Nebraska and Tennessee will no longer meet in a home-and-home series that was previously scheduled to begin in 2026.
News broke this week that the series was nixed due to, in part, the Cornhuskers’ upcoming renovations to Memorial Stadium. Renovations will lower stadium capacity considerably in 2026 and also reduce attendance in 2027.
Tennessee athletic director Danny White was quick to note that it wasn’t the Volunteers who played the key role in cancelling the series
In a response to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, White revealed that the university was “very disappointed” in the decision.
“Correction: Tennessee is not canceling this series,” White wrote Friday on X. “Nebraska did. We are very disappointed that they didn’t want to play these games, especially this close to 2026.
Sharing the reasoning from the other side, Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen addressed the controversial move.
“It’s really tied to the stadium renovation project,” Dannen said via On3. “As months have gone on and we’ve really gotten our plans for what we want to do, it’s become more and more obvious that we were going to be down capacity in ’27, and there’s just no way around it.”
Dannen went on to note the financial loss that the reduced capacity (20%) will cause. Nebraska will fill the scheduling void with home games in 2026 and 2027.
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