The home-opener for Nebraska football this fall will be against an opponent who already knows they won’t be playing in a bowl game.
Akron has been handed a postseason ban after posting a failing Academic Progress Rate score for 2023-24. The Zips had a 914 multi-year APR score, which is below the 930-threshold required to remain eligible for postseason competition.
Only three football programs received postseason bans for their latest APR rate, with Akron being the only one in FBS. The two FCS programs are Mississippi Valley State and UAPB. Florida A&M, Missouri State, Murray State, and Utah Tech all received practice time reductions for low APR rates.
According to Reddit, only four programs in the last decade have fallen below the threshold to be eligible for postseason play. New Mexico State and LSU did so in 2023, but a COVID waiver was still in place. Idaho was the last program to receive a postseason ban.
For comparison, Nebraska posted a 976. The Huskers have stayed above 960 since the 2010-11 release. NU had low numbers in the mid-2000s, scoring as low as 932 in 2004-05.Akron is carrying the fourth-longest bowl drought among FBS programs. The Zips have not played in a bowl game since 2017.
The Zips have not posted a winning season since 2017, when they went 7-7. Since then, Akron is 15-63, including a trio of 2-10 seasons before going 4-8 in 2024.
Nebraska and Akron were last scheduled to play in 2018. That game was supposed to be the beginning of the Scott Frost era but was instead delayed due to lightning and eventually canceled outright.
