After all of this change, all of what once was morphing into something we barely recognize, Nebraska still doesn’t get it.
It’s about the product on the field.
College football is now about the best games, between the best teams, in the best environments. To grow the game, and more critically in the now era of where athletes are going to be paid by schools for their name, image and likeness, the revenue-producing future of the sport.
So what does Nebraska do? It cancels a home-and-home series with Tennessee in 2026 and 2027, a sweet spot of new scheduling ideals if there ever was one in the new college football landscape.
Why, you ask? If you listen to Nebraska officials, it’s because Memorial Stadium renovations will reduce capacity in 2027, when the Huskers were set to travel to Tennessee. The extra home game eliminates that problem.
It also creates a much larger public relations pothole.
Make no mistake: Nebraska isn’t running scared from Tennessee as much as it’s running toward the Indiana model of taking the College Football Playoff path of least resistance. Neither is a good look ― nor productive in the Big Ten’s grand scheduling plan.
The Big Ten and SEC have spent four years completely dismantling college football in a quasi-arms race, focusing on generating bigger games to sell to media rights partners to make up for millions in lost revenue from the expected system of sharing money with players in a ‘pay-for-play’ system under the guise of NIL.
And the Nebraska administration comes swooping in, in one quick move on a sleepy, post-football sports world Friday, and drops a bomb.
Nebraska vs. Tennessee is exactly what the Big Ten and SEC are trying to sell, the very game(s) ESPN and Fox will pay more for in future rights negotiations. If you’re listing potential high-value games between the two leagues, Nebraska vs. Tennessee is high on the list.
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So is Nebraska vs. Georgia, or Florida, or LSU or Alabama. The unique campus games rarely (in some cases, never) played that the Big Ten and SEC are selling not only to media partners, but fans.
Because the last thing – the very last thing – fans want to see when they’re shelling out big dollars for their fall Saturdays is Ball State on the other sideline.
If you want a passionate and loyal fanbase – there is none better than those in Lincoln – to buy into seismic change that has eliminated almost every norm of the game they adore, you can’t announce that Bowling Green will replace Tennessee on the 2026 home schedule and then play Miami (Ohio) at home in 2027 instead of the Volunteers in Knoxville because you’re going to lose a few million during stadium renovations.
Think, for a moment, what Nebraska is selling its fanbase. The program is a shadow of its former championship self, desperately trying to fight out of a lost decade of futility.
It took two seasons, but coach Matt Rhule finally got the Huskers back to the postseason, winning the Pinstripe Bowl. Baby steps, everyone.
The Huskers have a rising star in quarterback Dylan Raiola, and the expansion of the College Football Playoff has reignited championship hope. And the next thing you know, the Huskers are running from Tennessee.
How else can your fans look at it?
According to its most recent financial statement, Nebraska made $24.2 million in ticket revenue from seven games in 2023, or $3.46 million per game. Renovations to the south side of Memorial Stadium, which will cost an estimated $450 million, will temporarily eliminate 23,000 seats from the capacity of 85,458.
That 27 percent reduction would eliminate approximately $934,200 from the average take-home in tickets sales.
So for approximately $1 million in ticket revenue and associated revenue from game day, Nebraska has decided to torpedo a game its fans want to see, and a significant game of need for the Big Ten and SEC to dangle during future media rights negotiations. There’s also the matters of Nebraska having to pay $1 million to Tennessee to get out of the two-game contract and also pay guarantees to Bowling Green and Miami (Ohio) that likely would exceed $1 million each.
I’m not buying it.
This is more about Indiana than it is Tennessee.
This is about manufacturing the easiest path possible to the CFP, and then sneaking under the tent behind the guise of playing a schedule 30-40 FBS teams would’ve dominated, too. Then declaring, “all we can do is play the teams on the schedule.”
So when the CFP moves to 14 or 16 teams in 2026 – would you look at that, the same year Nebraska was to play host to Tennessee – the Huskers have the best possible opportunity to return to the elite of college football.
It will be Year 4 under Rhule, and Raiola will be a third-year starter with presumably many more pieces around him on offense to change the program.
Nebraska has decided to play the short game by ignoring the longer, more impactful game for the Big Ten as a whole. The same Big Ten that has waited nearly 15 years for its rate of return on inviting the Huskers into the members-only club.
The very least Nebraska could do is join the Big Ten is its goal of becoming more attractive to its media partners — and future new media partners. The only certainty about the fluid media production business is live sports sells.
Live sports that matter.
Not another Sun Belt team playing Nebraska for a paycheck.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
