The Tennessee Volunteers and Nebraska Cornhuskers are two major programs in college football. As such, Tennessee and Nebraska agreed to a home-and-home series. The game will be played in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2026, and in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2027. However, Pete Thamel of ESPN reported on Friday that the series had been canceled due to Nebraska wanting more home games with stadium renovations taking place. “Sources: Tennessee and Nebraska are canceling their upcoming football series, which was scheduled for 2026 in Lincoln and 2027 in Knoxville. A driver of the move was Nebraska wanting eight home games in 2027 when they expected reduced stadium capacity because of renovations.”
Shortly after, Tennessee athletic director Danny White shared a strong reaction.
“Correction: Tennessee is not canceling this series. Nebraska did. We are very disappointed that they didn’t want to play these games, especially this close to 2026,” White wrote in an X post.
The two programs have played just three times in their history. The last meeting was in 2016, and Tennessee won the Music City Bowl. The first meeting was in the Orange Bowl in 1998 with the second coming in the 2000 Fiesta Bowl, so these teams have had some big showdowns against one another. Nebraska mentioned “reduced capacity” due to stadium renovations as the reason for wanting to have an extra home game in each season. As such, Nebraska will host Bowling Green in 2026 and Miami (Oh) in 2027 instead of playing Tennessee. Nebraska also added a home game with Northern Illinois in 2027 to complete the schedule, although the Tennessee AD is unhappy with the decision.
