Title IX (Volleyball Day In Nebraska)
Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 10:59 am
About 8 months ago, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletic department came up with an idea to commemorate the 50 years that have passed since Title IX became law.
The Huskers women's volleyball team is a 5x national champion (3rd most after Stanford and Penn State). It currently has the longest sellout streak in NCAA Division I, matching the sellout streak record that continues for the football team. When one looks at the record books for most attended regular season volleyball matches or NCAA tournament matches, the list is almost entirely filled with Nebraska matches or NCAA Finals matches held in Nebraska.
Which is probably why it bugged everyone that the Wisconsin-Florida match last year set the regular season mark at 16,833. So, Nebraska decided to take it back. . . . big time . . . by holding a game in Memorial Stadium. They thought that they could draw maybe 30,000 fans. However, when the tickets went on sale this Spring, over 80,000 fans bought tickets the first day.
This Wednesday, August 30th, in a stadium with a capacity of 91,000, the Nebraska volleyball team again will be playing essentially in front of a sell-out crowd, not counting the room for "standing room" only fans. The initial goal is to break the US record for a women's sports event, which is 90,185 for the 1999 World Cup final between the US and China. However, we like to go big in Nebraska, so the real goal is the 91,533 fans that watched Barcelona and Real Madrid play a Women's Champions League match in Spain. I would not bet against it, as there is seating on the field. Even if we fall short, it still is amazing to think of 90,000 screaming fans for an early-season volleyball match held during the middle of the week.
There will be two games and a concert (by Scotty McCreery of American Idol "fame"). In celebration of the Nebraska college system, Division II heavyweights Wayne State and UN-Kearney will play at 4:30 pm, and then UN-Omaha and UN-Lincoln will play at 7 pm. The second game is being telecast on Big Ten Network and Fox Sports. There is a pregame show and actual sideline reporters. It is being treated like an NCAA football game of the week. The NCAA President will attend, and the number of media requests from national and international outlets continues to grow. Nebraska's players have press conferences on both Tuesday and Wednesday. I cannot think of anything cooler than this event spotlighting the importance of women's sports and these female athletes. (I also imagine that the response to this event helped the NCAA decide to move the NCAA volleyball final from ESPN to ABC, on a Sunday afternoon, as well as FOX airing volleyball matches on Sundays this year, after NFL games.)
Everyone is praying for good weather, which looks to be the case. I am sure that there will be some playing hiccups like we have seen when men's basketball has played early season games on aircraft carriers. Still, "there's no place like Nebraska."
The Huskers women's volleyball team is a 5x national champion (3rd most after Stanford and Penn State). It currently has the longest sellout streak in NCAA Division I, matching the sellout streak record that continues for the football team. When one looks at the record books for most attended regular season volleyball matches or NCAA tournament matches, the list is almost entirely filled with Nebraska matches or NCAA Finals matches held in Nebraska.
Which is probably why it bugged everyone that the Wisconsin-Florida match last year set the regular season mark at 16,833. So, Nebraska decided to take it back. . . . big time . . . by holding a game in Memorial Stadium. They thought that they could draw maybe 30,000 fans. However, when the tickets went on sale this Spring, over 80,000 fans bought tickets the first day.
This Wednesday, August 30th, in a stadium with a capacity of 91,000, the Nebraska volleyball team again will be playing essentially in front of a sell-out crowd, not counting the room for "standing room" only fans. The initial goal is to break the US record for a women's sports event, which is 90,185 for the 1999 World Cup final between the US and China. However, we like to go big in Nebraska, so the real goal is the 91,533 fans that watched Barcelona and Real Madrid play a Women's Champions League match in Spain. I would not bet against it, as there is seating on the field. Even if we fall short, it still is amazing to think of 90,000 screaming fans for an early-season volleyball match held during the middle of the week.
There will be two games and a concert (by Scotty McCreery of American Idol "fame"). In celebration of the Nebraska college system, Division II heavyweights Wayne State and UN-Kearney will play at 4:30 pm, and then UN-Omaha and UN-Lincoln will play at 7 pm. The second game is being telecast on Big Ten Network and Fox Sports. There is a pregame show and actual sideline reporters. It is being treated like an NCAA football game of the week. The NCAA President will attend, and the number of media requests from national and international outlets continues to grow. Nebraska's players have press conferences on both Tuesday and Wednesday. I cannot think of anything cooler than this event spotlighting the importance of women's sports and these female athletes. (I also imagine that the response to this event helped the NCAA decide to move the NCAA volleyball final from ESPN to ABC, on a Sunday afternoon, as well as FOX airing volleyball matches on Sundays this year, after NFL games.)
Everyone is praying for good weather, which looks to be the case. I am sure that there will be some playing hiccups like we have seen when men's basketball has played early season games on aircraft carriers. Still, "there's no place like Nebraska."
