With Nebraska pushing to field a women's flag football team, there's still an open question about which conference they'll play in when the team kicks off its debut season in 2028. Is it possible the Huskers could find the Big 12 as a landing spot? At this point, it's more realistic than not NU could return to its old stomping grounds for at least one sport.
Troy Dannen made history by making the Cornhuskers the first Power 4 school sponsoring women's flag football. Some of the rest of the Big Ten is expected to follow suit eventually, but it's not clear if they'll be up in running by NU's inaugural season. The Big 12, on the other hand, intends to start playing games in 2028 and believes it will be the first conference to officially sponsor women's flag football.
According to the Sports Business Journal, the Big 12 is taking steps to open the 2028 season with at least six teams. However, considering the idea is still technically in the exploratory phase, changes could be made to that plan. It feels like one of those changes could be either adding Nebraska as a women's flag football-only 7th team, or having the Huskers replace a Big 12 team that might be dragging its heels.
Nebraska could look to the Big 12 for women’s flag football in 2028
Back in December, the NFL and the Big 12 announced a collaboration around technology, officiating and, flag football. That partnership could offer another incentive for the Huskers to take the rather unusual step of joining a conference other than the Big Ten in a sponsored sport.
The issue is of course, the Big Ten really does want to get its own conference up and running. According to the NIL-Wire, Nebraska AD Troy Dannen believes the conference wants to be a front runner, rather than playing catchup in women's flag football.
"I’d be shocked if it wasn’t a Big Ten championship sport in a few years," Dannen reportedly said right around the time the Big 12 made its announcement. "From my discussions with the commissioner [Tony Petitti], I would guess the Big Ten would like to be a leader in this space.”
Things are now moving quickly, and Dannen clearly doesn't want to get left in a bad situation holding the bag. That Nebraska facing off against Big 12 teams regularly again would just be darn fun, could factor in as well.