Hollywood Huskers, a rivalry bummer and Nebraska’s rugged 2025 lineup

Rest in peace, Big Ten West. We hardly knew ye.

Well, technically, not yet. We have one year left with the oft-mediocre division.

But today, we’re looking ahead to the future of the Big Ten, as the conference released football opponents for 2024 and 2025. (Yes, we know 2025 football opponents before we know the 2023 volleyball rundown. Riddle me that.)

One key thing to note here before we get into my thoughts: My thoughts and opinions will likely change after the full schedules are cemented. We don’t know just yet how the dates will shake out. Penn State in September is quite different than November.

Nebraska’s 2024 opponents:

Home: Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Wisconsin.

Away: Iowa*, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA.

Nebraska’s 2025 opponents:

Home: Illinois, Iowa*, Michigan, Rutgers, UCLA.

Away: Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio State, USC.

Each school will play nine conference games per season, and teams will play every other conference opponent at least twice — once home and once away— in a four-year period.

Each school also has at least one protected opponent every year. Nebraska has Iowa, hence the asterisk above.

Welcome back, Calibraska. (OK, OK, I know it’s not exactly the same thing, but we can repurpose the term. It’s catchy.)

The immediate takeaway is how Nebraska heads to Los Angeles twice in back-to-back years to play Big Ten newcomers UCLA and USC. 

That UCLA game comes first in 2024, with the return trip to Hollywood to play USC in 2025.

Nebraska hasn’t played at the Rose Bowl since 2012 and hasn’t played at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since 2006.

UCLA beat Nebraska 36-30 in their last meeting in Pasadena, and NU is 7-6 all-time against the Bruins. The Huskers have never beaten the Trojans. NU lost to USC 28-10 in their last meeting in the Coliseum.

It’ll be quite a few years before Nebraska makes the trip back out to USC and/or UCLA, so if you can swing it and you want to go … start budgeting now and pray you don’t have a wedding or something to go to that weekend.

Some schools have multiple protected rivals, but Nebraska only has one: Iowa. (Iowa has three protected rivals: Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska, while Wisconsin also has two: Iowa and Minnesota.)

Even though we knew this was happening, it’s still a bummer. Even though Nebraska hasn’t beaten Wisconsin since 2012, UW feels like a deeply entrenched rival at this point. So does Minnesota.

How is Illinois-Purdue a more prestigious rivalry than Nebraska-Wisconsin or Nebraska-Minnesota? Spoiler: It’s not.

As Nebraska fans are well aware, this is one of the sad parts of conference realignment. Remember Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas? It’s a major bummer that we won’t get Wisconsin and/or Minnesota as a guaranteed game every year.

But at least we won’t have to worry about the inevitable changes just yet.

Wisconsin is on NU’s schedule in 2024 and Minnesota is on deck in both 2024 and 2025.

The Big Ten West may technically be dead after this year, but Nebraska’s 2024 schedule will feel very similar to the days of divisions.

The only Big Ten West team Nebraska doesn’t play in 2024 is Illinois. 

That drastically changes in 2025. The only Big Ten West teams NU plays that year are Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.

Year Three for Matt Rhule is going to be a doozy.

The Huskers play Michigan, Ohio State, UCLA and USC in 2025. Woof. Two of those games, Ohio State and USC, are on the road, while the Michigan and UCLA games are in the friendly confines of Memorial Stadium.

Nebraska is the guinea pig for the Big Ten gantlet, as the Huskers will be the first under this new scheduling format to play those big four in the same season.

Several teams play three of those four opponents in a single season, but no one else has to face a stretch like that.

Here’s hoping all four of those games aren’t in a row or something. That’d be the stuff of nightmares.