Five takes on Nebraska's 2023 football schedule
The Big Ten Conference officially released Nebraska’s 2023 football schedule on Wednesday.
Here are five takes on the Huskers’ scheduling draw for 2023.
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Four straight years with a conference opener
For the fourth straight season, Nebraska will open with a Big Ten Conference game. In 2021 they played at Illinois, in 2022 they faced Northwestern in Ireland, and next year they will open at Minnesota on Aug. 31. In The 2020 season, NU played an all-Big Ten schedule opening at Ohio State.
Illinois and Northwestern took place on Week Zero, while the Minnesota game will be played on Thursday night of Labor Day weekend in Minneapolis.
The Gophers traditionally open the season on the Thursday of Labor Day weekend for various reasons, including the Minnesota State Fair. That is also the final big lake weekend of the summer in Minnesota, as schools do not start until the Tuesday after Labor Day by state law.
It will be a tough challenge for whoever Nebraska’s head coach is in 2023 to open at Hunnington Bank Stadium.
Expect a lot of red to travel to Minneapolis and Boulder
Since Nebraska joined the Big Ten, it’s been much harder for NU fans to travel to road games.
The 2023 schedule offers Husker fans a great opportunity to drive to Minneapolis on Week 1 and to Colorado for their Week 2 match-up with the Buffalos. There should be great excitement and optimism for these games as well, as it will either be Mickey Joseph coaching the Big Red with plenty of off-season momentum or a completely new head coach in Lincoln.
These are destinations where we could see 15,000 to 25,000 Nebraska fans make the trip. In fact, on every trip the Huskers have played at Minnesota we’ve seen 10,000 to 20,000 NU fans in Hunnington Bank Stadium. During the 2019 game at Colorado, Nebraska fans occupied over 60 percent of Folsom Field. I would expect a similar turnout on Sept. 9.
2023 is another year of a favorable crossover draw
Nebraska fans can no longer complain about their crossover draw. Of East Division powers Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, the only ones they drew were the Wolverines on Sept. 30.
The Big Red also has a road game at Michigan State on Nov. 4 and Maryland will come to Memorial Stadium on Nov. 11.
It’s the second straight year they have only played one of the three East powers. The 2022 Husker schedule has Indiana, Rutgers and Michigan.
Seven weeks with just one road trip
Because Nebraska opens with two straight road trips, the Huskers have just three games away from Memorial Stadium over 11 weeks.
After the Colorado game on Sep. 9, the only time the Big Red will leave Lincoln before Nov. 4 is for an Oct. 7 game at Illinois. That’s seven weeks with just one road trip when you count the Huskers’ Oct. 14 bye weekend.
This will be a great schedule for whoever NU’s coach is in 2023 to build some early momentum at home.
Could we see Black Friday primetime football?
For the 13th year in a row, we will get Nebraska vs. Iowa on Black Friday. To put that in perspective, NU played Colorado 15 years in a row on Black Friday from 1996 to 2010 before the Huskers left for the Big Ten.
The biggest change we might see this year? Possibly primetime football on Black Friday. The NFL recently announced they will play a 2 p.m. CT game streamed on Amazon starting on Black Friday in 2023.
That’s a very tough window because an 11 a.m. start time would bleed into the beginning of the NFL game. With that said, could we see a primetime kickoff on Black Friday in 2023 with a start time between 5 and 7 p.m. CT? You get the sense that’s the direction things are heading.
