Nebraska Football: ESPN FPI now predicts another losing season
The Nebraska football team might only need to go 5-5 the rest of the way for a bowl game in 2022, but updated ESPN FPI ratings see the Huskers missing even that rather modest goal. After a season-opening loss to Northwestern and then a less than impressive win over North Dakota State, the Football Power Index ratings see the Cornhuskers’ most likely finish as a 5-7 record.
It should be pointed out that this is indeed a shift from what the ratings system predicted for the Nebraska football team, which saw it winning 6 or possibly even 7 games. Considering the two blown 11 point leads against the Wildcats and a 17-17 tie late in the Huskers’ second game, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the metrics aren’t showing a great season coming in Lincoln.
The rest of the season is predicted to play out in a way that probably won’t surprise many Husker fans. Nebraska football has an 84 percent chance of beating its next opponent in Georgia Southern. However, it now sees Oklahoma as almost having the same chances (70.7 percent) of beating the Cornhuskers the following week.
Should that happen, it would see the Huskers finish off the early part of the schedule with a 2-2 record.
The Nebraska football team then has a 74 percent change to win over Indiana to improve to 3-2 but just a 55 percent chance to beat Rutgers and improve to 4-2.
Purdue then has a 64.1 percent chance of beating Nebraska, and then the Cornhuskers have an identical number in beating Illinois the following week. This means ESPN sees the Nebraska football team sitting at either 5-3 or 4-4, depending on how the Rutgers game shakes out when it enters the toughest stretch of its schedule.
Minnesota has a 53.4 percent chance of victory over NU,
followed by the safest best on the Huskers’ schedule, as Michigan is given an 89.8 percent chance of winning that matchup.
Should all the predictions shake out as the ESPN FPI ratings predict, that means the Huskers will be 5-5 with games against Iowa and Wisconsin left. While the individual results might be different, this is the same record I predicted the Nebraska football team would have after 10 games. However, I had them pulling off some impressive victories to finish out the regular season.
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ESPN has Wisconsin with a 65 percent chance of winning, while Iowa’s game against the Huskers will be tighter as the Hawkeyes have a 53.3 percent chance of victory.
Should all of these predictions shake out that way, the Nebraska football team will finish with a 5-7 record and will miss a bowl game for the sixth straight season.