Friday Five: Postseason grit and game day shifts
The baseball team is Chapel Hill bound, volleyball reveals its fall gauntlet and Memorial Stadium’s rules get a refresh.
It’s Friday, Friday . . . Sorry.1
Nebraska baseball is back in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. The volleyball schedule is out. Football kickoff times are stacking up and Memorial Stadium is getting a few new rules (and keeping some old food favorites).
Let’s get you caught up, shall we?
From the brink back to the dance.
Nebraska baseball entered the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 8 seed. You know, a long shot. It was a team that had shown flashes but hadn’t quite strung everything together. The margin for error was razor-thin.
Then Michigan State dropped the final out.
Had the Spartans secured that routine flyball, Nebraska’s season would’ve ended right then and there in the Big Ten Tournament. Instead, the Huskers stayed alive and then caught fire.
The Huskers beat top-seeded Oregon, powered by a 6-inning start from Jackson Brockett. They got a clutch home run from Gabe Swansen to down Penn State in the semifinals. They rolled through No. 13 UCLA in the final behind a career day from sophomore Ty Horn, who threw eight scoreless innings in a 5-0 shutout.
“It was definitely a ride for Greg this year,” head coach Will Bolt said earlier this week, referencing longtime radio voice Greg Sharpe, who passed away in February. “We hopefully get to continue that.”
They will.
With the automatic bid in hand, Nebraska (32–27) heads to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year (and 19th time in program history). The Huskers are the No. 3 seed in the Chapel Hill Regional, joining host and No. 5 national seed North Carolina, Patriot League champs Holy Cross and old rival Oklahoma.
The first game? Huskers versus the Sooners. Game No. 251 between the two schools. That one’s Friday at 4 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
Game No. 251 — and then some?
This wasn’t supposed to happen. A team with an RPI of 51. A season defined by injuries, close calls and inconsistencies.
The volleyball schedule is set.
It’s officially official: Nebraska volleyball’s 2025 schedule is here.
Fresh off a 33-3 season, the Huskers have 30 regular-season matches ahead. That includes 10 nonconference and 20 Big Ten showdowns. The season opens at home with the AVCA First Serve Showcase against Pittsburgh and Stanford. Road trips to Lipscomb, Kentucky (part of the Broadway Block Party) and Creighton round out the nonconference slate.
In Big Ten play, all eyes are on Oct. 3, when Nebraska travels to defending national champion Penn State. The Nittany Lions will return the trip to Lincoln on Black Friday in what could be a must-watch late-season clash. The regular season ends at home on Nov. 29 vs. Ohio State.
Before all that, fans can catch the Red-White Scrimmage on Aug. 9 and the Alumni Match on Aug. 16. Both at the Devaney Center, of course.
And football has some of its kickoff times too.
We’re still three months from football season but we now know the kickoff times for more than half of Nebraska’s 2025 schedule.
Let’s start with the biggest shift: the Huskers’ game at Minnesota has moved to Friday, Oct. 17, with kickoff at 7 p.m. CT on FOX. That gives Nebraska two Friday games for a fourth straight year, the other being the annual Black Friday matchup with Iowa (which will kick at 11 a.m. CT on CBS).
Also landing on CBS? The Sept. 20 showdown with Michigan in Lincoln, which is a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
Other confirmed times:
Aug. 28 vs. Cincinnati at Arrowhead – 8 p.m. (ESPN)
Sept. 6 vs. Akron – 6:30 p.m. (Big Ten Network)
Sept. 13 vs. Houston Christian – 11 a.m. (FS1)
Oct. 4 at Michigan State – either 11 a.m., 2:30 p.m., or 3 p.m.
New stadium rule ends re-entry.
A heads-up for Memorial Stadium regulars: if you leave the game, you can’t come back in.
Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen said the change comes after a Department of Homeland Security review recommended several game day safety updates and this one stood out as most visible to fans.
“They’ve [DHS] made a lot of recommendations that will be implemented in our game day process, and that's (re-entry rule) probably going to be most obvious to fans,” Dannen said on Sports Nightly.
The reasoning? Alcohol sales.
Allowing fans to leave and re-enter increases security risks when alcohol is served inside stadiums. Many other universities and professional venues already operate under no re-entry policies. Nebraska will now follow suit.
But we have some good news on something staying the same.
With one change coming to Memorial Stadium this fall, fans were quick to ask another: is the food changing too?
Yes and no.
Aramark, as we know, has been named the new concessions provider for Husker football, which means new items could be on the menu soon. But rest assured, the classics aren’t going anywhere.
“Val’s pizza is still going to be in the stadium like it’s always going to be,” Dannen said.
Runza and Fairbury hot dogs will also remain part of the game day lineup. The new vendor may bring additional offerings, but the school made it clear: tradition still matters (even when it comes to those fan favorite concession items).
There we have it for another week.
New kickoff times. A new concessions provider. New rules at the gate.
But at the end of the day, you can still count on a slice of Val’s and a Runza on Saturdays in Lincoln. Not bad, huh?
No, I’m not.