Let’s treat this as a way-too-early preview of a football game. Saturday, Sept. 17 2016, the Nebraska Cornhuskers will take on the Oregon Ducks. Nebraska brings in one of the most storied programs in college football history, but lacks recent success, which for Husker fans means getting to a national championship game. Oregon has never won a national championship, but they bring in a string of recent success.

Now, let’s celebrate. For the next four years Nebraska will finally have top programs in the non-conference. In 2014 and 2015 Nebraska has Miami on the schedule, and in 2016 and 2017 Oregon is on the schedule.

For the past six seasons, Nebraska has had good, but not great opponents before conference play.

In 2008 and 2009 Nebraska had Virginia Tech, in 2010 and 2011 Nebraska faced Washington and in 2012 and this year Nebraska played UCLA. Here is a breakdown of each opponent:

Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech is in the ACC, but they aren’t Florida State or Miami. They have never won a national championship. In 2008, they came into the contest 3-1, unranked. In 2009 Virginia Tech came into the game ranked No. 13 and with a 2-1 record. This was a good year for Virginia Tech, and they were a decent name, but they don’t carry the same weight as the top names in college football.

Washington: They are part of the powerful PAC-12. But, they are a step below Oregon, Stanford, USC and UCLA when it comes to prowess. Nebraska dominated the Huskies in both match-ups.

UCLA: Normally a leap above Washington, but unfortunately Nebraska got UCLA a year too early. Although the Bruins beat the Huskers in 2012, they weren’t highly relevant in college football last season. This season they are back to a true UCLA level of football. If Nebraska played UCLA this year and next year it would have been a top-level matchup.

What is better about Miami and Oregon than about UCLA, Washington and Virginia Tech? Prestige. Miami is a program as storied as Nebraska, matching the Huskers’ five national titles. Miami has been struggling the past few seasons, but this year they are back to prominence with a 6-0 record and a No. 10 ranking.

Oregon, the focus of this story, is currently ranked No. 2 in college football and has been one of the top teams since 2008. In addition, Oregon’s current offensive coordinator is Scott Frost, a Lincoln born University of Nebraska Lincoln graduate. Frost led Nebraska to a national championship in 1997 as the quarterback for the Huskers.

I applaud Nebraska for being daring enough to add Oregon to the schedule. Teams are increasingly shying away from tough non-conference match-ups as conferences grow and become tougher, and losing becomes a bigger and bigger threat to postseason success (although some of this pressure to go undefeated will fade with the four-team playoff).

It will be exciting to see Oregon, in their amazing uniforms (which deserve a column of their own) running onto the Memorial Stadium turf in front of 90,000 screaming Nebraska fans. It will be energizing for college football fans to see a meeting of two top teams. Now Nebraska just needs to beat Oregon twice for Husker fans to finish the celebration.