Huskers Return to Miami Set For Afternoon Kickoff

ABC and ESPN announced a slate of ACC football broadcasts, which include Nebraska's return trip to Miami on September 19.  The game will kick off at 2:30 pm and will be televised by ABC and ESPN2 on the reverse mirror.

It's somewhat surprising that the game wasn't selected for primetime; it appears that ABC may be looking at a Pac-12 matchup between Stanford and Southern Cal instead. The afternoon kickoff may pose a conditioning challenge to the Huskers, though preseason camp in Nebraska should be comparable. The average high temperature in Miami is 89, with dew points historically around 76 degrees.  Hot and humid - maybe a little worse than Nebraska in July.

Nebraska's kickoff times and schedule for 2015 look like this on May 15:

Sept. 5  BYU   TBA
Sept. 12 South Alabama  7 pm, BTN
Sept. 19 at Miami  2:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2
Sept. 26 Southern Miss (Homecoming)  11 am, ESPN, ESPN2 or BTN
Oct. 3  at Illinois  TBA
Oct. 10 Wisconsin  TBA
Oct. 17 at Minnesota  TBA
Oct. 24 Northwestern  TBA
Oct. 31 at Purdue  TBA
Nov. 7  Michigan State 6 pm or 7 pm, ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Nov. 14  at Rutgers  TBA
Nov. 27 Iowa  TBA

Reports suggest we should hear about a kickoff time and network for the BYU game shortly, most likely at 2:30 pm on ABC.  (There is a chance that ABC could select Stanford at Northwestern for the 2:30 time slot, pushing the Huskers/BYU game to an 11 am kickoff on ESPN.)  Broadcast times for conference games will fall under the 12-day/6-day window, meaning that ABC/ESPN and BTN can wait until two weeks before the game to set kickoff times.

With ABC/ESPN and BTN announcing their prime time schedules for Big Ten games earlier, this will be the first season since 1990 when Nebraska doesn't play a prime-time game on the road. Only two NU games will be in prime time in 2015:  South Alabama (BTN) and Michigan State (ABC/ESPN).  Conversely, that means more than a handful of morning kickoffs in all likelihood.