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I'm guilty - I was trying to figure out whether we'd be a 3 or 4 seed for the NCAA tournament by the time we hit the 10-minute mark in the second half of the Colorado game. This year, I'm going to have way more self-control. I promise to wait until the last under-4 timeout in the Colorado game before I over-estimate our NCAA seed.

I like it, but if we lose to Maine, Omaha & Pine Bluff out of the gate, Fred may not be around for the Creighton game. I'm willing to rethink that position if we beat Colorado in the exhibition by at least 15 points. I have a feeling that would be a very good omen for the season.

I think they're also looking at creating a "gathering place" in the south stadium - kind of like a patio where people can drink and still see the field. So we know where jay-skers will be hanging out with their backs to the game.

I'm not sure BTN would exist if it didn't have NU hoops to keep it relevant.

Sounds like we may be able to drink beer at PBA this season to make the schedule easier to deal with.

How we got here - zero player development, not enough setting of expectations for players, and an S&C program that, somehow, seems to make our players slower and less explosive the longer they are involved with it. It's pretty damning that the majority of the best players on this roster are newcomers who received most of their player development and S&C away from NU. Want to watch a well-coached team that makes the most of its talent and that has recovered from a dumpster fire relatively equivalent to where NU is at right now? Kansas. KU would beat us by 3 TDs next week, likely more. The reality is NU now is a complete program rebuild job. We are where Kansas was 2-3 years ago. For any of us who thought NU had a bare cupboard when Smilin' Mike was shown the door, Frost has carried us to another level of cupboard bareness hell that I would've thought wasn't possible for a P5 football team with half our resources, money, and fan support. Yet, here we are. Maybe Mickey can find some magic during the off week and steal one against the Hoosiers in 2 weeks. Indiana is pretty bad, but they are light years tougher than us mentally, unfortunately. Rutgers is almost identical to Indiana - a bad team that's still mentally tough. After those 2 games, I don't see another game on the schedule where we can stay within 2-3 TDs (or 7-11 safeties in the case of Iowa), outside of a Herculean turnaround.

I hope you're right, but I, unfortunately, don't think most of the problems with the front 6/7 are fixable. The defensive tackles simply aren't good. I think the LBs are panicking because they constantly have offensive linemen coming at them because the DTs are getting handled one on one. Plus the interior DL is getting pushed backwards 2-3 yards regularly, right into the LBs laps, which makes it nearly impossible for them to get clean looks at the running backs. Offensive linemen don't have to double anyone up front, and they rarely have to even chip before going to the 2nd level. So, to me, the LBs look like they're panicking by trying to get to the hole before an offensive lineman can block them. They're choosing the wrong hole a lot. Maybe we can pinch our DEs in tighter when we're running 4-3, rather than having them line up so wide, and make them more part of stopping the interior run game. We're then in trouble on the edges, so you might have to cheat up a safety. Chins loves that 2-high look, though. Maybe play bigger with more 3-4, and get the nickel out of there, although we tried quite some of that vs N Dakota, and it wasn't all that effective vs the 4-3 at stopping the run. We just don't have enough DT bodies to run 3-4 the entire game, unless you're going to play Nelson as a very undersized one of the 3. Maybe we need to slant our d line more or run more stunts - something to give them the ability to escape straight-on blocks, because they cannot disengage on their own. We tried a couple of slants vs Ga Southern, and it was just as ugly as the base run defense, but maybe they can clean it up by working on it more. The sad part is we really haven't played a team that wants to run the ball over and over, other than maybe NW once it got the lead. Those teams are still coming. Could be a loooooooong November. On the Ga Southern rewatch, we tried a lot of stuff Saturday with games up front to try to help the DL, but nothing worked. We got burned bad against N Dakota by trying to bring a safety up in run support, so I think Chins was leery of doing that vs Ga Southern, but they may have to go back to it. Maybe they have to let the LBs just focus on the run game and use the safeties more to cover slot receivers. Something, anything, to get some no-gains or TFLs vs the basic run game between the tackles on 1st and 2nd down. It just looks pretty hopeless up front to me right now, though.

If Trev and frost didn't negotiate something less than the $15M buyout -- when they could've waited 3 weeks and saved $7.5M -- there are some pissed-off boosters out there willing to pony up the extra that weren't willing to pay last November. Also probably means that there's $7.5M less to pay Fred's buyout, so probably means his leash just got significantly longer.

3 B1G home games on Saturday 2 on Sunday 3 on Tuesday 1 on Wednesday 1 on Thursday Wednesday, December 7Nebraska at Indiana Saturday, December 10Purdue at Nebraska Thursday, December 29Iowa at Nebraska Tuesday, January 3Nebraska at Michigan State Saturday, January 7Nebraska at Minnesota Tuesday, January 10Illinois at Nebraska Friday, January 13Nebraska at Purdue Wednesday, January 18Ohio State at Nebraska Saturday, January 21Nebraska at Penn State Tuesday, January 24Northwestern at Nebraska Saturday, January 28Nebraska at Maryland Tuesday, January 31Nebraska at Illinois Sunday, February 5Penn State at Nebraska Wednesday, February 8Nebraska at Michigan Saturday, February 11Wisconsin at Nebraska Tuesday, February 14Nebraska at Rutgers Sunday, February 19Maryland at Nebraska Saturday, February 25Minnesota at Nebraska Tuesday, February 28Michigan State at Nebraska Sunday, March 5Nebraska at Iowa Wednesday-Sunday, March 8-12Big Ten Tournament (United Center – Chicago, Ill.)

Welp, if you watched the first 20 minutes of the B1G basketball schedule reveal show, you wouldn't even know NU was a member of the league. (Minnesota or Penn St, either.) Doesn't look like we will be seeing the schedule any time soon, as they're talking football now.

At least it lasted multiple burnos. Progress!

I'm not sure who's on Trev's short list, but I do know Trev goes for it when he finds the person he wants. Trev will not give up after the first "no". Probably not after the second, third, or fourth "no" either. That said, Trev does not like nonsense and behavior that leads to distractions from his coaches. Urb certainly has just a wee bit of nonsense in his past, but so do a lot of the top candidates out there. I'd guess Trev will compromise a bit here for the right person. Going to be a very interesting coaching search with all the zeroes NU will be willing to add to the check and with brand new facilities ready to go.

Jan. 18, 2023 NORTHWESTERN HOOPS RALLIES PAST NEBRASKA .... In one of the oddest decisions of the basketball season, with Nebraska up 11 midway through the second half, Coach Fred Hoiberg ordered his team to only shoot half-court hook shots for the remainder of the game. Northwestern outscored Nebraska 14-0 from there to win. "I thought it was a smart call," Northwestern Coach Chris Collins said. "We weren't ready for it. I mean our guys were doubled over laughing after a couple of their airballs, and that really affected our offense the rest of the way. Fred is a great coach, always thinking outside the box, and I hope he never leaves Nebraska." "I really thought we could deliver the knock-out blow with a couple of Globetrotters-like shots and take the fight out of Northwestern," Hoiberg said. "We'd had our best week of practice on those shots, so we decided before the game to go for it. If I had to do it over again, though, I probably would rethink that decision."

Actually I believe FOX owns ~60% of BTN and the schools each have 1/14th (soon to be 1/16th or less) of the remainder. And if I'm not mistaken, the conference gave FOX a greater share of ownership to make up for the loss of TV windows during the 2020 covid shortened football season. That's why FOX didn't pay the schools less in 2020-21. Upon its formation, I believe FOX's initial investment gave it 51% of BTN and the schools split the final 49%. Which is why we went several years with a smaller share of payouts after joining the B1G, so we could 'buy' into our BTN share. Of course, I could be full of it. It's been that kind of week.

Football broadcasts: Fox and FS1 will televise 24-27 Big Ten football games in 2023 and 30-32 games annually from 2024-29. CBS will televise seven Big Ten football games in 2023 and 14-15 regular season games annually from 2024-29. Every CBS Big Ten football and basketball broadcast will be streamed on Paramount+. NBC will televise 16 Big Ten football games annually in 2023-29, including prime-time games on Labor Day Sunday and Black Friday. All of NBC’s games will be simul-streamed on Peacock. Peacock will televise eight Big Ten football games annually from 2023-29. The Big Ten Network will broadcast 38-41 football games in 2023 and at least that many annually from 2024-29. Football conference championship games split between Fox (2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029), CBS (2024 and 2028) and NBC (2026). Maybe NU-Iowa will now be a night game on NBC every year? Or maybe the B1G pushes USC-UCLA to Black Friday for a prime time game. That seems more likely.