Nebraska volleyball on TV showcases fearless scheduling

Those coaches are Nebraska’s John Cook, Texas’ Jerritt Elliott, Wisconsin’s Kelly Sheffield, Louisville’s Dani Busboom Kelly, Creighton’s Kirsten Bernthal Booth, Stanford’s Kevin Hambly and more.

On Wednesday, four of the top-5 teams in the country were in matches vs. each other — No. 1 Pittsburgh vs. No. 3 Penn State; No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 5 Nebraska.

A tournament in Lawrence, Kansas, this weekend had three top-10 teams — No. 6 Purdue, No. 9 Creighton and No. 10 Kansas.

The almost-any-team, any-place scheduling helps lead to what we get on Sunday when No. 4 Louisville and No. 5 Nebraska play at 11:30 a.m. in Louisville, Kentucky. ABC wanted it on TV, and it will be the first regular-season college match on that network.

In volleyball, some of the best TV exposure comes early in the season before college basketball season and college football bowl season.

On Wednesday, there were four straight hours of volleyball matches on TV on ESPN, Big Ten Network and ACC Network. Even on a college football day, Kentucky at Stanford on Saturday night was on ESPN2.

But come December during the first two weeks of the NCAA Tournament the TV lineup isn’t good.

In college volleyball, a nonconference loss isn’t as crushing as it is in college football, and volleyball coaches use nonconference matches to prepare them for the conference season and NCAA Tournament.

And the reality for a team like Nebraska is if you lose one or two in the nonconference season, if you still win the Big Ten title there is a decent chance you’ll still earn one of the highly beneficial top-four overall seeds for the NCAA Tournament.

This season, Nebraska’s nonconference schedule ended up being historically good with five matches against ranked teams — then-No. 2 Stanford, No. 4 Louisville, No. 9 Creighton, then-No. 9 Kentucky and No. 14 Arizona State.

That’s the most ranked teams Nebraska has played in the nonconference season since 2005, when Nebraska also played five ranked teams (Hawaii, Stanford, Ohio State, Minnesota and Penn State).

Going forward volleyball fans need to cross their fingers and hope marquee matchups remain a part of volleyball’s DNA. Travel budgets in the nonconference season may be cut because of more cross-country travel during conference play (Nebraska goes to Oregon and Washington this year; Stanford is now in the ACC).

In the future, there may be fewer matchups of the top teams.

“It’s going to depend on each school when they have to come up with $23 million (for revenue sharing with athletes),” Cook said. “Something is going to give because all of these programs don’t have $23 million just sitting around. I’ve already had talks with (AD Troy Dannen) and we’re talking about strategies and what we’re going to need to do and how we can try and save money.”

Fewer teams may be making expensive trips like Nebraska did last year to play Stanford.

“We may be told; some schools may be told, you’re not leaving more than a 300-mile radius. You got to bus,” Cook said. “I guarantee there are going to be teams in the Big Ten (told) you can bus.”

Nonconference scheduling is a challenge for coaches. First, you have to find teams that will play you, and then see if you can find an open week for both teams.

“For us, we’re just trying to get teams to come here and play home matches,” Cook said. “And they’ll come here if you pay them, or they’ll come here if you return. K-State came here, and we went there to return that. SMU came here, and we went to SMU. So we’ll do a couple of those.”

Nebraska will be better positioned than some teams due to location, resources and coaches wanting to get their players a great experience in front of a large crowd. Maybe Stanford will come to Lincoln for a showcase event if it gets two matches for one trip.

Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State are close.

“There are so many good teams now,” Cook said.

Sunday’s match may not seem that different for Nebraska fans who are used to watching the Huskers on TV on Big Ten Network and Nebraska Public Media.

But millions of more people will have the opportunity to watch and may keep watching knowing that Nebraska is a big brand in the sport.

ESPN2 is available in about 70 million homes, while on ABC it is 120 million homes.

“This is another epic moment,” Cook said. “We always say there is no place like Nebraska, and we are in a lot of these epic moments which is pretty cool for our program, and the respect that we get. It’s another significant moment for women’s sports.”

Nebraska All-American right-side hitter Merritt Beason says a match on ABC is a “huge opportunity” for the program.

“We’re continuing to see steppingstones happen in women’s sports and women’s athletics so it’s really exciting that we’re able to be a part of something else,” Beason said. “I know our team doesn’t take that lightly and we’re very grateful to be in the situations that we’re in.”

Louisville (8-1) already has wins this season against four top-20 teams — Wisconsin, Creighton, Kentucky and Tennessee. The loss was against Penn State.

The Cardinals run a two-setter rotation that includes Elle Glock, a junior from Wahoo.