Huskers Open Big Ten Play at Michigan State on Dec. 3; Big Ten Home Opener Set for Dec. 5

Lincoln – For the first time, the Big Ten will play two conference games in early December, as the Big Ten Conference unveiled its 2017-18 conference schedule Wednesday afternoon.

The Huskers will begin Big Ten play on the road, opening Big Ten action on Sunday, Dec. 3, as they travel to East Lansing, Mich. to face Michigan State. Nebraska's Big Ten home opener will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 5, as the Huskers welcome Minnesota to Pinnacle Bank Arena.

The move of the opening week of conference play was to eliminate conference games taking place between Christmas and New Year's Day and allowing student-athletes the opportunity for an expanded holiday break.

“We understand the challenges that present themselves to the league schedule for this season,” Nebraska Coach Tim Miles said. “It will be difficult for the entire conference because of the compressed schedule. For the Huskers, we look at an eight-game stretch combining non-conference and Big Ten games from the start of our Orlando trip until the Kansas game on Dec. 16. We play three games in eight days to open January, including road games at Northwestern and Purdue and against Wisconsin at home. We are happy to have two Big Ten games among our four Saturday home games and also have a good stretch of home games late in conference season. Overall, it looks like another exciting conference season of great basketball.”

The 2017-18 season will also see expanded coverage for Big Ten games, as the conference features TV contracts with FOX Sports (Fox and FS1), ESPN (ABC, ESPN and ESPN2) and CBS as well as BTN. Big Ten games will be televised on 51 of 55 days on one of its major TV partners from Jan. 2 until the end of the regular season on Feb. 25.

Nebraska will resume conference play on Jan. 2, as the Huskers travel to Northwestern before heading to regular-season champion Purdue on Jan. 6. Nebraska's first conference home game in January will be against a Wisconsin team that went to the NCAA Sweet 16, capping a stretch of five straight Big Ten opponents which went to the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

The remainder of the January schedule includes home tilts against Illinois (Jan. 15), Michigan (Jan. 18) and Iowa (Jan. 27) along with road trips to Ohio State (Jan. 22) and Rutgers (Jan. 24). Of note, the Iowa game is one of two Saturday home games during Big Ten play.

After opening the month of February at Minnesota on Feb. 6, the Huskers will be at home for most of the month, as four of the Huskers' last five games are at home. NU hosts Rutgers (Feb. 10) and Maryland (Feb. 13) before a rematch at Illinois on Feb. 17. The Huskers will be at home for the final week of the regular season, hosting Indiana in the only matchup between the teams on Feb. 20 and hosting Penn State for Senior Night on Sunday, Feb. 25. It marks the first time in 21 years and only the third time since 1970 that Nebraska has ended the regular season with consecutive conference home games.

Start times and television information for all Big Ten games and non-conference matchups will be announced at a later date. All of the Huskers' Big Ten games, as well as the 2018 Big Ten Tournament, will be televised on one of the Big Ten's four national TV partners.

Season tickets for the 2017-18 season will go on sale on Aug. 29 at 10 a.m., by visiting Huskers.com/Tickets or calling 800-8-BIGRED. The home schedule features Big Ten matchups with NCAA Sweet 16 qualifiers Wisconsin and Michigan as well as Maryland, Minnesota, Indiana and Illinois while the non-conference slate features a matchup with Kansas. Fans who sign up for the 2017-18 request list by Aug. 21 will be able to participate in the Seat Yourself process.