Lincoln – The Nebraska women’s basketball team hasn’t started the 2014-15 season yet, but the Huskers are already setting records with the potential of 16 regular-season games being nationally televised, Coach Connie Yori announced on Monday, Sept. 29.
The Big Ten Conference and Big Ten Network officially announced its TV designations for women’s basketball on Monday afternoon, and the Huskers will fill the BTN airwaves with nine guaranteed regular-season appearances on the network and the possibility of two more wildcard selections.
Nebraska has never had more than 11 regular-season games televised in a year, and the record for nationally televised games in a season is 15 (including conference and NCAA tournaments).
“The Big Ten Network continues to provide our program with outstanding national exposure,” Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. “We’re especially happy that BTN is giving our fans at least four and maybe five chances to watch our team on the road this year. Overall, having between 14 and 16 games televised nationally, including our games on CBS, ESPN2, Fox Sports 1 and the Pac-12 Network, gives our program its highest level of national exposure in history. It also gives our dedicated Husker fans more chances to watch us when we’re on the road. We’re excited about that.”
Season tickets for Nebraska women’s basketball are on sale now at Huskers.com or by calling the Athletic Ticket Office at 1-800-8-BIG-RED. Single-game tickets for NU’s non-conference home game with Utah at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Sunday, Nov. 23 at 1 p.m., are also available now.
In addition to the prospect of 11 BTN games, the Huskers will face Maryland on CBS at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Saturday, Jan. 3 at 3 p.m., in the conference’s premier slot for women’s basketball all season long. It will be Nebraska’s second appearance on CBS in the last three years. The Huskers will battle the Terrapins on ESPN2 on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. in College Park.
Nebraska will make its first two national TV appearances of the year on the Pac-12 Network, when the Huskers face Washington State in Pullman on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 10 p.m. (CT), before battling UCLA on Friday, Nov. 28 at 3 p.m. (CT) in Los Angeles.
The Huskers will play their third televised road non-conference game against Creighton at D.J. Sokol Arena on Thursday, Dec. 11 at 8:05 p.m. It will be Nebraska’s first-ever appearance on Fox Sports 1.
The Big Red will make their first BTN appearance as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge when the Huskers take on traditional national power Duke at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m. The game will be one of the featured match-ups of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, pitting the defending Big Ten Tournament champion Huskers against a Blue Devil team that has won seven ACC titles (four regular season, three tournament) in the last five years. The game will be a rematch of Nebraska’s 2013 NCAA Sweet 16 clash with Duke in Norfolk, Va.
The Huskers will tip-off their first 18-game Big Ten Conference season at Minnesota on Monday, Dec. 29, in a game televised by BTN. Tip-off between the Huskers and Gophers is set for 8 p.m. After opening home Big Ten action against Maryland on Jan. 3 on CBS, NU’s third conference contest will be back on BTN, as the Huskers head to East Lansing to meet Michigan State onThursday, Jan. 8. Tip time is set for 7:30 p.m. (central), as Nebraska tries to avenge last year’s road loss to the 2014 Big Ten co-regular-season champion Spartans at the Breslin Center.
After a Sunday game at Illinois (BTN Plus, Jan. 11), the Huskers will return home for a pair of huge games against traditional Big Ten powers Penn State and Purdue that will be televised by BTN. Nebraska takes on defending Big Ten regular-season co-champion and 2014 NCAA Sweet 16 participant Penn State on Thursday, Jan. 15 at 6 p.m., before facing the Boilermakers on Monday, Jan. 19, at Pinnacle Bank Arena at 6 p.m. Five of Nebraska’s first six conference games are scheduled for national TV.
After a Thursday night road trip to Wisconsin (BTN Plus, Jan. 22), the Huskers will be back on BTN for a Monday night clash at Iowa on Jan. 26. Tip time between the Huskers and Hawkeyes on BTN is set for 8 p.m.
Following non-televised home games with Illinois (BTN Plus, Jan. 29) and Michigan (BTN Plus, Feb. 1), the Huskers return to BTN for their first-ever road trip to Rutgers. The Big Red and the Scarlet Knights will face off on Thursday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. (central) on BTN.
Nebraska will remain on the East Coast for a Sunday clash with Maryland on Feb. 8 at 3 p.m., which will be televised live nationally by ESPN2, before returning home for a rematch with Iowa on Thursday, Feb. 12. NU’s 10th game in four seasons as Big Ten foes with the Hawkeyes will be televised live from Pinnacle Bank Arena with an 8 p.m. BTN tip.
NU’s home rematch with Wisconsin (BTN Plus, Feb. 15) and road trip to Northwestern (BTN Plus, Feb. 18) will not be nationally televised, but the Huskers’ journey to Bloomington to battle Indiana on Saturday, Feb. 21, could become an additional BTN appearance. The network has TV windows set for Noon, 2, 4 and 6 p.m. (central) on that Saturday.
The Huskers’ final scheduled appearance on BTN is set for their rematch with Minnesota on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tip time with the Gophers has been set by BTN for 8 p.m.
Nebraska could add one more regular-season television appearance on Senior Day at Pinnacle Bank Arena, with a wildcard window on Sunday, March 1, when the Huskers take on Ohio State. The regular-season finale will feature three network windows at Noon, 2 and 4 p.m. (central), as Nebraska’s four-player senior class of Emily Cady, Hailie Sample, Tear’a Laudermill and Brandi Jeffery make their final regular-season appearances at the arena.
After a new opening Wednesday at the Big Ten Tournament (Seeds 11-14) will be streamed to BTN Plus, the next three rounds of the Big Ten Tournament will be televised live nationally by BTN. The championship game will appear on ESPN on Sunday, March 8 at 6 p.m. The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be back on ESPN on Monday, March 16, before the ESPN family of networks presents every game of the 2015 NCAA Tournament, March 20-April 7.
New this year to the women’s tournament, first- and second-round games will be awarded to the top-16 seeds bidding for home sites. A shift from the predetermined home sites in the first two rounds in recent years. NCAA Regional games will be played in Oklahoma City, Okla., Greensboro, N.C., Albany, N.Y., and Sacramento, Calif., before the Tampa Bay Times Forum plays host to the 2015 NCAA Women’s Final Four, April 5-7.
In addition to the games set for TV, all of Nebraska’s non-televised regular-season Big Ten games will be available to fans on BTN Plus, the network’s new designation for both BTN.com and BTN2Go games, which were previously designated as the BTDN (Big Ten Digital Network). BTN Plus will provide video streams through all devices (laptop/tablet/smartphone) of Nebraska’s non-televised home games during the non-conference season. Every Nebraska women’s basketball game over the last three seasons has been available to Husker fans either on TV or video stream, a stretch of 100 consecutive games. To subscribe to BTN Plus, visit BTN.com.
CHICAGO – BTN is dialing up the full-court press for the 2014-15 basketball season with a record number 125 men’s and women’s conference basketball games set to air on the network, an expansive lineup of nightly studio coverage and a number of key additions to its roster of basketball experts. BTN’s conference schedule tips off with a special “Super Wednesday,” a New Year’s Eve tripleheader.
