hurting themselves.”
There’s more if you purchase an Athlon Big Ten preview. But those two sentences do the trick.
Special teams gaffes have slashed the bus tires, so to speak, since coach Scott Frost arrived. Nebraska outplayed Iowa for three quarters until a blocked punt returned for a touchdown shifted the balance.
NU didn’t allow a single first down in the second half at Michigan State, and lost because its punter kicked the ball away from his coverage unit.
And while Adrian Martinez may have a big season at Kansas State — he’s certainly talked up his Wildcat teammates this spring in interviews — a lost fumble at Illinois, a lost fumble vs. Michigan and a what-are-you-doing sack for a safety at Minnesota were not the fault of his teammates. All three plays cost NU potential wins.
Can Bill Busch fix special teams? Can Casey Thompson, Chubba Purdy or Logan Smothers avoid the errors Martinez made? Can Nebraska run the ball without having to use the quarterback, which was never true for Martinez?
Three big questions. Maybe the three biggest questions.
What’s in metrics?
NU may have stubbed its toe when using “metrics” to describe whatever conditions Frost and Fred Hoiberg have to meet to get their original contracted salaries.
“Metrics” could also describe what a printed bonus structure represents in a contract. Maybe “metrics” is the right word. Maybe, as USA Today is suing for, there is set of stats each must achieve and if said structure was written down, then — as The World-Herald has argued in an op-ed — it’s a public record.
In November, NU’s Associate General Counsel Bren Chambers told me at least some of the responsive records were “constitute ‘drafts’ or ‘works in progress’ and are not subject to disclosure.” But NU released memorandums of understanding — like in late 2017, the initial terms of Frost’s contract.
When Tom Osborne took over as athletic director halfway through Bill Callahan’s 2007 season, he gave Callahan verbal metrics. At the time, the team stood 4-4 after losses to Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.
“I had the feeling the coaches would like to have some benchmarks, some idea as to what they had to do, so I went down and we visited awhile and I said, ‘Look’ — at that point they were 4-4 — ‘if you can win the next four games, go 8-4, there’s no question that things are going to be fine. On the other hand, if you win three out of four, and play well, I think we can maybe make it work — can’t promise you but I think we can make it work. If it’s two out of four, it’s going to be pretty tough, because now you’re break even, and we haven’t had many break-even seasons around here. And if we have a losing season, I don’t think there’s any way this will work. The parameters, I think, were fairly clearly spelled out.’”
Did Trev Alberts lay out some version of Osborne’s comments? If so, did he write it down? If so, is the copy possessed by the coaches or the institution?
NU will drop in Director’s Cup
Nebraska is bound to drop in this week’s latest Director’s Cup standings, so a Husker athletic director will not realize any part of the performance bonus that kicks in if NU finishes at least 30th overall.
Nebraska currently sits at 30th, will get points for softball and outdoor men’s and women’s track, and should finish with roughly the same overall points as last season. The 2020-2021 total of 568 left NU 35th. The Huskers should finish between 35th and 40th again.
Division title for Mike Riley
Mike Riley’s New Jersey Generals have won the North Division in the USFL. The Generals sit 8-1 in the North after a 25-23 win over Michigan on Saturday.
The USFL is Riley’s third job since 2018 with a nascent pro football league, and it may be the one that sticks until he retires or the league folds (as these leagues are wont to do).
The 2022 Nebraska football schedule Northwestern Wildcats
When: Aug. 27, 11:30 a.m. CST
Where: Dublin, Ireland
TV: FOX
2021 record: 3-9, 1-8 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 9-6
Last meeting: Nebraska won 56-7 (Oct. 2, 2021)
North Dakota Fighting Hawks
When: Sept. 3, 2:30 p.m. CST
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska
TV: BTN
2021 record: 5-6, 3-5 Missouri Valley
Nebraska’s record against: 1-0
Last meeting: Nebraska won 33-0 (Sept. 23, 1961)
Georgia Southern Eagles
When: Sept. 10, 6:30 p.m. CST
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska
TV: FS1
2021 record: 3-9, 2-6 Sun Belt
Nebraska’s record against: Never played
Oklahoma Sooners
When: Sept. 17, 11 a.m. CST
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska
TV: FOX
2021 record: 10-2, 7-2 Big 12
Nebraska’s record against: 38-46-3
Last meeting: Oklahoma won 23-16 (Sept. 18, 2021)
Indiana Hoosiers
When: Oct. 1, 6 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. CST
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska
TV: TBD
2021 record: 2-10, 0-9 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 8-10-3
Last meeting: Indiana won 38-31 (Oct. 26, 2019)
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
When: Oct. 7, 6 p.m. CST
Where: Piscataway, New Jersey
TV: FS1
2021 record: 5-7, 2-7 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 5-0
Last meeting: Nebraska won 28-21 (Sept. 18, 2020)
Purdue Boilermakers
When: Oct. 15
Where: West Lafayette, Indiana
2021 record: 8-4, 6-3 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 5-5
Last meeting: Purdue won 28-23 (Oct. 30, 2021)
Illinois Fighting Illini
When: Oct. 29
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska
2021 record: 5-7, 4-5 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 13-5-1
Last meeting: Illinois won 30-22 (Aug. 28, 2021)
Minnesota Golden Gophers
When: Nov. 5
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska
2021 record: 8-4, 6-3 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 25-35-2
Last meeting: Minnesota won 30-23 (Oct. 16, 2021)
Michigan Wolverines
When: Nov. 12
Where: Ann Arbor, Michigan
2021 record: 11-1, 8-1 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 4-6-1
Last meeting: Michigan won 32-29 (Oct. 9, 2021)
Wisconsin Badgers
When: Nov. 19
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska
2021 record: 8-4, 6-3 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 4-11
Last meeting: Wisconsin won 35-28 (Nov. 20, 2021)
Iowa Hawkeyes
When: Nov. 25, 3 p.m. CST
Where: Iowa City, Iowa
TV: BTN
2021 record: 10-2, 7-2 Big Ten
Nebraska’s record against: 29-20-3
Last meeting: Iowa won 28-21 (Nov. 26, 2021)
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