Tennessee schedule scrambling after Nebraska opts out of series

Tennessee athletics director Danny White finds himself in a place with his football program that he doesn’t want to be: Looking for a game for the 2026 and 2027 seasons. 

The Vols were scheduled to have a home and home with Nebraska but the Cornhusker administration has informed Tennessee they are buying out of the contract.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” White told Volquest. “This series has been under contract for so long. We had been planning on playing it. For it to get cancelled this short notice we are extremely disappointed.”

The original contract which was drafted in 2006 states that the buyout to get out of the games is $1 million. The games were supposed to be played in 2016 and 2017, but both parties agreed to push the game back a decade and now the games are off. Because of the contract’s age and terms, the repercussions for Nebraska to opt out are hefty enough to prevent such a move. 

“The buyout implications need to be much steeper,” White said. “This is such an old contract. It was postponed multiple times. If it had been postponed when I was here, I would have asked for an increase in the buyout to postpone it.

“I don’t know the history if we were requesting to push it back or if Nebraska was. The buyout terms are reflective of a contract that’s 20 years old. They are not steep enough to dissuaded this kind of decision making from our opponent.”

The timing off getting out of the deal is the greatest issue for Tennessee. With the game 18 months or so away, the daunting task now is to find an opponent this late in the process who needs a game both seasons, is willing to do a home and home and can make the dates work. 

“I think people are willing to play us,” White said. “The pageantry of our home game atmosphere is attractive to other schools. Our fans coming to their campus is attractive. It’s more about finding the right dates and brands that make sense for us. We were able to get the home and home with Washington. I think that’s going to be awesome later this decade. But that’s kind of how far out you need to be.

“We are looking at 5-8 years down the road where we want to be form a home and home standpoint and strength of schedule. The eight vs. nine games in the league has some implications on that, but I think we know we want to play at least one power 5 opponent. So I don’t think that’s held us back. We haven’t been working on 2026 and 2027 because we had Nebraska and we have all our slots filled through 2030 right now. You really can’t pull an audible this late in the game.”

The result of the late cancellation might mean Tennessee is back on the market for neutral site games in both 2026 and 2027, which is not the preference. Tennessee moved a road game at BYU to Nashville to play Virginia in 2023. In 2024, Tennessee played NC State in Charlotte because the SEC office forced them to cancel a scheduled home game with Oklahoma because the Sooners were coming into the league. 

Tennessee will open the 2025 season in Atlanta against Syracuse in a deal made by former Tennessee AD Phillip Fulmer. 

White said the Vols are looking for a home and home opponent first and foremost but stressed that’s a daunting task in such a short window. 

“We will make the most of it,” White said. “If we are playing a neutral site game back in Nashville, Charlotte or Atlanta, I think it will be a great experience for our fans and our players. We are fortunate to have really good partners in those cities that are within driving distance. I’m not saying it’s a bad experience. It will be great if that’s where we are. I know we will have some fans disappointed if we lose a home game in Neyland.

“Our goal is to try and replace this with another home and home. I just don’t know if that’s possible. It’s going to be a really tall order. As it sits right now, there’s not a single opponent available to do that. We are calling around trying to see if people are open to trying to get out of another game to look at playing us. It’s a lot easier to find someone who can do a one off neutral site than someone who can do two consecutive years and find dates that match up. You typically need 6, 7, 8, 9 years in advance to try and find that kind of arrangement.” 

Tennessee has a ‘buy’ game scheduled with Furman in 2026 and one with Western Michigan in 2027.

The future of scheduling has been a topic this week in New Orleans as White and the rest of the SEC athletic directors met and Wednesday SEC AD’s and Big 10 AD’s met as well. The SEC is contemplating a nine game conference slate and there’s talk of an annual SEC-Big 10 challenge.