The release of the 2020-21 Big Ten schedules turned some heads in Nebraska as it signaled the end of Nebraska's season-ending showdown with Iowa on Black Friday. Minnesota will replace the Hawkeyes as Nebraska's final opponent after the 2019 season.
The news resulted in quite a bit of backlash from Nebraska fans and even journalists, both for the change in opponent and the apparent end of Nebraska playing on Black Friday, a tradition that dated back to 1990.
On Thursday, Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst released a statement saying that the dates for those games against Minnesota in 2020 and 2021 have not yet been determined, and that a Friday play date is still possible.
“I want to clarify Nebraska’s position regarding the dates of our season-ending football games in 2020 and 2021 as announced earlier this week by the Big Ten Conference. At this time no final decision has been made on what dates these two games will actually be played. As in past years, the Big Ten releases opponent matchups and typically assigns these match-ups to Saturday. That has been the case in the past when we agreed to move our season ending games against Iowa from Saturday to Friday.
“Moving forward we will do everything possible to maintain our tradition of playing games on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We look forward to playing Iowa on the Friday after Thanksgiving through 2019.”
Jacob is in his third year with Hail Varsity covering Husker athletics. He has also written extensively for SB Nation’s Bright Side of the Sun and The Creightonian. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.