Nebraska Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst Releases Statement On Black Friday Games

A few days ago, the Big Ten released schedules for 2020 and 2021’s football calendar. Most folks noticed that not only were the Nebraska Cornhuskers not playing the Iowa Hawkeyes anymore, but the scheduled games vs. Minnesota to finish the season are now on Saturday.

That brought the theory that the Huskers would end a long run of playing the Friday after Thanksgiving.

However, in a statement released to media types, Nebraska Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst has given thought back to going back to Friday’s to finish the regular season.

The statement:

“I want to clarify Nebraska’s position regarding the dates of our season-ending football games in 2020 and 2021 as announced earlier this week by the Big Ten Conference. At this time no final decision has been made on what dates these two games will actually be played. As in past years, the Big Ten releases opponent matchups and typically assigns these match-ups to Saturday. That has been the case in the past when we agreed to move our season ending games against Iowa from Saturday to Friday.

“Moving forward we will do everything possible to maintain our tradition of playing games on the Friday after Thanksgiving. We look forward to playing Iowa on the Friday after Thanksgiving through 2019.”

That’s an abrupt change from when the Nebraska AD and Head Coach Mike Riley stated their reasoning for not wanting to play that game on Friday anymore.

Eichorst, according to the university release, will also talk to the media tonight when Riley’s appearance is normally scheduled after practice today at the Hawks. It will be interesting to hear what Shawn is asked about, and how he responds.