Nebraska Cornhuskers News: Bullpen blows up again, 'Prime' matchup time, more

Another late inning lead, another bad loss for the Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team. In what is becoming far too much of a bad habit, the Huskers looked like they were about to get off to a solid start to a pivotal three-game series against the Indiana Hoosiers.

Heading into the 9th inning, the Cornhuskers led 5-3 and then disaster struck for the second time this week. When the smoke cleared, Indiana scored seven runs in the 9th inning, and beat Will Bolt's squad 10-5.

This is the second straight late inning collapse of the week. In addition to their inexplicable loss to South Dakota State on Wednesday, the NU bullpen has allowed 16 runs in the 8th and 9th innings this week.

They are 10-13 since April 1 and have gone from a team many thought might host a regional to a team that is in real danger of missing the NCAA Tournament for a third straight season.

After the loss, Bolt's boys dropped to 37th in the RPI. They are officially in the "might need some help for an at-large bid" territory. It's been an absolutely incredible collapse down the stretch after starting the season 20-5.

More Nebraska Cornhuskers news

As we slowly walk towards the start of the 2024 season, we're going to be finding out more and more kickoff times for the Nebraska Cornhuskers football games. While it's not official yet, it appears the showdown between Matt Rhule's squad and Deion Sanders' bunch will be in the spotlight.

On3 recently reported that things look as though they are setting up for the Nebraska football team's game against Colorado on September 7 to be a Prime Time matchup on Saturday night on NBC.

Colorado's games since Coach Prime arrived in Boulder have done massive numbers for whatever network was showing them. It seems unlikely they'll be buried in an 11am start. Add in the fact that many people think this is the year the Huskers return to a bowl game and all the nonsense that surrounded last year's matchup and this tilt has plenty of reasons why it would need a prominent time

Things likely won't be official for a while yet, maybe not until August, but it's not a stretch to assume a night game at this point.

One of the newest Nebraska football conference rivals is trying to soup up its defense with another coaching hire. This time, former NFL offensive coordinator Jim Hostler is joining the Trojans as a defensive analyst. That seems like sort of a weird fit, but it's possible he'll be providing about how opposing offenses will try and exploit USC's "D."

California regents were never particularly happy about the move by UCLA and USC to the Big Ten andd now they've officially punished the Bruins. The state is hitting UCLA with a $10 million subsidy. Some Nebraska Cornhuskers fans might remember that these same regents tried every trick in the book to try and get UCLA to stick in the Pac-12 before it finally collapsed.