Three takeaways on Nebraska’s Big Ten hoops schedule

The Nebraska basketball team finally learned its 2020-21 Big Ten schedule on Wednesday, as the conference officially released the dates and matchups for its league slate.

Here are three quick takeaways from the Huskers’ Big Ten schedule…

Nebraska will play three Big Ten games in December, one more than the two normally scheduled early in the month before the league slate fully starts up in January.

But all three of those games will be played between Dec. 21-30, much later than most everyone expected.

The Huskers still hadn’t announced their non-conference schedule before the Big Ten’s release on Wednesday, and it might take even longer now to finalize their seven-game non-con slate with the league claiming the last week and a half of December.

Nebraska pretty much had its non-conference schedule lined up and was waiting on the Big Ten to finalize its games. Now, NU will likely have to move a game or two around to fill the gap between Dec. 12-21 that it initially thought would be the start of league play.

Plenty has been said about how good the Big Ten will be top to bottom this season, and some of the league’s coaches have speculated that as many as 10-12 teams could potentially make the NCAA Tournament.

So it’s no surprise that the conference schedule ended up a meatgrinder for Nebraska.

In all, 10 of the Huskers’ 20 Big Ten games will be against opponents ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25.

Of the conference’s seven ranked teams – Iowa (4), Wisconsin (7), Illinois (8), Michigan State (13), Ohio State (23), Rutgers (24), and Michigan (25) – NU will play four of them in its first four games.

The Huskers also have double-play matchups with three ranked foes in Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Illinois. They have three single-play road games against two more in Iowa and Ohio State.

With the unique circumstances surrounding scheduling in the COVID-19 era, the Big Ten made sure to capitalize on the big holiday viewing windows this season.

As a result, Nebraska will play conference games on Christmas Day (Friday, Dec. 25) vs. Michigan and Valentine’s Day (Sunday, Feb. 14) at Penn State.

The Huskers are also expected to open the season on Thanksgiving Day (Wednesday, Nov. 25) vs. McNeese State, though that game hasn’t officially been announced yet.

Tip-off times and broadcast information for those contests and the rest of the Big Ten schedule will be announced at a later date. But if you’re planning on tuning in, you might want to adjust those holiday plans accordingly.