How Nebraska, Wisconsin can take the Big Ten by storm
By Austin Lloyd
Nebraska and Wisconsin could have it way worse than they do
While all of this proves that none can deny Rhule and Fickell’s gift of picking teams up by their bootstraps, they can’t take all of the credit for their promising 2023 odds. Especially when remembering that we are talking about Big Ten teams, their schedules come off as relatively docile. Let’s take a peek at Nebraska’s first.
It may sound blunt, but it’s undeniable that Nebraska’s three non-conference games are ridiculously soft. Two are at home against Group of 5 teams (Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech, both of which are coming off of 3-9 seasons). Their third is a road game at Colorado—a historically inferior rival who was arguably 2022’s worst Power 5 team.
Big Ten play will not exactly be a cakewalk for the Cornhuskers, but it could certainly be tougher. Of their nine league games, seven of them are set against foes they played last year. Of those seven, one was a win (at Iowa), four were losses decided by seven points or less (vs Northwestern, at Purdue, Minnesota, Wisconsin), and two were losses decided by three possessions or more (Illinois, at Michigan, with the Wolverines serving as one of three teams from the Big Ten East).
The two East teams that will not be revisited in 2023 were Indiana and Rutgers, both of which fell to Nebraska in pitiful fashion.
Rather, their other two cross-divisional foes for this season will be Maryland and Michigan State. The Terrapins have never come close to beating the Huskers in their two previous meetings and will be on the road. As for the Spartans, they failed to make the postseason last year. With that stuff in mind, a revamped Nebraska could likely beat both of them.
So in conclusion, last year’s Huskers had the potential to go 7-2 in the Big Ten instead of 3-6. With better coaching in Lincoln this time around, it would be foolish to assume they couldn’t actually do so in 2023. At that point, just throw in an unbeaten out-of-conference slate and they’re hitting 10 wins for the first time since the Bo Pelini days.