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Is Nebraska now a volleyball school?

G

gazelle

Recruit
5 Year Member
One of the writers on the main board addresses this question. I'm surprised it is even a question at this point. In my humble opinion, it has been apparent since Volleyball Day in 2023 that this is true. Consider this, the record for attendance at Memorial Stadium doesn't belong to the football team. It belongs to the volleyball team.

I am a prime example of why this is so. Around 2015 I got tired of watching our crappy football team get embarrassed yet again on national television. I started watching volleyball because we had a very good volleyball team that year. I have been a women's volleyball fan ever since.

I also noticed that volleyball is a very exciting and fun sport to watch, and it doesn't take up your whole day. Matches are usually over in an hour and a half to two hours. I now consider myself a bigger fan of volleyball than football. I never would have believed that back when I was growing up in the late 60's/early 70's when football was THE main sport.

Maybe someday our football team will be good again, but I will be a women's volleyball fan for the rest of my life. Plus, Dani Busboom-Kelly is young and will likely be our head coach for another 25-30 years. We are going to continue having great volleyball teams for a long time.
 
Farmer Jake said:
Answer: Yes. For 30 plus years now.
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Thirty years ago, our football team was still winning national championships. Football was still king back then. Even during the Solich and early Pelini years football was still somewhat relevant.

The end of Pelini's tenure was a disaster though. Our football program hasn't been relevant on the national stage since then. I would argue we stopped being a football school in 2015, when we hired Mike Riley and the football program went into the toilet.
 
You can be defined by more than one sport. Nebraska is a Football school. However, Nebraska is THE Volleyball School. There is no other team that dominates the sport of volleyball at this time more than Nebraska. They set attendance records everywhere they go. Young girls everywhere dream of playing volleyball for the huskers.
 
mbHusker said:
You can be defined by more than one sport. Nebraska is a Football school. However, Nebraska is THE Volleyball School. There is no other team that dominates the sport of volleyball at this time more than Nebraska. They set attendance records everywhere they go. Young girls everywhere dream of playing volleyball for the huskers.
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I saw at the recent volleyball camp they had someone come from Texas, and someone from Italy.

I read an article the other day where they asked the question, who is the most marketable athlete is all of college sports. The answer was Harper Murray.

The link below is talking about Murray being chosen to represent the NCAA as a stadium captain for a world cup match.

 
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mbHusker said:
You can be defined by more than one sport. Nebraska is a Football school. However, Nebraska is THE Volleyball School. There is no other team that dominates the sport of volleyball at this time more than Nebraska. They set attendance records everywhere they go. Young girls everywhere dream of playing volleyball for the huskers.
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Yeah, but the question is if you had to choose just one sport that defines your school, which would it be? When I hear the names "Texas" or "Alabama" or "Ohio State" I think of football. I think most in the country would agree. When most in the country think of "Nebraska", I don't believe they automatically think of football, especially those younger than 35 who don't remember the Nebraska football teams under Devaney and Osborne.

Native Nebraskans may think of Nebraska as a football school, but those outside of Nebraska don't think so, at least not anymore. Our football team hasn't been relevant on the national scene for maybe 15 or 20 years. I think the last time we were somewhat relevant was early 2011, probably Pelini's best team. At one point that year we were ranked as high as fifth in the polls. Then Taylor Martinez got injured and we lost 3 of the last 4 games. The football team hasn't been anywhere close to that level since. It has been a long, steady decline.

I think Nebraska's current "brand" (for lack of a better term) is more closely aligned with volleyball. Young people across the country don't remember the days of Nebraska dominance in football, but they all know about Volleyball Day and the world record for attendance at a women's sporting event.
 
You make a great point. Volleyball is our best performing sport right now and has been for a couple of decades. So naturally outside of Nebraska we will get the most credit for volleyball. However as a native Nebraskan if you say Huskers to me the first thing that pops into my brain is football. I don't think I'm the only one.

Ask someone this Fall if they are going to the next Husker game and see if they think you mean football or volleyball.
 
gazelle said:
Yeah, but the question is if you had to choose just one sport that defines your school, which would it be? When I hear the names "Texas" or "Alabama" or "Ohio State" I think of football. I think most in the country would agree. When most in the country think of "Nebraska", I don't believe they automatically think of football, especially those younger than 35 who don't remember the Nebraska football teams under Devaney and Osborne.
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Last fall, I spoke with a coworker, from Texas, who was about 31. It was quite an awakening for me. Because I always have, and always will think of NU as a football school. But this guy has no memory of the '90s. He was saying, "Matt Rhule should have stayed at Baylor. Nebraska is a perennial .500 team."

We need to get relevant again, and quick.

gazelle said:
I think Nebraska's current "brand" (for lack of a better term) is more closely aligned with volleyball. Young people across the country don't remember the days of Nebraska dominance in football, but they all know about Volleyball Day and the world record for attendance at a women's sporting event.
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For those not paying attention (which is everyone outside of Nebraska, and a few within the state), Nebraska has been at the pinnacle of VB for 40 years. It's just that the focus was always on FB until people got accustomed to the mediocrity post-Pelini. Volleyball was a 3rd-rate sport around the country -- no one knew or cared about it -- until Volleyball Day in Nebraska. We literally showed the world that VB was a sport that people needed to watch. Now the sport is exploding across the country, pro leagues have popped up, little girls everywhere want to play VB, ...

Just like how Boyd Epley's strength program revolutionized FB (which now nobody remembers... ), Nebraska has put another sport on the map.
 
mbHusker said:
You make a great point. Volleyball is our best performing sport right now and has been for a couple of decades. So naturally outside of Nebraska we will get the most credit for volleyball. However as a native Nebraskan if you say Huskers to me the first thing that pops into my brain is football. I don't think I'm the only one.

Ask someone this Fall if they are going to the next Husker game and see if they think you mean football or volleyball.
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Maybe, but the ticket to volleyball is in more demand and much much harder to come by.
 
Apples to Oranges. 10,000 total seats compared to 85,000. How much would a football ticket cost if you only had 10,000 total seats? When the volleyball team played in memorial stadium adult tickets were $25.00 and students tickets were $5.00.
 
There are tons of arguments to be made that Husker Volleyball is more impressive than Husker Football right now. Ticket sales and revenue generation is not one of those arguments; conversely those stats along with overall attendance and sell out streak are maybe the only things that continue to mark Nebraska Football as a traditional football power.

I don't want to pit one against the other. My original point is that Nebraska, unlike a lot of other schools, is blessed to be very well known for two sports.

The fact that Nebraska Volleyball is the only volleyball team in the nation being discussed as their college's sports identity is super impressive. The fact that they are doing it at a school with a traditional football power with as much history as Nebraska is simply astounding.

My favorite part of watching Husker volleyball is that you get to see how much joy they have playing.
 
I won’t argue popularity — more Nebraskans would want a college football final four appearance than a volleyball — or basketball, baseball or softball — final four. It’s a little ironic that of those six teams, only football has failed to rise above mediocre in the last decade.
 
weaver75 said:
I won’t argue popularity — more Nebraskans would want a college football final four appearance than a volleyball — or basketball, baseball or softball — final four. It’s a little ironic that of those six teams, only football has failed to rise above mediocre in the last decade.
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Native Nebraskans think of UNL as a football school. The rest of the country doesn't.
 
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