Three takeaways from Nebraska's 2017-18 Big Ten schedule
December is going to be brutal
We already knew December was going to be on a new level from any other year because of the Big Ten’s move to playing two conference games in the first week of the month this season.
But Nebraska maybe didn’t expect it to be this much of a meat grinder.
The Huskers will start off the month with its league opener at Michigan State, regarded by many as the best team in the Big Ten and a national championship favorite, on Dec. 3.
Two days later they will play host to a Minnesota team on Dec. 5 that pulled off its biggest turnaround in program history last year en route to an NCAA Tournament run.
Four days after that, NU travels to Omaha for its annual rivalry game with Creighton on Dec. 9, and then caps off the brutal two-week stretch by hosting another title contender in Kansas on Dec. 16.
Nebraska will get a bit of a break to close out the non-con before Big Ten play kicks right back up in January with back-to-back road games at Northwestern and Purdue.
After going through that ridiculous stretch in December, through, there won’t be much more NU hasn’t already seen by that point.
After a tough start, league play closes in NU's favor
Things obviously start off with a bang for Nebraska beginning in December, but the good news is the conference schedule wraps up relatively favorably for the Huskers.
While there’s another stretch where NU plays four road games at Ohio State, Rutgers, Wisconsin and Minnesota sandwiched around a home tilt vs. Iowa, four of Nebraska’s final five regular-season games will be played at Pinnacle Bank Arena to close out the year.
The Huskers starts with a Saturday game vs. Rutgers and host Maryland three days later before their final road contest at Illinois on Feb. 17. They then close out the season at home vs. Indiana and Penn State.
Should NU find itself in a position where it needs to make a late-season push to potentially earn a postseason berth, that final stretch definitely plays into its favor.
In fact, this season will mark the first time in 21 years and only the third time since 1970 that Nebraska has ended the regular season with consecutive conference home games.
Welcome back, Saturday home games
There’s really no way to put it other than last season’s schedule completely stuck it to Nebraska and its fan base.
Along with seemingly playing a season’s worth of 8 p.m. midweek games and sleepy Sunday afternoon tips, the Huskers and their fans actually get some prime scheduling slots this year.
After playing only two Saturday home games all last year, neither of which coming during conference play, NU will get four Saturday contests this season. Best of all, two of them are Big Ten games against Iowa (Jan. 27) and Rutgers (Feb. 10).
The other two fall on pretty significant games as well: the season opener vs. Eastern Illinois on Nov. 11 and then the Kansas game on Dec. 16.
Add that on top of only playing just four total Sunday games all year (vs. North Dakota on Nov. 19, one game at the AdvoCare Invite in Orlando on Nov. 26, Michigan State on Dec. 3, and Penn State on Feb. 25), fans should be much happier about NU’s draws when it comes to their own schedules.
