Iowa joins Nebraska's Black Friday tradition but it wasn't automatic

IOWA CITY - Nebraska's Black Friday college football tradition was fused in the passion of its red-hot rivalry with the Oklahoma Sooners.

In 1990, ABC persuaded Nebraska and Oklahoma officials to move their then-epic series to the day after Thanksgiving. The schools jumped at the chance to play before an almost-exclusive national audience, and an institution was born.

“It was just an opportunity the television networks gave us,” said former Nebraska football coach and current athletics director Tom Osborne. “They said this is a day a lot of people don't work, and there's not a lot of football games so would you be willing to play? So we played Oklahoma on that date for a number of years.”

ABC's suggestion has turned into a Nebraska convention. For 22 years, the Cornhuskers have commanded the national spotlight in Black Friday clashes against Oklahoma and later Colorado. The date became as important as the game to the Cornhuskers' fan base, Osborne said.

“I think our fans have kind of gotten used to it,” Osborne said. “It's something that they've counted on for a number of years, so we seem to value that Friday game.”

This year, Nebraska caps its inaugural Big Ten season by extending its day-after-Thanksgiving custom to Iowa. The schools meet Friday in Lincoln and will play next season in Iowa City on Black Friday. They will play for the Heroes Trophy, which was shipped to Lincoln on Wednesday.

Nebraska was accepted as the league's 12

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member in June 2010 to begin play in 2011. In August 2010, Big Ten and school officials parsed the conference into football divisions and constructed the league's 2011-12 football schedules. Nebraska and Iowa were placed into the Legends Division, and Mark Rudner, the Big Ten's senior associate commissioner for television administration, positioned the schools in a season-ending match-up.

“I think it was strategic,” Rudner said. “I think both of them were interested in trying to do something and make it big, and I think it worked out just fine.”

Nebraska's history of playing on Black Friday and the assigned season finale between border states seem to suggest Black Friday was the series' natural course. But Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said that notion “wasn't automatic.”

In October 2010, Rudner told The Gazette the game was staying on Saturday. But dialogue began almost immediately about shifting the game from Saturday to Friday.

“They accepted the game understanding that the starting point was it was going to be on a Saturday,” Barta said. “But as I talked with Tom and talked with (Iowa football coach) Kirk (Ferentz), they certainly were used to playing on Saturday, we were open to the concept.”

There also were obstacles for Iowa. The football team would have to alter its preparation pattern to accommodate the change. Kinnick Stadium is located just west of University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and a game drastically affects the hospital's business day.

“But because it's on Thanksgiving weekend, really for all intents and purposes it will be like a Saturday on our campus, we started talking with Nebraska,” Barta said.

Ferentz was open to moving the game from Saturday to Friday after his team's flat season-ending performance last year at Minnesota.

“After our experience last year, I was kind of at the conclusion of, ‘Why not?'” Ferentz said. “Couldn't be any worse than what we did last year on Saturday, quite frankly.

“The other thing, I think it gives us a chance to be in the national spotlight, which how can that be a bad thing unless we go out there and play bad?”

On March 7, the schools announced the move from Saturday to Friday for two years. The game tentatively is scheduled for Saturday afternoons in 2013 and 2014. The choice to move those games to Friday is in Iowa's hands.

“We knew that they had this tradition and we wanted to try it for two years – once at their place and once at our place – with the understanding that if it goes well at our campus – which we anticipate that it will – maybe it's something that we can continue for a long time,” Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said.

Osborne, for one, hopes the game becomes a tradition, like Nebraska's past Black Friday games against Oklahoma.

“I think if everyone's happy with it, if the people in Iowa are happy with it, it could be fairly permanent,” he said.

“People have said this may be a rivalry. If it is, then that would be a logical time to do it, play it.”