STEVEN M. SIPPLE / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, May 2, 2007 7:00 pm
Nebraska turned to the Sun Belt Conference to fill out its 2009 football schedule.
The schedule, formally released Thursday, includes three Sun Belt opponents the Huskers have never faced — Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State. All three games will be in Lincoln.
Nebraska announced the Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State games Thursday. Games in 2009 against Florida Atlantic and traditional power Virginia Tech had been announced previously.
Nebraska plays Virginia Tech in 2008 in Lincoln before the teams square off in 2009 in Blacksburg, Va., to complete their home-and-home package. The Huskers’ other 2009 nonconference opponents agreed to one-year contracts.
In formulating the 2008 and 2009 schedules, Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson said he tried to “build around” the Virginia Tech game. He likely will use a similar philosophy in the future when NU plays home-and-home series against Washington (2010-11), UCLA (2012-13) and Tennessee (2016-17).
“We’re trying to find teams willing to come in and play,” Pederson said. “It isn’t always easy to do.”
He added, “A lot of (prominent) teams will play a schedule like ours in 2009 — minus Virginia Tech.”
Florida Atlantic, coached by Howard Schnellenberger, last season finished with a record of 5-7 overall and 4-3 in the Sun Belt. Louisiana-Lafayette was 6-6 and 3-4, paced by a ground attack that ranked 11th nationally.
Arkansas State, 6-6 and 4-3 in 2006, might not be intimidated by the atmosphere in Lincoln considering the Indians this season will play road games against Texas, Tennessee and Southern Miss.
After playing eight home games in 2008, Nebraska returns to a seven-game home schedule in 2009. Each home game nets NU about $3.5 million in revenue.
In addition to Virginia Tech, Nebraska’s 2008 nonconference opponents are San Jose State, New Mexico State and Western Michigan. This year, the Huskers will play Nevada, Southern California and Ball State in Lincoln, in addition to a trip to Wake Forest.
Pederson said scheduling can be tricky because it is difficult to project a team’s overall ability years in advance. For instance, he said, few people would have anticipated Wake Forest’s recent rise to national prominence.
Nebraska has tried to schedule more home-and-home series with BCS schools, Pederson said.
“We just haven’t had a lot of luck,” he said. “A lot of teams say their conference schedule is tough enough. That’s what it comes down to most of the time.”
Briefly
Former Nebraska kicker Jordan Congdon will walk on at Southern California. Because of NCAA transfer rules, he will have to sit out the this season before joining the team in 2008.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.