Thanksgiving weekend in the Big Ten

[B.B. Hemingway]

I'm just saying we can't complain about SEC teams coming up after September when we don't even make that an option.

If Bama or LSU said "hey, Mr Eichorst, we wanna come up to Lincoln and play on November 30th", I guarantee you we would make it work.

Unless they were planning for 2025, then no, we would not make it work. We don't get to choose the dates of conference games, which means we have 5 to 6 open weeks to schedule our non-conference games and byes. We're never going to choose "play difficult OOC game later in year and take the bye in week 3" as opposed to the other way around. That would mean 8 straight Big Ten games + LSU/Alabama/whoever + B1G title game. 10 straight weeks, no byes, with that schedule? That's brutal and should not be self-inflicted.

 

As long as the neutral site game does not take away from our normal 7-8 home games, I'm all for it. But if we're gonna lose a home game to it, no thanks.

 

Seriously? Losing a home game every other year won't hurt anything. I could understand if we were losing that home game in-conference, or too a low level college, but it would be worth it for the exposure to play another big-time program at a neutral site. It would also look good on the fan base, because I'm sure we would dominate attendance too said neutral site game.....

Seriously? Have you been paying attention to anything the AD has said about the source of our income?

Yes! No money would be made from a neutral site game If you think Nebraska is that hard up for cash you're fooling yourself....

[KJ.]

Yes! No money would be made from a neutral site game If you think Nebraska is that hard up for cash you're fooling yourself....

Let me go ahead and put my accounting hat on and break THIS down:

 

From 2006-2011, we turned a profit every year which ranged anywhere from $0.5 - $5.5 million. But profits aren't uniformly earned throughout the year, especially when you have high leverage.Revenue from ticket sales was between $24 and $34 million, or $3.5 - $4.8 million per game. The athletic department has extremely high operating leverage, so we have high fixed expenses while the marginal cost of hosting a football game is low. This means that if you charted our profits week-by-week we wouldn't be making money until after the seventh game. The first six games cover fixed costs while the seventh game is where the profit comes from.

 

Profit is about 3% of income each year. An individual football game is about 6% of income each year. So yes, seven home games is pretty darn important for us.

[Count 'Bility]

Yes! No money would be made from a neutral site game If you think Nebraska is that hard up for cash you're fooling yourself....

Let me go ahead and put my accounting hat on and break THIS down:

 

From 2006-2011, we turned a profit every year which ranged anywhere from $0.5 - $5.5 million. But profits aren't uniformly earned throughout the year, especially when you have high leverage.Revenue from ticket sales was between $24 and $34 million, or $3.5 - $4.8 million per game. The athletic department has extremely high operating leverage, so we have high fixed expenses while the marginal cost of hosting a football game is low. This means that if you charted our profits week-by-week we wouldn't be making money until after the seventh game. The first six games cover fixed costs while the seventh game is where the profit comes from.

 

Profit is about 3% of income each year. An individual football game is about 6% of income each year. So yes, seven home games is pretty darn important for us.

[B.B. Hemingway]

KJ,

So if we played a neutral site game the athletic department would be in financial ruins? Now go put on your "realistic" hat....

[KJ.]

KJ,

So if we played a neutral site game the athletic department would be in financial ruins? Now go put on your "realistic" hat....

In order to play a neutral site game we would need to either:

1. Play 7 other home games (Like what would have been done with Southern Miss this year had that plan worked)
   
2. Get enough money from that neutral site game to replace the lost income from losing a home game.
   

Regarding point #2, as I have already posted a home game for Nebraska brings in about $4 million per game. There has only been one neutral site game in history where either team has made more than $3.5 million, and that was the 2012 Cowboys Classic between Michigan and Alabama where each team earned $4.7 million. The article says Michigan only played six home games last year, but specifically mentions that the payout is so high because Michigan/Alabama both gave up a home game.

 

With the changing landscape in college football, it is entirely possible that neutral site games will become a much bigger deal and the revenues earned from them will grow quicker than home game revenue. In that case, point #2 becomes more realistic. But until those payouts get inflated by about 200%, there is a 0.000002% chance Nebraska earns $4 million from a neutral-site game when Oregon can only make $2 million playing LSU in Jerryworld.