For decades, Nebraska athletics was easy to label. If you asked what kind of school the Cornhuskers were, the answer came fast: football, and not much room for debate.
That’s not the conversation now.
In July 2026, Nebraska has a real argument for being something else entirely, and the case starts with women’s volleyball. Joe Rexrode of The Athletic recently set out to define all 67 teams in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, plus Connecticut and Notre Dame, and he landed on Nebraska’s volleyball program as the sport that best defines the school.
It’s not hard to see why. Volleyball has delivered at a level Nebraska fans have come to expect in a way that once belonged only to football.
The Huskers have won five national championships since 1995, with the latest coming in 2017. This past season, they added another Big Ten title, their third straight and sixth overall.
They went 33-1, lost only once all year - in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament - and spent time ranked No. 1.
At Bob Devaney Sports Center, they played in front of sellout crowds and looked every bit like a team built for the moment: likable, connected to its fans and still ruthless when the match tightened.
The reach of Nebraska volleyball goes beyond the numbers from this season. The 2003 “Volleyball Day in Nebraska” at Memorial Stadium still stands out, when 92,003 fans packed the place for a women’s sporting event and set a world record for attendance. That kind of turnout says plenty about how the sport lives inside the Nebraska fan base.
Basketball also made a strong push for the spotlight this year. Fred Hoiberg’s team opened 20-0 and became a national story, drawing attention for its unselfish play, three-point shooting and defense.
Pryce Sandfort took over games. Sam Hoiberg filled the stat sheet.
Rienk Mast stretched defenses inside and out. Jamarques Lawrence helped keep the offense moving as both a shooter and ball-handler.
Cale Jacobsen and Braden Frager gave the Huskers valuable minutes off the bench.
The results backed up the buzz. Nebraska set a program record with 28 wins, snapped an 0-8 NCAA Tournament skid in front of a crowd that took over Oklahoma City, and reached the Sweet 16 before falling to Iowa, a team it had beaten in the regular season.
For one season, basketball absolutely had a claim on the Nebraska conversation. But that kind of label usually needs more than one hot run, and Hoiberg’s program will have to keep stacking success to make the argument stick.
The good news for Nebraska is that the foundation looks real, with a strong recruiting class and transfer portal group on the way. The bad news, if you want to call it that, is that nobody is going to be surprised by Nebraska basketball anymore.
Football, meanwhile, is still searching for the kind of traction that used to define the place. After seven straight losing seasons, Nebraska has gone 7-6 in back-to-back years.
That’s progress, but not enough to satisfy a fan base still waiting for the program to feel like itself again. Memorial Stadium still sells out, and the appetite is there.
What’s missing is the return to the kind of glory that once made Nebraska football the unquestioned centerpiece of the athletic department.
Matt Rhule enters the upcoming season with plenty on the line. He wants the program to keep moving forward, but the schedule is a bear, and the pressure comes with it. In a state where football usually sits alone at the top, Nebraska now finds itself in a strange place: third in line behind volleyball and basketball.
That’s where the Big Ten picture lands, too. Ten of the league’s 18 schools are considered football schools, which is a surprisingly small number for a conference built on the sport’s reputation.
Five are basketball schools, with UCLA earning a rare double designation as both a men’s and women’s basketball school. Minnesota is the lone men’s hockey school, Northwestern is the women’s lacrosse school, and Nebraska is the conference’s women’s volleyball school.
The full list runs like this:
Illinois: Men’s basketball
Indiana: Men’s basketball
Iowa: Football
Maryland: Men’s basketball
Michigan: Football
Michigan State: Football
Minnesota: Men’s hockey
Nebraska: Women’s volleyball
Northwestern: Women’s lacrosse
Ohio State: Football
Oregon: Football
Penn State: Football
Purdue: Men’s basketball
Rutgers: Football
UCLA: Basketball (men’s and women’s)
USC: Football
Washington: Football
Wisconsin: Football
And yes, the choices elsewhere were notable too: Indiana was labeled a basketball school after a season in which the Hoosiers won the national football championship, and Michigan was tagged as a basketball school after a season in which the Wolverines won the national basketball championship. Both calls were agreed with in the source material.
For Nebraska, though, the bigger story is simpler. Right now, the school’s strongest identity belongs to volleyball.
In Other News...
Adrian Martinez Is Still Repping Nebraska In A Big Way
Adrian Martinez is still spending part of his offseason around Nebraska, and for Cornhuskers fans, that alone makes the scene worth noting. The former Husker quarterback has been training in the state with former North Dakota State quarterback Cole Payton as both prepare for the 2026 NFL season, and their workouts have included time with high school players at Gretna East, where theyve been sharing experience and running drills.
The bigger picture is familiar for both quarterbacks: neither is simply coasting into camp, and both are trying to carve out a place at the next level. Martinez is in the mix with the San Francisco 49ers, while Payton is working to secure his footing with the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Nebraska stop has given them a chance to stay sharp while giving back to the next wave of players watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
Emmett Johnson Looks Ready To Answer His Draft Slide In A Big Way
Emmett Johnsons final season at Nebraska gave him the kind of rsum that usually travels well to the next level. He racked up more than 1,400 rushing yards, earned multiple All-American honors and showed enough versatility as a runner and receiver to make himself one of the more intriguing backs in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Now the former Cornhusker is trying to turn that production into an NFL foothold with Kansas City, where he enters training camp in strong physical shape and ready to compete for playing time. The Chiefs have reasons to keep an open mind about what he can bring, and Johnsons challenge is the familiar one for a rookie back: prove the college numbers were only the beginning. [Read more 🡒]
Nebraska Cannot Keep Dodging This Running Back Question Much Longer
Nebraska has spent the better part of the summer letting the Mekhi Nelson situation sit in the background, but the running back question is getting harder to avoid. Nelson was arrested on battery charges in Florida, and since then he has not taken part in team activities, leaving his place in the program very much in limbo as the Cornhuskers move closer to the start of the season.
The expectation now is that Nebraska will have to speak publicly about the matter soon, likely in the next week to 10 days as Big Ten Media Days approaches. Until then, the uncertainty lingers not just around Nelsons future, but around what the backfield picture looks like if the Huskers have to keep moving without him. [Read more 🡒]