Nebraska vs. Tennessee football series canceled for 2026-2027 seasons

Nebraska’s 2026-2027 football series with Tennessee has been canceled, NU announced Friday.

The Huskers were scheduled to host the Volunteers in 2026 and travel to Knoxville in 2027. Because of the upcoming Memorial Stadium project, NU added an eighth home game in 2027, against Miami (Ohio) Unversity, to offset lost revenue.

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“We are making plans to embark on major renovations of Memorial Stadium that may impact our seating capacity for the 2027 season,” Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen said in a prepared statement. “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.”

In comments to HuskerOnline, Dannen noted that as it stands the Huskers are facing 20% reduced capacity in 2027.

“The idea of playing seven games at 20% reduced capacity in 2027 was going to be a real financial killer,” he said. “Right now, as we try to implement the revenue-share model (for student-athletes) and everything else, our eyes first and foremost are focused on how are we going to be able to continue to fund ourselves.”

Series had already moved once

The Nebraska-Tennessee series was initially set up by former Nebraska AD Steve Pederson in 2006 and was to be played in 2016-2017. That series was forced to be moved to 2026-2027 because Tennessee scheduled a game against Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2016. NU and UT agreed in 2013 to move the series to 2026-27. The original contract, which was drafted in 2006, states that the buyout to get out of the games is $500,000.

The Huskers then got Oregon to replace the Vols on the 2016-17 schedules.

This time around, Dannen said, Nebraska asked Tennessee to push back the series once again, “and they couldn’t,” he said. “Which I understand. No harm there. This is our decision and our call.”

So, Nebraska has replaced Tennessee on the 2026-2027 schedules with home games against Bowling Green University on Sept. 12, 2026, and Miami (Ohio) University on Sept. 11, 2027. Additionally, Nebraska has added a matchup against Northern Iowa on Sept. 18, 2027, to complete its non-league schedule for 2027.

Nebraska will play eight home games at Memorial Stadium in the 2027 season, the first time it has done so since 2013. 

Bottom line, “It’s really a long-term financial play based on the stadium being down, at least in part, in 2027,” Dannen said.

SEC-Big Ten potentially on the verge of creating a scheduling partnership

The other unknown piece to this is the future of scheduling. Currently, the Big Ten has its teams play nine conference games, and NU traditionally has played one out-of-conference Power Four game.

Moving forward, the SEC and Big Ten Conference leaders have met, and multiple reports have been made about a possible scheduling agreement between the two leagues.

It’s unknown if and when this might happen and if Nebraska could get an opportunity to play Tennessee down the road.

Dannen told HuskerOline on Friday an SEC-Big Ten scheduling alliance is not imminent.

The other issue is that the SEC only plays an eight-game conference schedule, giving its teams automatically one more win in most cases and replacing a Power Four non-conference game with a lower Group of Five or FCS opponents.

So, Nebraska’s future non-conference schedules look like this: In 2026, it’ll play host to Ohio, Bowling Green, and North Dakota. In 2027, it’ll play host to Northern Illinois, Miami (Ohio), and Northern Iowa.

Future non-conference series against Autonomy 4 Conference opponents include Arizona (2028, 2031), Oklahoma (2029, 2030), Cincinnati (2032), and Oklahoma State (2034, 2035), none of which are impacted by the scheduling changes. 

“I think most fans would rather us play Notre Dame, Texas, and Tennessee in the non conference,” Dannen said. “I get that. But having five home games in the Big Ten (in 2027), those are five marquee games.

“This is really a short-term blip. The long term of having Arizona and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State on the books, it’s really not a change in scheduling philosophy. This isn’t the only bump we’re going to have to accommodate the need to renovate the stadium to the magnitude our stadium needs to be renovated.

“It’s just maybe the first one that our fans have felt.”

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