Nebraska can feel better about sellout streak after Minnesota’s desperate ticket deal

The discussion over whether Nebraska’s sellout streak will survive another season has become an annual tradition over the last half-decade. There was a time when there was no question it would go on and on and on; however, a decade without a bowl game, followed by two straight underwhelming bowl seasons, has put the sellout streak in jeopardy. Still, while the yearly discussion has become old and busted, it turns out that it could be quite a bit worse.

In recent years, the Huskers’ athletic department has had to turn to novel concepts in order to keep the streak alive. This summer especially, the program has offered several big deals on discounted tickets to its weakest opponents, with the latest offering all three non-conference games for a total of $100 per package. And yet, while it feels like NU is desperate to keep the streak alive, at least it isn’t offering tickets with every frozen pizza purchase.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers aren’t so lucky. “Thanks to our friends Red Baron, a limited supply of tickets can now be redeemed for the Gopher Football games vs Eastern Illinois on 9/3, Akron on 9/19, and Northwestern on 11/21,” a social media post from the official Minnesota football account read earlier this month.

The deal the program offered? Buy three Red Baron frozen pizzas and “win” two tickets to one of those three games. The absolutely crazy part of this giveaway isn’t even that they’re begging people to come to games but that the Gophers are hoping people will be hungry enough to just give in. The craziest part is that while two of the giveaway games are weak non-conference contests, the last one is the final home game of the season against a Big Ten rival.

Red Baron promotion gives away Minnesota tickets as Nebraska football protects streak

As bad as things have gotten for Nebraska, it’s hard to imagine a time will come when the program has to do crazy tricks to get fans to come to the Black Friday game against Iowa, or whoever is the final opponent in Memorial Stadium for the season.

It’s not even like things have gotten “bad” for Minnesota. PJ Fleck’s program has been a consistent winner since he came to Minneapolis. He’s routinely schooled rivals like Nebraska and is coming off a 9-5 campaign last year.

Are Gophers fans really that spoiled? Is it just that unbearable in November that the program has to essentially grovel in order to get anyone to go to a contest that could conceivably be their big chance to clinch a College Football Playoff berth?

Nebraska’s sellout streak might be in trouble, but the Huskers can be confident that they are miles away from having to partner with DiGiorno to get butts in the seats.

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