Here's the word from on high:
When the Universities of Iowa and Nebraska meet on the football field this fall as Big Ten Conference rivals for the first time, the game will take place on Friday, Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving.
The Hawkeyes and Cornhuskers announced Monday that both the 2011 contest, in Lincoln, and the 2012 game, in Iowa City, will be played on Friday. The teams will meet in Kinnick Stadium on Nov. 23, 2012.
This is somewhat of a surprise coming from the Iowa Athletic Department as under Ferentz, the football program has been very "traditional." However, given that things is the have been moving more in the non-traditional direction for the conference (and thus Iowa) it's not that surprising. There are more night games, conference games after Thanksgiving, a new conference championship game, etc... So a Friday game doesn't seem like such a far stretch.
It makes a ton of sense for Nebraska, who has been playing these Black Friday games against their rival for the past 20 years. When Nebraska-Oklahoma was a big deal, the teams faced off on Friday from 1990-1995. Then came the Big 12 and Oklahoma was replaced with Colorado, but the game remained on Friday.
I'm sure Jim Delany & Co. are happy about this move. It gives the conference some extra exposure over the holiday weekend; Iowa-Nebraska on Friday as a lead-in to OSU-Michigan (and less importantly Penn State-Wisconsin) on Saturday. It's not hard to imagine that both the Legends and Leaders Division Titles will come down to those 3 games.
Though the B1G TEN schedule hasn't been released for 2013 and beyond, I would guess that this game will be played on the Friday after Thanksgiving for the foreseeable future. It seems like marketing gold for the University that the day is called BLACK Friday. Blackout anyone?