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Nebraska No Longer Exploring Options for Fall Sports, Larger Deficit Expected

By News Aug 14, 2020 | 6:45 AM

Fall sports for the Huskers are officially off.

Nebraska leadership from the chancellor and system president to the athletic director and football coach all echoed the same sentiment Monday and Tuesday that the school would be exploring options for playing this fall fall even with the Big Ten Conference calling off sports for the season. Those efforts came to a close for good Thursday.

“That was not permissible, primarily, I feel, because the season really wasn’t canceled; it was postponed,” said AD Bill Moos on Sports Nightly.

Moos said they’re now hopefully going to play in the spring, which would have made it difficult to play a series of non-conference games in the fall before a conference schedule in the spring.

“At least, that’s how the conference felt. That’s not how Scott (Frost) and I felt. At the end of the day, we are proud members of the Big Ten. It’s a prestigious conference and we will be in compliance. We thought, all the way until actually (Wednesday) that we might have a chance to do that.”

The loss of fall football, according to Moos, is a projected loss of “north of $100 million.” Moos noted that 17 staff were cut along with a 10-percent budget reduction in anticipation of a $12-15 million deficit. He’s hoping a spring season can close that gap.

“If we can get some television revenue or parts of it from a nontraditional (football) season, that will help,” said Moos. “My senior staff right now as we’re speaking is in our conference rooms looking at all the different ways we can address this.

“That is a daunting exercise.”

Feature Image by Kenny Larabee.