Nebraska's 'Golden Window' still on, awaiting Big Ten approval

With the start of the 2020-21 college basketball season now less than three weeks away, Nebraska and the rest of the Big Ten Conference still don’t officially know how their schedules will look.

As of Thursday, the Big Ten continued to debate how it would manage non-conference schedules or even if it would go to a league-only slate.

However, that hasn’t stopped the Huskers from lining up their non-con schedule in the hope that the Big Ten ends up giving the green light. That includes the proposed multi-team event (MTE) in Lincoln to open the season.

A source directly involved with the situation told HuskerOnline.com on Thursday that the Nebraska MTE - which has been dubbed “The Golden Window” by event operator Elevate Hoops - is “in a really good place” and should have its field and schedule solidified by Monday at the latest.

The Golden Window originally planned to feature 16 teams broken up into two groups, with all matchups predetermined rather than a bracket tournament format.

HuskerOnline learned that the MTE is now likely to include 8-10 teams, with no more than 10 in the field.

The eight known schools currently under contract are Nebraska, LSU, Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Western Kentucky, Nevada, San Francisco, and Saint Louis.

Three schools that had previously committed to the event are no longer participating: Oklahoma State, Colorado State, and Cleveland State.

The source said that Elevate Hoops was in contact with two other programs to possibly join the field, including “potentially another really good mid-major.” But another Power Six school is not expected to be added.

The Golden Window will run from Nov. 25-30, with most of the games played at Pinnacle Bank Arena and possibly a couple of others at the Devaney Center.

There are currently 4-5 “contingency” schedules being looked at as the field remains fluid, but that should be solidified within the next few days, the source said.

As for the possibility of fans attending the event, the source said they would follow NCAA and local guidelines – not the Big Ten’s – in determining if and how many fans could be allowed.

As things stood on Thursday, the hope is for 25 percent capacity, roughly 4,000 fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena. If that holds, tickets will go on sale to the public next week.