Nebraska Football: Riley Has Huskers Working on a Return to Relevancy

The Primetime Spotlight

Another part of making a team relevant is consistently being in the Top 25 rankings. Nebraska is still working on this, but starting out with seven wins and zero losses helped this past season. Being ranked gives a team national attention, but it also helps them get games where they need to be: in primetime.

If you manage to get there, the likelihood of a night game goes up. These are also televised by the bigger sports networks and is during the time when most people are watching whether fans or — get this — recruits. It is the complete opposite of the despised Big Ten 11 a.m. games.

In 2014, Nebraska appeared in four pre-noon kickoffs during the regular season and only three primetime games. In 2015, the Huskers played in three 11 a.m. games and just one under the spotlight during the regular season. That’s assuming playing South Alabama at 7 p.m. on BTN does not count (maybe for a half game).

However, in 2016, the Big Red appeared in just two early-riser games and found themselves playing four in the most coveted of spots.

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Scheduling does not always allow for top teams to play in primetime, but teams also have to position themselves to play in the time frame. College football fans want to see the best of the day’s currently-ranked teams play in the spotlight.

Nebraska is working itself back into this mix of teams. With a healthy injection of talent which it’s now seeing, it can avoid some of the more unfortunate losses it saw during this past season, find its way into the Top 25 (if not better) and back into the games that truly matter like the Big Ten Championship.