Future Iowa-Nebraska Football Games moved to Friday after Thanksgiving

By Kevin Kelley -

Hy-Vee Heroes GameFuture Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers football games will be played on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the Big Ten announced today.

The third annual Hy-Vee Heroes game will be played on Friday, Nov. 29, 2013 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, NE. It was previously scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 30.

Games in 2014 and beyond will also be played on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is dubbed Black Friday.

This will be the third consecutive year that Iowa and Nebraska meet on Black Friday. Nebraska beat Iowa 20-7 in Lincoln in 2011 and 13-7 in Iowa City in 2012. Nebraska leads the overall series 28-12-3.

“We’re excited about playing our annual football game with Nebraska on the Friday after Thanksgiving for a number of reasons,” said Gary Barta, UI’s director of athletics. “This provides the student-athletes who have already lost the opportunity to spend the holiday at home with their families two days away from football. In addition, the Friday television window provides great exposure for our program. We greatly appreciate the adjustments in schedules that our fans, and those who help us stage the game in Iowa City every other year, will have to make.”

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Comments (5)

Nice! This is a prime time slot and Iowa would have been foolish to move it to Saturday. I hope they can keep it going beyond 2014.

It said “future” “football games.” Since that is plural then I expect that this will be the new status quo into all future years.

I have always thought and said the Big Ten should have a season ending fanfare with half the conference season ending games being played the Friday after Thanksgiving and the other half of the games being played on the Saturday. For Big Ten fans we could see back-to-back-to-back… Big Ten games all weekend. Start with Iowa-Nebraska on Friday morning and end with Michigan-Ohio State on Saturday night. I’d be in heaven.

Looking forward to this. Great exposure for Nebraska, great for Iowa, and great for the Big 10. Don’t want to be going up against Michigan-Ohio State, and Nebraska has been playing on Black Friday for over twenty years. It’s good to keep these traditions going where we can, even if Black Friday has been glutted by so many games. Last year: http://wp.me/p1ZYxe-Dg

Really the “tradition” is only Nebbies. Iowa’s old last game rival for decades was Minny. Now that they have an outdoor stadium, glad that is over. Miserable, arctic cold and wet weather in Twin Cities usually presented itself before the Metrodome era making it more suitable for curling or hockey. Personally, I would prefer round robin BIG games but OSU and UM dictate what everyone else has to do…..create a new “rival”. At least czar Delaney won’t force that label anymore after this year on Purdue or Iowa like the crossover game was.