The Big Ten released conference opponents for the 2019-20 schedule on Wednesday afternoon for both men’s and women’s basketball.
The Husker men will host Michigan State, Penn State and Purdue while traveling to Illinois, Maryland and Minnesota. Nebraska will play Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers and Wisconsin both home and away.
Nebraska finished 19-17 overall this past season but just 6-14 in conference play, good for 13th place in the 14-team conference. Nebraska parted ways with coach Tim Miles and hired Fred Hoiberg to replace him.
Michigan State and Purdue shared conference title honors with 16-4 records in 2018-19, and the Huskers will get both of them at home next season without having to make a return trip. The Huskers will see Michigan (third at 15-5) and Wisconsin (fourth at 14-6) twice next season while they will have to play two other NCAA Tournament qualifiers, Maryland (13-7) and Minnesota (9-11), once each on the road.
On the women’s side, Nebraska will host Illinois, Michigan, Penn State and Purdue at Pinnacle Bank Arena while traveling to Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern and Rutgers. The Huskers will have home-and-away match-ups with Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin.
The young Huskers went 14-16 overall and 9-9 in Big Ten play under Amy Williams in 2018-19.
Penn State, Purdue and Illinois were all in the bottom five of the conference this past season, though Michigan did finish fourth at 11-7. Maryland won the conference with a 15-3 league record while Rutgers was third at 13-5. Iowa, led by one of the most dominant players in the country in senior Megan Gustafson, was second at 14-4 in the Big Ten.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. 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.
