Did you know? USC and Nebraska: football foes, classroom collaborators

This Saturday’s matchup between USC and the University of Nebraska is the sixth meeting all-time between the Trojans and the Cornhuskers. Nebraska has never beaten USC, and now the two storied programs will meet at the L.A. Coliseum for the first time as conference foes. Though the Huskers and the Trojans haven’t met on the gridiron since 2014, the two schools have been collaborators in classroom.

The two universities joined forces to create the SIT-PT Project, a five-year research project focused on children’s early development and readiness to learn. The study compares the effectiveness of two physical therapy interventions — Movement, Orientation, Repetition and Exercise (MORE-PT) and Sitting Together and Reaching to Play (START-Play). The former “targets activities that will improve the quality of movement, postural control, strength and flexibility for use in everyday motor skills,” while the latter “targets sitting, reaching and motor-based problem-solving to promote development and readiness to learn in infants with motor delays or challenges.”