There was a time when Memorial Stadium was a real weapon for the Nebraska football team. The program has fallen on hard times, and in the process, the stadium has become a much easier place for the opposition to play. One need look no further than the three losses the Huskers suffered at home last year, including a 40-16 butt whupping by Iowa in the season finale.
The national media has seen how Memorial Stadium doesn’t carry the same cache. There was a time when every other opponent would talk about how hard it was to play in Lincoln. They often called it the toughest and loudest place they’d ever been. In a recent ranking by USA Today of the best stadiums in the Big Ten, the Huskers fell all the way to No. 7.
Paul Myerberg put together the ranking, and he explained why he put Nebraska where he did on the list.
“This is one of the most iconic spots in college football but not really a fear-inducing locale for visitors, even if things have slowly started to improve under coach Matt Rhule. Despite the lack of sustained success since the early 2000s, the stands will be full of red with the Cornhuskers’ sellout streak showing no real signs of slowing down.”
Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium ranks No. 7 among Big Ten venues
The sellout streak might not be in real danger, but Nebraska is clearly having some problems selling more than 80,000 tickets every week. The latest sign of that was a discount offering of $50 for two tickets to the Bowling Green game.
The Huskers have also introduced smaller season ticket packages every year for the last several seasons. These smaller packages offer three games, and are clearly geared toward selling tickets for some games that aren’t getting a ton of interest otherwise.
Nebraska is even shrinking down its capacity in the upcoming Big Red Rebuild. While the university hasn’t specifically said it's reducing capacity because ticket sales have become harder, it’s hard to ignore the state of the stadium over the last few years.
So where does Nebraska stand in the rest of the Big Ten? It is worth pointing out that Memorial Stadium still is in the top half of the conference. That’s despite a decade-long streak without a bowl game, which Matt Rhule’s squad finally broke in 2024.
- Ohio Stadium, Ohio State
- Autzen Stadium, Oregon
- Beaver Stadium, Penn State
- Michigan Stadium, Michigan
- Kinnick Stadium, Iowa
- Camp Randall Stadium, Wisconsin
- Memorial Stadium, Nebraska
- Husky Stadium, Washington
- Memorial Stadium, Indiana
- Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Southern California
- Spartan Stadium, Michigan State
- Memorial Stadium, Illinois
- Huntington Bank Stadium, Minnesota
- Rose Bowl, UCLA
- Ross-Ade Stadium, Purdue
- SHI Stadium, Rutgers
- SECU Stadium, Maryland
- Martin Stadium, Northwestern
It’s also worth pointing out that the six stadiums ranked ahead of the Huskers’ home are all truly difficult places to play, and that’s been recognized early and often. The other piece of good news is that Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium is the highest-ranked Memorial Stadium. That’s certainly an interesting turn considering where Indiana has gone the last few years.
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