Nebraska’s 2009 non-conference football schedule ranks No. 7 in the Big 12 Conference in terms of difficulty, according to The Sporting News Today.

Oklahoma’s non-conference slate of BYU (at Dallas Cowboys Stadium), Idaho State, Tulsa and at Miami (Fla.) ranks No. 1 with Colorado (Colorado State, at Toledo, Wyoming and at West Virginia) second.

The Cornhuskers, whose non-league slate includes home games against Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State and Virginia Tech, were likely saved by their Sept. 19 road date with Virginia Tech. TSN Today ranked the NU-Hokies matchup as the second-best non-conference Big 12 game this season behind Georgia at Oklahoma State.

The easiest Big 12 non-conference schedule? TSN Today gave that distinction to Kansas State, which will host Massachusetts and Tennessee Tech and travel to Louisiana-Lafayette and UCLA.

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During Tuesday's teleconference with the Big 12 Conference's men's basketball coaches, Nebraska's Doc Sadler said that he views the trend of young players going to Europe to play professionally as something that's probably here to stay.

“With my background, I’ve been at different levels and it has been probably seven to 10 years ago that most kids went to junior college and most kids who didn’t qualify or whatever went to prep schools and now I think this is going to be the third option," Sadler said. "I do believe that this is probably going to be here to stay.
“Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of people out there who believe that kids can go overseas and just make all kinds of money and the fact of the matter is their economy is hurting as much as ours and you see so many teams go under, but I don’t know that the kids — more importantly, I don’t think the people who are involved with kids — ever think that option is going to be a bad option for them.
“So just as prep schools became a huge, huge player in college basketball, I do believe that kids going overseas now is fixing to be a huge factor, also.”

Sadler said he hasn't had much experience with potential recruits opting to go overseas to play professionally, but figures it could come up in the future.

“It’s a Catch 22," Sadler said. "You hope you have players who are either good enough to go professionally in one way or another, but at the same time, you just hope the kids make good decisions. I haven’t had that situation yet.
“Aleks Maric, when I took over the job here, strongly considered playing in Europe, but thankfully, he came back to us.”

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Huskers Illustrated magazine released its 2009 pre-season top 25 poll and pre-season All-Big 12 teams Tuesday. Five Big 12 teams cracked the top 25, while three Big 12 South teams were picked in the top 10. Nebraska is ranked No. 19 after entering the season unranked in 2008.

The rankings are included in the 2009 Huskers Illustrated Football Yearbook, which hits newsstands on Friday, June 12 for $9.95. The Yearbook is available at ShopHuskersIllustrated.com or as part of a 19-issue annual subscription for $51.95.

Florida was nearly a unanimous No. 1 pick, receiving 11 of the 12 first place votes. Texas (receiving the only other first place vote), Oklahoma, USC and Virginia Tech rounded out the top five. Oklahoma State, despite being picked third in the Big 12 South was ranked ninth and Kansas the Big 12 North favorite, 16th

Huskers Illustrated’s rankings reflect top 10 votes from Huskers Illustrated writers and other media members familiar with college football.

Husker senior nose tackle Ndamukong Suh, HI’s pick for Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, is featured on the cover of the magazine’s 500th issue after forgoing the 2009 NFL Draft. The 160-page magazine is the 500th issue in Huskers Illustrated’s 29-year history and includes a comprehensive season preview, including outlooks on every Big 12 team and each of Nebraska’s non-conference opponents.

Suh is one of three Nebraska players to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors, joining offensive lineman Jacob Hickman and kicker Alex Henery. 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford of Oklahoma was named the preseason Offensive Player of the Year.


2009 HUSKERS ILLUSTRATED PRE-SEASON TOP 25
1. Florida (11)
2. Texas (1)
3. Oklahoma
4. USC
5. Virginia Tech
6. Ohio State
7. Ole Miss
8. Alabama
9. Oklahoma State
10. LSU
11. Penn State
12. Boise State
13. Oregon
14. Georgia
15. California
16. Kansas
17. TCU
18. Georgia
19. Nebraska
20. Iowa
21. Utah
22. Florida State
23. Georgia Tech
24. Notre Dame
25. Oregon State

HUSKERS ILLUSTRATED PRE-SEASON ALL-BIG 12
FIRST TEAM OFFENSE
POS. PLAYER HT. WT. YR. SCHOOL
WR Dez Bryant 6-2 215 Jr. Oklahoma State
WR Dezmon Briscoe 6-3 200 Jr. Kansas
WR Jordan Shipley 6-0 190 Sr. Texas
TE Jermaine Gresham 6-6 261 Sr. Oklahoma
OL Russell Okung 6-6 305 Sr. Oklahoma State
OL Adam Ulatoski 6-8 320 Sr. Texas
OL Chris Hall 6-4 300 Sr. Texas
OL JACOB HICKMAN 6-4 295 SR. NEBRASKA
OL Trent Williams 6-5 308 Sr. Oklahoma
QB Sam Bradford 6-4 218 Jr. Oklahoma
RB DeMarco Murray 6-1 205 Jr. Oklahoma
RB Kendall Hunter 5-8 190 Jr. Oklahoma State
PK ALEX HENERY 6-2 175 JR. NEBRASKA
KR Perrish Cox 6-0 195 Sr. Oklahoma State

FIRST TEAM DEFENSE
POS. PLAYER HT. WT. YR. SCHOOL
DL Auston English 6-3 253 Sr. Oklahoma
DL NDAMUKONG SUH 6-4 300 SR. NEBRASKA
DL Gerald McCoy 6-4 295 Jr. Oklahoma
DL Sergio Kindle 6-4 239 Sr. Texas
LB Travis Lewis 6-2 232 So. Oklahoma
LB Joe Pawelek 6-2 240 Sr. Baylor
LB Sean Weatherspoon 6-2 245 Sr. Missouri
DB Jordan Lake 6-1 210 Sr. Baylor
DB Darrell Stuckey 6-1 205 Sr. Kansas
DB Dominique Franks 6-0 189 Jr. Oklahoma
DB Cha’pelle Brown 5-7 170 Sr. Colorado
P Derek Epperson 6-3 240 Jr. Baylor
PR Dez Bryant 6-2 215 Jr. Oklahoma State

Offensive Player of the Year: Sam Bradford, Oklahoma
Defensive Player of the Year: Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska

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