The Nebraska Cornhuskers have canceled their future football series against the Tennessee Volunteers, while also adding three future home contests, the school announced Friday.
Nebraska and Tennessee were scheduled to begin a home-and-home series at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., on Sept. 12, 2026, with the return game slated for Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 11, 2027. The Cornhuskers have canceled that series with the Volunteers, citing expected reduced capacity at Memorial Stadium in 2027 due to renovations.
“We are making plans to embark on major renovations of Memorial Stadium that may impact our seating capacity for the 2027 season,” Nebraska Director of Athletics Troy Dannen said. “The best scenario for us is to have eight home games in 2027 to offset any potential revenue loss from a reduced capacity. The additional home games will also have a tremendous economic benefit on the Lincoln community.”
As result of canceling, Nebraska will have to pay Tennessee $500,000 per game for a total of $1 million, according to the terms of the original contract that was signed in 2006.
For the 2026 season, Nebraska has replaced the Tennessee contest with a home matchup against the Bowling Green Falcons on the same day, Sept. 12. The game will mark the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.
Nebraska is scheduled to open the 2026 season at home against the Ohio Bobcats on Sept. 5. After hosting Bowling Green on Sept. 12, the Cornhuskers will welcome the North Dakota Fighting Hawks to Lincoln on Sept. 19.
In 2027, the Cornhuskers have added a home tilt against the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks on Sept. 11. That will also mark a first-ever gridiron meeting between the two schools. Additionally, Nebraska has also added a home game against the Northern Iowa Panthers, a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) team, on Sept. 18, 2027.
Nebraska is scheduled to open the 2027 season at home against the Northern Illinois Huskies on Sept. 4.
Update (6:30pm ET)
FBSchedules.com has obtained guarantee amounts for all three games added by Nebraska, per copies of the contracts:
Bowling Green – $1.55 million
Miami (Ohio) – $1.6 million
Northern Iowa – $600,000
Football Schedules
Nebraska’s football schedule is so dumbed down that it really shows you how far this program has fallen. I am not sure they will ever return to an elite status.
Please have faith in Nebraska Cornhuskers Football Hawaii Dave.
They will rise again.
Nebraska’s Athletic Department has to be the dumbest in FBS. 15 years ago, they thought they were too cool for the Big 12, so they left for the Big Ten. They were conference title contenders under Bo Pelini, but they fired him because he was too critical of the administration. He even once said a few years before he was fired, “We’ll see what they can do when I’m ******* gone!”
Since he was fired, they’ve only had 2 winning seasons. I’m not saying that they would still be a perennial 9 win team if Pelini wasn’t fired, but I am saying that their Athletic Department has gotten complacent with receiving Big Ten revenue, and their fans are even dumber for filling up Memorial Stadium each week.
Evan Fans in Nebraska really care about Nebraska Cornhuskers Football they live & die for it no matter they win or struggle they stand up for them.
Have faith in Nebraska?
Get out of here with that… Nebraska are cowards for ducking Tennessee.
Hey Arnold! Please stop calling people cowards you are just as bad as Z-man.
Power four teams already have enough travel issues with realignment & please give both Nebraska & Tennessee a break.
Stop telling people how to behave, Daniel.
If you call me DanJERKow I will call you Boo Arnold & I do not want to call people names by making fun of them & I am getting your attenion however not to hurt anyone.
I have a compromise if you please stop calling me DanJERKow I promise that I will not call you Boo Arnold.
I couldn’t care less what a jerk like you calls me.
Perhaps Tennessee can reach out to Arizona State, which suddenly has an opening, since Bowling Green canceled to be able to play Nebraska.
But that seems too simplistic for today’s College Football.
ND has openings on the 2026 and 2027 schedules. Pete Bevacqua, call up Tennessee’s AD and get a home and home scheduled.
I would be shocked if ND doesn’t continue the Stanford series and fills in gaps with the Cardinal.
It’s likely already agreed to informally and just not announced yet because details just have to be worked out.
OK. But what does that have to do with a home and home against Tennessee?
If ND keeps on scheduling Stanford, they won’t have space for a HaH with Tennessee those years.
I really like to see Notre Dame host another FCS opponent Villanova Wildcats would be fantastic candidate for ND Football 2027 would be earliest.
As it currently stands Nebraska won’t play a P2 OOC game until 2029 (Oklahoma) and only 2 P4 OOC games in the next 4 seasons.
My dream remains SEC go to nine game conference schedule.
If I had a Big Ten-SEC match up that would play every year would be Illinois-Missouri.
This is the only way Nebraska can get to a bowl game. It smells of desperation.
Tennessee for Bowling Green, that’s quite an upgrade.
is Nebraska stupid? do they not realize that playing Tennessee will make a lot more money than playing Bowling Green?
How would it make a lot more money?
More home games probably makes the Huskers more money.
It would make more money it would get much higher viewership numbers and much higher attendance for both teams.
Playing two home games against G5 opponents will make Nebraska more money than the home-and-home with Tennessee. They will get two home gates instead of one.
Nebraska sells out every home game, so there will not be much higher attendance for the Tennessee game as compared to the two G5 games.
While television viewership will be lower, the TV deals are already locked in. Lower viewership for one game for one team in one season isn’t going to impact the Big Ten’s next TV deal. And the Big Ten will now control two games under their TV contracts as opposed to one previously.
I completely disagree with what Nebraska did (other than being entertained by the Tennessee AD’s “disappointment” when he did exactly the same thing to BYU last year), the economics are almost certainly better for them.
The Big 10 needs to require their teams to schedule a power 4 team in non conference, all these teams scheduling a bunch of free wins is unacceptable and pathetic.
Sorry BYU Fan Home games especially Cupcake games are now important than ever now with extended travel.
I do not mind a Big 10 team having no power 4 team in OOC schedule.
To Richard:
According to this very site, ND has only 10 games scheduled for 2026 and 8 games scheduled for 2027. There is plenty of room for Tennessee.
If call me Dan JERKow I’ll call you BooArnold
If you please, please stop calling me Dan JERKow & promise that I will STOP calling you BooArnold
We need a peaceful resolution towards each other.