Nebraska Football Set for Latest Continental U.S. Kickoff in More Than 50 Years

Get the coffee ready and pre-plan those naps for Saturday now. Nebraska at Oregon will be the epitome of Big Ten After Dark.

The Big Ten Conference finalized television times on Sunday for games on Oct. 17. The Huskers and Ducks are slated for the nightcap, kicking off at 8 p.m. local in Eugene. Yes, that means two hours later (10 p.m.) back in Lincoln and three hours later (11 p.m.) for the East Coast Husker fans.

The way scheduled kickoff times and actual kickoff times go anymore, don't be surprised to see this one get going closer to 10:10 p.m. CT. That would make it the latest starting game in the continental U.S. in program history.

Two previous games have had kickoffs of at least 10 p.m. CT: 1970 at USC and 1972 at UCLA. The game with the Bruins got going at 10:05 p.m. CT. The Huskers went 0-1-1 in those games, tying the Trojans 21-21 before falling to the Bruins 20-17. That was Bob Devaney's first loss after a 32-game unbeaten streak that included two national titles.

Nebraska is 2-3-1 in games played in the continental U.S. with kickoff times of at least 9 p.m. CT.

With this game being at Oregon, and Nebraska having already played late-night kicks against Washington, UCLA, and USC, this will finish the bingo card of late kickoffs for the Huskers against the four newest members of the Big Ten.

Beyond games played in the contiguous 48 states, Nebraska has other late-night kickoffs.

In 1982, Nebraska played a game at Hawaii. The kickoff on Dec. 4 was at 7:30 p.m. at Aloha Stadium, which is 11:30 p.m. back in Lincoln. The Huskers trailed 13-0 midway through the third quarter but dominated the rest of the game for a 37-16 win.

In 1992, Nebraska went even further across the Pacific Ocean to play a game in Tokyo. NU took on Kansas State on Dec. 5 in the Coca-Cola Bowl, a regular-season game that saw the Huskers clinch the Big Eight title with a 38-24 win. Kickoff in Tokyo was 1 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6, which rolls back to 10 p.m. CT on Saturday, Dec. 5, in Lincoln.

Saturday's game at Oregon will be televised on FOX.

Husker historian Dave Feit contributed information for this story.