The Nebraska football team is coming off a 3-9 season. The Oklahoma Sooners are ranked in the Top 10 in the coaches poll and are expected to be in a similar situation when the AP poll comes out on Monday.
As a general rule, those factors don’t make for a “must see” type football game. But this is also Nebraska vs. Oklahoma. These are the two teams that, for decades, made up one of the greatest rivalries in the history of college football.
That’s why in recent numbers released by Stub Hub, demand for tickets to this year’s tilt between the Cornhuskers and the Sooners in Lincoln is one of the most sought-after games in the country.
The September 17 contest is actually the 9th best-selling game so far this year for StubHub. That’s a testament to both the fact that this is a storied rivalry and the fact that Nebraska football fans are going to buy up tickets even when their team is in a stretch of some pretty disappointing football.
Of course, Husker fans are likely hoping the surge in ticket sales doesn’t have anything to do with Sooner fans making the trip and trying to tamp down the natural home-field advantage of Memorial Stadium.
If being among the top 10 of ticket sales wasn’t impressive enough, it’s even more so when you consider that almost all of the other games in the rankings involve contests that are almost certainly going to have two teams that are vying for a national title.
- Alabama at Texas (Sept. 10)
- Notre Dame at Ohio State (Sept. 3)
- Texas A&M at Alabama (Oct. 8)
- Oregon vs. Georgia (Sept. 3; Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium)
- Michigan at Ohio State (Nov. 26)
- Auburn at Alabama (Nov. 26)
- Clemson at Notre Dame (Nov. 5)
- West Virginia at Pittsburgh (Sept. 1)
- Oklahoma at Nebraska (Sept. 17)
- Florida State vs. LSU (Sept. 4; New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome)
The Cornhuskers vs Sooners game is only part of the good news when it comes to Nebraska football and the demand for its tickets. According to StubHub’s numbers, the Huskers also saw the fifth highest increase in demand for tickets, year over year.
What does any of this mean as far as how the season will go? You might ask.
Well, the answer to that question is that it doesn’t really mean anything at all. However, it does show that the Nebraska football team, even amidst a stretch of five straight losing seasons, is one heck of a draw. That would seem to indicate that if Scott Frost can pull off a big turnaround, that draw is only going to get bigger.