Dear Husker Nation:
With the holidays upon us, the end of the calendar year is near, a time when we reflect back on another amazing year of Nebraska Athletics. I want to share with you some of our highlights and achievements from 2025 and provide you with information about what comes next.
In competition, our storied Volleyball team just completed a remarkable 33-1 season; Wrestling finished as the national runner-up as a team and two Husker wrestler won individual national championships; Softball made an NCAA Super Regional appearance; Football earned a second straight bowl berth; and both of our basketball teams are undefeated and ranked in the Top 25!
In the classroom, Husker student-athletes set a school record with a 3.464 GPA, led the Big Ten Conference with 117 Fall Academic All-Conference selections, and once again posted a Graduation Success Rate over 90 percent, among the best in the nation. Additionally, I continue to be impressed and grateful for the positive impact our student-athletes are making in and around Lincoln through their volunteer work. In the Fall of 2025, 30 team service projects were completed along with more than 700 individual engagements. Indoor Track and Field triple jump national runner-up Micaylon Moore was named the winner of the NCAA Impact Award (previously the NCAA Top Ten Award), given to the most outstanding Division I male senior student-athlete when considering academic achievement, athletic success, and community service. Micaylon is the epitome of everything we want our student-athletes to be.
The year 2025 also brought implementation of the House settlement, triggering a new world of revenue sharing with our student-athletes. As a result, the collective supporting Husker Athletics, 1890 Nebraska, began to wind down its operations. Hundreds of Husker fans donated millions of dollars over the past 24 months to support NIL for our student-athletes, as the rules at the time permitted. The House settlement now prohibits much of what 1890 Nebraska provided, but in turn allows the University to share $20.5 million directly with student-athletes as we pay to license their NIL rights.
On behalf of Nebraska Athletics and our student-athletes, I want to thank and highlight the contributions of Tom and Shawn Peed in creating and leading 1890 Nebraska. Their personal investment in the collective has been immense, but their vision and leadership gave us an opportunity to succeed in this new world. Without their work, our bright future would be considerably cloudy. As of today, the five sports primarily supported by the collective include a defending national runner-up wrestling team, a football team that is participating in back-to-back bowl games for the first time in over a decade, two unbeaten and ranked basketball teams and a regional runner-up volleyball team. The evidence of 1890 Nebraska’s work and success is clear.
The year also saw enhancements to some of our athletic facilities, including the completion of the track and field complex, along with new facilities for golf, rifle, swimming and diving and bowling. Next year promises to be even more active on the facility front with renovated clubhouses for both softball and baseball, the expansion of the Devaney Center, a complete renovation and expansion of volleyball’s team facilities and preliminary work at Memorial Stadium setting the stage for more comprehensive work beginning 12 months from now.
Other new initiatives in 2025 included the start of alcohol sales at all on-campus venues in addition to alcohol being previously available at Pinnacle Bank Arena and at Haymarket Park. This change, along with Aramark partnering with Husker Athletics for the first time, significantly enhanced the game day experience for our fans. More than 313,000 alcoholic beverages were served and new food options were added to the menu, resulting in an increase of 75 percent in total concession revenue compared to last year. The introduction of alcohol sales came with concerns about the impact on fan behavior, but it remained consistent with the previous five years.
Looking ahead to what will be a fantastic 2026, our team has sent out final materials that outline priority for the 2026 Volleyball seat selection and beyond. Reseating plans can cause angst and confusion among fans, and this one is no different. However, our athletics staff has developed a plan that ensures that season-ticket holders in 2025 will be guaranteed season-tickets in 2026. As previously communicated, the seat location will be determined by their standing on the priority list, that will take into account a combination of several factors.
Athletic departments generally reseat venues to open access to the next generation of supporters because the lifeblood to sustaining athletic department operations is philanthropy, and most philanthropy comes with access to tickets and seat locations. Unique to the strong volleyball interest at Nebraska, 10 percent of current season-ticket holders did not use their tickets this year but rather sold those tickets through secondary markets. Those tickets, originally purchased for a total of $600,000 by those ticket holders, were then resold for a total of $3.2M on the secondary market. As we indicated last year, ticket use for this purpose is strictly prohibited. The accounts that resold the entirety of their tickets will be excluded from the ability to purchase season-tickets in 2026.
On the entertainment front in 2026, we have already announced three shows in Memorial Stadium in 2026. Zach Bryan will perform on April 25, the Savannah Bananas on June 13 and The Boys from Oklahoma on August 22. Our plan is to continue to utilize our facilities for outside events to bring new events to our spaces and to help drive entertainment options in Lincoln. Due to anticipated construction, we are not attempting to book events for Memorial Stadium in 2027, but we will be back with incredible shows in 2028!
Finally, I want to leave you with a thought about women’s sports at the University of Nebraska. As you know, women’s sports are tremendously important to our university and to our culture. The commitment from our fans to sell out Volleyball since 2001 and nearly sell out Bowlin Stadium in December for a highly anticipated 2026 softball season are indicative of how much our fans care.
Some across the nation connect the evolution of college athletics in this revenue sharing era to a risk to women’s and Olympic sports. It has become commonplace for people seeking attention for their own provincial causes to cite threats to women’s and Olympic sport programs as if protecting those programs is their motivation.
The choice to support women’s and Olympic sports is one every institution makes every day, and that choice will not be impacted at the University of Nebraska by the changing world of intercollegiate athletics. We made our choice many years ago, and we remain all “N”.
With that in mind, stay tuned for two big announcements on the Husker women’s sports front early in 2026 that will have a tremendous impact on our female student-athletes, both today and moving forward.
I continue to be so proud and honored to live in Nebraska and to serve as Athletic Director at the University of Nebraska. I hope to see many of you in Las Vegas to ring out 2025.
Happy Holidays to all and GO BIG RED!
Troy Dannen
Director of Athletics
