Nebrasketball isn’t in the Final Four. Heck, they weren’t even a Top-68 team. But Nebraska football was.
Here’s a little something to tide you over, football fans.
We took the top 68 teams from TeamRankings.com’s January 10th rankings and matched the overall seeds to where they would be placed in the NCAA basketball tournament structure.
Instead of boring directional regions, we separated them into the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange regions (props to PredictionMachine.com for the idea).
Once the seedings were set, we used the (pretty awesome) SimMatchup tool on WhatifSports.com to simulate each game.
The Draw
Nebraska was placed as a 12-seed in the Ohio State Buckeye-led Sugar Region. Their first round foe, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, earned a 5-seed with a 10-3 record and a Conference USA Championship Game victory over Louisiana Tech.
The win against the Bulldogs avenged one of the three Hilltopper losses on the year, the others being to two SEC programs: Alabama and Vanderbilt.
WKU owned one of the most explosive offenses in the nation in 2016, racking up the second-most yards in the FBS (7,324), second only to the national champion Clemson Tigers.
The Hilltoppers are led by junior Mike White, a 67.3 percent passer with over 4,300 yards, 37 touchdowns and just seven interceptions.
White throws to two receivers who gained 1,000-plus yards in seniors Taywan Taylor and Nicholas Norris. He also hands off to a solid complement at running back in Anthony Wales.
Wales ran for over 1,600 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2016 (his senior year), both career bests.
Another intriguing facet to the first round matchup with the Hilltoppers is the impending departure of head coach Jeff Brohm who accepted the same job at Purdue, replacing Darrell Hazell.
The game between Brohm and the Huskers will be the first of many in the coming years.
The Game
First Quarter
Kieron Williams picked off Mike White only 37 seconds into the game and the Huskers capitalized as Terrell Newby would eventually score on a two-yard touchdown run.
An intercepted Tommy Armstrong Jr pass was converted into points as White hit Taywan Taylor with a 20-yard pass that knotted things up at seven points apiece with 5:58 left in the quarter.
The Hilltoppers would stop the ensuing Husker drive and running back Anthony Wales got to the edge of the Blackshirts on a sweep to the left, dashing for a 59-yard score to put WKU up by seven as the quarter ended.
Second Quarter
WKU started with the ball and White would hit Taylor again capping a six play, 59-yard drive to give the ‘Toppers a 21-7 advantage.
Thanks to the shiftiness of Jordan Westerkamp who turned a short pass into a 27-yard gain, Armstrong would later connect with Alonzo Moore on a 19-yard strike that brought the Nebraska football team back within one score during the next possession.
The two teams would trade scoring opportunities before WKU kicker Skyler Simcox hit a 29-yard field goal right down the middle with just under eight minutes remaining.
The offense came in chunks during Nebraska’s next chance to score with Brandon Reilly snagging a 24-yard catch before Terrell Newby ripped off runs of 12 and 14 yards.
The drive ended in Armstrong hitting Moore again on a two-yard route making it 24-21 WKU.
Simcox was able to hook a 35-yarder through the uprights as time expired giving the Hilltoppers a 27-21 advantage at the half.
Third Quarter
After an offensive onslaught in the first half, the two teams traded blows before Nebraska capped off a tremendous 18-play drive that took up nearly eight minutes of game clock with a two-yard Devine Ozigbo run.
Fourth Quarter
Heading into the final stanza, WKU was working its way down the field before Dedrick Young intercepted a pass in the Huskers’ red zone, returning it to Nebraska’s own seven-yard line.
The Huskers wouldn’t be able to convert the turnover into points and the two teams saw the clock tick away for much of the quarter.
With less than six minutes in the game, White worked the WKU offense downfield and was able to connect with Nacarius Fant in the end zone with just 2:06 left to go.
The ensuing two-point conversion failed, but WKU still regained the lead, 33-28.
Starting at his own 28, Armstrong masterfully led the Nebraska offense on an 11-play drive.
This eventually saw him connect with Reilly who then made a man miss and crossed the plane for a game-winning score with 24 seconds left, securing a 34-33 victory.
The Rest of the Sugar Region
Urban Meyer and his 1-seed Ohio State Buckeyes took on the winner of the First Four game between the Sun Belt’s Troy Trojans and the ACC’s Wake Forest Demon Deacons in which the Trojans prevailed 37-18.
A nice win for the men of Troy didn’t muster up enough momentum to upset the Buckeyes, however, as they were outscored 44-29 and sent packing.
The right to take on Ohio State was determined in a shootout between Brian Kelly’s snake-bitten Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the always scrappy BYU Cougars.
The Irish would move on thanks to a brilliant offensive display from junior QB DeShone Kizer and sophomore RB Josh Adams, 55-29.
The battle to take on Nebraska in the second round was a good one, pitting the Oklahoma State Cowboys against the underperforming UCLA Bruins.
In this game, however, the Bruins hit their stride behind an enormous offensive display by Josh Rosen. His 350-plus yards and four touchdowns were just enough for Bruins to beat the Cowboys 34-31 in another giant upset.
Yet another upset was in store in the matchup that pitted the 11-seed San Diego State Aztecs against the 6-seed Tennessee Volunteers.
It took three overtimes, but Donnel Pumphrey’s 41 attempts and 230 yards finally lifted the Aztecs past the sputtering Volunteers to the next round, 32-26.
The Aztecs would meet the winner of a Big Ten-ACC clash between the supremely talented Florida State Seminoles and the Michigan State Spartans.
The Rest of the Region Continued
The Spartans came to play and attempted to turn their season around with one huge win, but Jimbo Fisher and running back Dalvin Cook did just enough to sneak into the round of 32.
The Boise State Broncos would be given the opportunity for some patented Boise postseason magic against the 7-seed Houston Cougars and would do just that. In Tom Herman’s last game as the Cougars’ head coach, Houston would fall to Boise State in an upset, 28-13.
The final game in the first round of the Sugar Region would pit Ed Orgeron and his LSU Tigers against the high-powered Pac-12 offense of the Cal Bears.
Leonard Fournette would go absolutely bananas in this one, rushing for 304 yards and five touchdowns, spanking the Bears 48-14.
Where we stand:
