When I moved to Nebraska as an 11-year-old, one of the first things that struck me was how sports crazy the state is. On Saturdays in the fall, the streets downtown are a sea of red jerseys. And even in my elementary school, organized sports for girls were way more supported than in my home state of Virginia.
So I’ve watched the evolution of Nebraska women’s volleyball with interest, but not surprise. This is a market with a history of supporting local teams. And Nebraska is not a hotbed for professional sports. You’ll have to drive hours to catch an MLB, NFL, NWSL, NHL, WNBA or NBA game, so college sports have always been a big deal.
What’s happening with volleyball is nothing short of paradigm-breaking.
The Huskers have 364 straight sellouts going back to 2001. A team so popular it set the attendance record at 92,003 in 2023 for Memorial Stadium. A team so electric that they sell out visiting arenas like they just did in Michigan at the Crisler Center. A team with such regional support that it anchored a 43,067 sellout at Wrigley Field in September. A team so good that both LOVB and Major League Volleyball put a franchise in the state.
According to NIL team stores as reported by The Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska sold more merch nationally than every school except Illinois and West Virginia in August on the strength of women’s volleyball, which was the 9th team in overall sales. In September, Nebraska moved up to No. 1.
The Husker women are spiking the ball over most college football programs.
There are other strong teams, but no one else has captured the market like Nebraska. Students of history will remember the way UConn basketball dominated the college sports space — and the obnoxious arguments about whether the Huskies were so good that it was bad for women’s basketball. Turns out they were great for women’s hoops, they were just paving the way.
Nebraska volleyball isn’t a T-shirt printing outlier. It is proving that other women’s college sports franchises are worth the investment and can capture a region’s imagination. And you can see it for yourself.
Just good luck getting tickets.
