Huskers heading to Music City Bowl to take on Tennessee
The Nebraska football team officially learned their bowl fate on Sunday. The Huskers (9-3) will play Tennessee (8-4) in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30 in Nashville.
The game is set for a 2:30 pm CST kick and it can be seen on ESPN. This will be NU's first game against the Volunteers since the 1999 season when the two historic programs squared off in the Fiesta Bowl.
“We are excited about the invitation to complete the 2016 season in the Music City Bowl,” Nebraska head Mike Riley said in a statement. “This is a great opportunity to finish our year in an outstanding bowl game and compete for a 10th win against an excellent Tennessee team. As a staff, we are looking forward to spending the additional practice time with this team and preparing for a strong performance.
“I know our players, coaches and fans will enjoy the trip to Nashville, and we anticipate a great week of activities and an excellent football game.”
The two schools also played for the national championship in 1997, with the Huskers beating the Vols 42-17 in Peyton Manning's final college game.
Coincidentally, Tennessee and Nebraska were actually supposed to begin a two-game non-conference series this season, but the schools agreed to move it until 2026-2027 so the Vols could play Virginia Tech this season in Bristol Motor Speedway. The Huskers replaced UT with Oregon.
Like Nebraska, Tennessee got off to a hot start in 2016 with a 5-0 record and No. 9 overall in the national rankings. They beat both Florida and Georgia in back-to-back weeks, before losing three-straight to Texas A&M, Alabama and South Carolina.
The Volunteers ended the season winning 3 of their final 4 games, as they dropped their regular season finale to Vanderbilt 45-34. The UT defense has given up an average of 661 yards over their final 3 games this season.
After starting out the 2016 season 7-0, Nebraska dropped to 3 of their last 5 games to finish 9-3. This will be the Huskers first football game played in the state of Tennessee since the 1977 Liberty Bowl in Memphis.
“The University of Nebraska is extremely honored to accept an invitation to the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl,” University of Nebraska Director of Athletics Shawn Eichorst said. “The Music City Bowl is an exceptional Big Ten bowl partner, Nashville is a world-class city and this will be a great destination for our student-athletes, staff and the best fans in college football.”
Tickets for the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl go on sale to the public at Huskers.com beginning at 7 p.m. on Sunday evening. Nebraska will receive an allotment of 8,000 tickets to the game. Tickets are $85 each, with club seating available for $120 per ticket. Beginning Monday morning, tickets can also be purchased by calling the Nebraska Athletics Development and Ticketing at 1-800-8-BIG RED or in person at the ticket office in the Stadium Drive Parking Garage. Fans can purchase tickets by using VISA, MasterCard or Discover.
