Five takeaways on Nebraska's newly revised Big Ten schedule

Here are five takeaways on Nebraska's newly revised Big Ten schedule released on Friday.

Nebraska's season opener vs. Illinois is still slated to be played on Week Zero in Dublin, Ireland.

I think almost everybody involved knows that game will not be played in Ireland. So the question now is will it be in Champaign? And will it still be on Week Zero?

What's keeping game organizers and leadership from Illinois and Nebraska from making this announcement?

So yes we did get a new set of games on Friday, but expect one more final shuffle to the Big Red's schedule in 2021.

When former Nebraska Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst made the tone-deaf decision to not have the Huskers play on Black Friday, it set the wheels in motion for his final days in Lincoln.

The Huskers were supposed to play Minnesota in 2020 and 2021 on the final weekend of the season, while the Iowa series was moved up to earlier in the schedule.

Nebraska fans were outraged to see their tradition of playing a rival school on Black Friday ended because of the leadership decision by an Athletic Director.

The 2020 game was corrected though, thanks to large in part to COVID-19. The Huskers and Hawkeyes met in Iowa City on Black Friday this past year. The final clean-up of the Eichorst decision was made on Friday, as the league announced Iowa and Nebraska will play in Lincoln this year on Black Friday.

This was an easy fix. The original 2020 schedule had Nebraska traveling to Purdue three years in a row, and Wisconsin scheduled to travel to Lincoln three years in a row.

The Big Ten got that corrected, as the Boilermakers will play in Lincoln now on Oct. 30, and the Huskers will play in Madison on Nov. 20.

This also ideally will break apart Iowa and Wisconsin, where the Huskers will no longer have to travel to both in the same season. Now one game should be home and the other will be on the road each year going forward.

Another interesting quirk to the schedule is Nebraska won't leave the city of Lincoln for over a month.

After their Oct. 16 game at Minnesota, the Big Red won't hit the road again until they lave for their Nov. 20 game at Wisconsin on Nov. 19.

That will be a nice stretch for the Big Red to stay fresh late in the year with very little travel.

Nebraska gets both Ohio State and Michigan on the schedule - both games are in Lincoln.

The Wolverines will make just their second trip to Lincoln and their first since 2012. The Huskers have also only faced off against Jim Harbaugh once since he got to the Big Ten.

2021 also will end the six-year schedule cycle of Nebraska vs. Ohio State.

The original schedule had both these games, the only difference is Michigan got move up and Ohio State is now later in the year.