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Friday has been a weird day regarding the upcoming September football matchup of storied rivals Oklahoma and Nebraska. The two programs are set to rekindle their series this season much to the delight of both fan bases and college football fans everywhere, but it was reported early Friday that the Cornhuskers were looking to back out of the game to instead play a home game that weekend against a non-power five school.
That was met with immediate backlash from basically all parties as the game has been a highly-anticipated one ever since it was announced and put on the schedule. Both Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione and head coach Lincoln Riley gave no impression that the game wouldn’t happen saying they anticipated the game would be played as planned and that the Sooners were looking forward to it.
Now, it seems that public pressure has won out as Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos released a statement saying the game would indeed go on as scheduled.
“The University of Nebraska is looking forward to playing Oklahoma in Norman on September 18th,” Moos said in a statement released on Twitter. “Due to the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to Husker athletics and the local community, our administration did explore the possibility of adding an eighth home game this fall. That option would have helped us mitigate cost-cutting measures and provide a much-needed boost to our local economy. Ultimately, the decision was made to move forward with our game at Oklahoma in 2021. We have the utmost respect for the University of Oklahoma, and this storied rivalry, and I know our fans have been excited about this series for a long time. Go Big Red!”
As Moos said in the statement, the claim is that Nebraska was hoping to pick up a home game for the financial boost of it in the place of a trip to Norman. Still, the public perception was heavily negative toward the Cornhuskers with most perceiving it as an attempt to avoid a potentially blowout loss to one of their old rivals.
Nevertheless, this peculiar story has seemingly come to an end with the status quo. The game is back to being planned to go as normal with Nebraska playing at Oklahoma later this year in September.
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