Games vs. Hawaii

CheeseHusker

CheeseHusker

All-Conference
With the playoff controversy there's a lot of talk about Alabama playing Mercer late in the season, and other matchups like this in the SEC.

December 4th just happens to be the anniversary of three road games again Hawaii that took place between 1971 and 1982. It seems very odd to play an extra game so late in the season, especially after the Oklahoma game. The most notable of these was the 1982 game when we took the Gill-Rozier-Fryar offense over there and laid an egg for three quarters before scoring like five times in the fourth and winning comfortably in the end.

In each case it ended up being a 12th regular season game for us, back when 11 was still the standard practice. So in years where Nebraska played Hawaii, it was always our 12th game of that season.

Now, I doubt anyone would argue that Hawaii isn't a more respectable opponent than Mercer, or that that wouldn't be one heck of a nice road trip.... but I think it's interesting to see a non-conference game played so late in the year, after everything else (no conference title games back then either).

 
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Bama still has a top 10 SoS with Mercer.  Auburn scheduled Clemson OOC.  When we start scheduling defending NC's in our OOC we can start asking questions about others.  We almost lost to a Sun Belt team this year and most years during TO's time the BIg 8 was filled with doormats (KSU, ISU etc..).  It is what it is.

 
The NCAA had a rule (or still does) in that team’s that would play at Hawaii for a non-conference game would be allowed to schedule an extra home game that season to help cover the travel costs to go to Hawaii. This allowed NU to get an extra home game in these seasons. I was too young to remember the exact details of why NU made those non-conference games to Hawaii, but maybe it was done to help out their program and give NU fans an opportunity to go see the team play in Hawaii. This was also done before there were so many bowl games, so the bowl trip wasn’t as “guaranteed” as it usually is now.

 
I caught a show on BTN a week or so ago that was talking about a time when Whisky went to the Rose Bowl in '93 under Alvarez and they played MSU in Japan of all places.  The Wisconsin players were laughing about it because the game was supposed to serve as their bowl game since they weren't supposed to be very good that year.

 
Xmas32 said:
I caught a show on BTN a week or so ago that was talking about a time when Whisky went to the Rose Bowl in '93 under Alvarez and they played MSU in Japan of all places.  The Wisconsin players were laughing about it because the game was supposed to serve as their bowl game since they weren't supposed to be very good that year.
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Nebraska played Kansas State in Tokyo in December 1992 (after the Oklahoma game).  As a high schooler, I remember listening to the game on the radio while we were hanging out on a Saturday night.

https://www.huskermax.com/games/1992/11kansasstate.html

 
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The SEC seems to schedule a conference game earlier, and then a late season out of conference game against a highly overmatched opponent.  

This trend has been happening for years.  My opinion is that it’s almost a ploy to alter the rankings.  Let’s say a top 10 SEC team loses early in the season and falls to 18th-25th.  They have weeks to recover and a late season guarantee win over a team like Mercer, and by that time, there’s been enough losses throughout he top 25 , that the SEC team works it’s way back into the top 10.

 
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