Should Nebraska/Iowa Stay on Black Friday?

IMO, the only reason we should have a game on Friday is if we somehow find a way to come up with a "ND-USC, Fla-FSU, Clem-S. Car." like agreement w/ Oklahoma. Iowa-Neb. just doesn't have that kind of appeal, and doesn't justify a Friday game day. In all honesty, Iowa-Neb. doesn't exactly feel like a true rivalry game and I don't feel like it even HAS to be the last game of the season for us.

 
Red_Payne said:
IMO, the only reason we should have a game on Friday is if we somehow find a way to come up with a "ND-USC, Fla-FSU, Clem-S. Car." like agreement w/ Oklahoma. Iowa-Neb. just doesn't have that kind of appeal, and doesn't justify a Friday game day. In all honesty, Iowa-Neb. doesn't exactly feel like a true rivalry game and I don't feel like it even HAS to be the last game of the season for us.
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Sadly, right now, Nebraska vs Anyone really doesn't have all that much appeal.

 
The last year we played Oklahoma on the Black Friday game was over 20 years ago. I think its past time that we let that one go.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
hskrpwr13 said:
Street Novelist said:
Nobody outside of the Iowa/Nebraska fanbases cares about this game unless it has title implications. It's not like this game will be attracting a huge audience. That being said, it's a big blow when one of our games gets moved from OTA to digital cable because it significantly reduces potential viewers who can't afford it.
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You could say that about any "rivalry" game. When USC is 7-5 and UCLA is 5-7, does anyone consider it appointment TV? In the 90s, did anyone outside of Bama/SEC care about Bama/Auburn?
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The answer to both of your questions is yes.

Anecdotal evidence - reddit college football has 250,000 users. You look at Nebraska vs joe schmo game threads, it's 80-90% Nebraska fans and a few of the opposing fans. You look at USC/UCLA or Bama/Auburn game threads, there's thousands more comments and they're from fans of any team you can think of.
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A quick reddit search shows NU/IA in 2016 had almost 4k comments compared to just 2500 for USC/UCLA 2016, and Bama/AUB had 8k, but that's the Iron Bowl.

You can't really compare an average NU game to a multi decade spanning rivalry featuring ranked teams. That absolutely matters, especially for national hype. Bama/Auburn is one of the top 2 rivalries in CFB, behind only "The Game" in prestige.

But back to the TV portion. A large portion of a game's TV draw has to do with the prestige of the game, but also access and what other games it is competing against. NU/IA has drawn fairly strong TV ratings. Listening to the HOL podcast this week, Sean Callahan seemed fairly convinced that FOX just wanted to take that game away from ABC/ESPN no matter what.

 
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teachercd said:
Reasons I watch games.

1. Nebraska is one of the teams playing

2. I bet on the game

That is it. I don't care if it is #1 Bama vs #2 LSU...if I didn't bet the game it won't be as high on my list as a Northwestern vs Purdue game if I have cash on that one.

All of us will watch the Nebraska game, doesn't matter if it is Friday or Saturday...doesn't matter what station.
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I don't think comparing if we will watch games or not is the issue. What is the benefit of us playing Iowa on Black Friday? I could think of a lot of teams where it would be better

 
BIG ERN said:
teachercd said:
Reasons I watch games.

1. Nebraska is one of the teams playing

2. I bet on the game

That is it. I don't care if it is #1 Bama vs #2 LSU...if I didn't bet the game it won't be as high on my list as a Northwestern vs Purdue game if I have cash on that one.

All of us will watch the Nebraska game, doesn't matter if it is Friday or Saturday...doesn't matter what station.
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I don't think comparing if we will watch games or not is the issue. What is the benefit of us playing Iowa on Black Friday? I could think of a lot of teams where it would be better
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I actually prefer the Friday game. There's nothing else really on, and it frees up the next day to let me watch The Game and The Iron Bowl in their entirety.

 
Red Five said:
The last year we played Oklahoma on the Black Friday game was over 20 years ago. I think its past time that we let that one go.
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Ha ha! Husker fans let go of the glory years?? Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
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BIG ERN said:
Even though Iowa is usually a tough team, anyone outside of the Midwest doesn't care about this game. Sure all the people from the two states will tune in because neither want to lose that game, but kids on the coasts would way rather tune into Nebraska vs Ohio St, Penn St, Wisconsin, Michigan etc.

Even though we haven't been all that great it still feels like the Iowa game is a lose lose. If we win, we should have - if we don't, it's an embarrassment. That isn't a 'rivalry' you want to be a part of. IMO Iowa struck gold in getting the deal with us even though they will feel like we are living in the past.
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With the exception of a few years, wouldn't this almost be exactly the same as when we played CU on Fridays?

 
what is the benefit of moving it from Friday to Saturday? Honestly it's not that important of a game nationally but it becomes a whole hell of a lot less important when we are competing against The Iron Bowl and The Game and whatever other hot team might just so happen to be playing that day. Keep it on Black Friday, tradition isn't built in 5 years. Tradition takes along time before it really becomes something relevant. If we improve as a program like the majority of us think/hope we are, and Iowa continues to be really good every 3 years, good 1 of those years, and terrible 1 of those years like recent trends. Then this game will become a lot more popular. Plus I need an excuse to not go black Friday shopping in the morning other than duck hunting!

 
Having it on Black Friday is fine, especially last year, where everything I ate on Thursday, came back on Friday after watching Callahan Lite...

 
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