Nebraska football: Moos hints at big changes in Big Ten coming in near future

LINCOLN, NE - NOVEMBER 04: Athletic Director Bill Moos of the Nebraska Cornhuskers watches action against the Northwestern Wildcats at Memorial Stadium on November 4, 2017 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)
LINCOLN, NE - NOVEMBER 04: Athletic Director Bill Moos of the Nebraska Cornhuskers watches action against the Northwestern Wildcats at Memorial Stadium on November 4, 2017 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images) /
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Nebraska football and the rest of the Big Ten are going to see significant schedule changes in the next few years if Bill Moos’ comments can be believed.

Appearing on a radio program Monday night, Cornhuskers’ Athletic Director Bill Moos hinted that changes were on the horizon for the Nebraska football program and the rest of the Big Ten.

The changes, which show a conference looking to adjust to a shifting college football landscape, could mean a slightly easier schedule for the Huskers in the coming years. It could also mean a kind of cementing of a rivalry between Iowa and Nebraska.

Moos first talked about the ongoing issues with the Black Friday game. He said at the moment, the Huskers are wanting to get their 2020 and 2021 games against Minnesota moved from Saturday to the Friday after Thanksgiving.

The intention of his athletic program after that, is to have Iowa back on the schedule as the last game of the year for NU. That game would also try and be every Black Friday.

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The other piece of scheduling news that raised eyebrows last night was the apparent intention of scrapping the nine-game conference schedule set to begin this season. The Huskers’ AD says he’s been a “bulldog” on that since he came to Lincoln.

The conference added the 9th game as a way to increase every team’s schedule strength. Moos says the league has been looking at a College Football Playoffs format that hasn’t really leaned too heavily on the strength of schedule.

The nine-game format is going to have teams beating each other up, while the SEC continues with its eight-game format. The catch is that the current TV contract with Fox seems to have been inked with the understanding they would be working with nine Big Ten conference games every year.

That contract runs out, as Sean Callahan pointed out, after the 2021 season. That means a shift back to the eight-game Big Ten slate could happen as early as 2022.

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It should be pointed out, that 2022 is the first year when Scott Frost will have a Nebraska football team completely filled with his own recruits. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to also have that be the year he stops getting a schedule that looks like a murderer’s row of opponents.