Hawkeyes and Huskers playing football on 'Black Friday?' Yes! Big Ten gets it right.

The Big Ten isn't always good at details like choosing good division names for football, but it tends to get the big things right.

It knows how to do conference expansion. It knows how to launch and grow a television network. And it understood that putting the Iowa-Nebraska football game on the Friday after Thanksgiving made more sense than placing it on the Saturday after the holiday.

Let us count the ways.

1. The Ohio State-Michigan game will always be on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Even with different time slots, it doesn't make as much sense for the Big Ten to have two of its marquee rivalry games on the same day when they could be spread over two days.

Plus, you'll also have four other Big Ten matchups on the final Saturday, including what could be easily be a whopper of a matchup in Penn State-Wisconsin.

Also, the Nebraska-Iowa result could set the terms for what Michigan or Michigan State (or Northwestern or Minnesota) need to do the next day to win the (ugh) Legends Division.

2. The Friday after Thanksgiving is a virtual national holiday, and a favorite day of college football fans.

Last year on the Friday after the holiday, three Gazette sportswriters drove to the Twin Cities for the Iowa-Minnesota game the following day. On the way north, we listened to Auburn-Alabama and Colorado-Nebraska on the radio. That evening, we watched Arizona-Oregon and Boise State-Nevada on television.

It may have been the best college football day of the season given the drama produced by the Auburn and Boise State games and their impact on the national-championship and BCS bowl picture.

That Friday has several games, but it isn't overcrowded. The Iowa-Nebraska game isn't being added to the mix, but simply replaces the Colorado-Nebraska spot.

3. Nebraska gets to keep a tradition, which becomes a Big Ten tradition.

The Cornhuskers played Colorado on the Friday after Thanksgiving since 1996. From 1990 to 1995, Nebraska-Oklahoma was on that day.

It works. Playing on “Black Friday” is part of the Nebraska culture. And it's something college football fans nationwide expect to see each year.

It's like the Lions and Cowboys always playing on Thanksgiving. It's a tradition in a sports world where many traditions have been trampled.

4. Potentially, the game could be huge for the visibility of the two teams and the conference.

Colorado hasn't brought a lot to the football table in a while. It's had five straight losing seasons, in fact, and hasn't played in a January bowl since the 2001 season.

The Cornhuskers haven't been to a BCS bowl since the Rose Bowl that 2001 season, but have enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in Bo Pelini's three years as head coach with 28 wins and two trips to the Big 12 title game.

So if Nebraska and/or Iowa were good, and their end-of-season contest had significant meaning to the conference race and beyond? How great would it be for the two programs and the Big Ten to show it off on that Friday instead of wedge it in with so many other games the next day?

The two teams won't be BCS-good every season, but it's still a border battle between established programs that probably wouldn't lack for entertainment value.

Nice going, Big Ten. Now why won't you do something about those ridiculous division names?