Nuggets from Nebraska AD Troy Dannen's fall press conference
by:
Robin Washut19 minutes ago
RobinWashut
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Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen (PHOTO: HuskerOnline)
As the 2025 football season nears, Nebraska athletic director
Troy Dannen has plenty on his plate at the moment. Dannen met with the media on Friday morning to give the latest on a wide range of topics.
Here is a full recap of what he had to say…
Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen
***Dannen said Nebraska set records with contributions from 17,763 donors totalling over $70 million. He credited NU’s athletic success across all sports, as well as praising its academic achievements.
***Looking forward, Dannen said Aramark taking over concessions and adding alcohol sales was a significant adjustment. He said Aramark would contribute several million to improving NU’s concession setups. Nebraska also spent a lot of time on “studying security” at athletic events, including 100-110 officers at games. Last year they were at 75.
***Dannen said the new track and field facility was “progressing well” and should be done by next fall. Nebraska is also going to expand Cook Arena following the winter sports stadium. That will include replacing the plywood benches with seats and increasing capacity to 10,200.
***Dannen said events planning would be a priority this year. “We have to use our venues… We have to start thinking entrepreneurially.” Adding more events at those venues will help generate revenue beyond simply raising ticket prices. He said they’re already engaged with three potential events for this year, though that will not include anything at Memorial Stadium this fall.
***On the Memorial Stadium Project, Dannen said they were at “status quo.” A lot of the work has happened behind the scenes. He noted that the “system-wide” financial issues at the University have caused some delay in the renovation’s progress.
***Nebraska eliminated 22 positions within its athletic department to help cover the $20.5 million revenue share expense. That saved $2-3 million. They also “reprioritized our expenses,” putting rev share as the “priority” over most everything else.
When all is said and done, Dannen hopes Nebraska’s budget will eventually be “around $5 million positive.” He said his No. 1 priority was “protecting the financial model” he inherited at NU, which includes being entirely self-sustaining.
***Dannen said he couldn’t give enough credit to the 1890 Collective and the contributions from the Peed family. He said the collective’s role may diminish going forward, but it was hard to know until further legal precedent was put in place.
***On the settlement overall, Dannen stressed for fans not to get frustrated during some of the early growing pains of this new landscape. He said he’s been “thrilled with everything that’s happened… It needs to work. It has to work for the sake of the enterprise.”
***Dannen said Nebraska had submitted 39 NIL deals to the clearinghouse, and 20 of those were already approved. They’re awaiting rulings on four others. He said those deals ranged from $600 to $40,000, including three valuing above $35,000.
***Dannen said NU replaced its big screen on the north end of Memorial Stadium. They also have a $20 million agreement with Verizon to help improve in-stadium cellular service. He added that Nebraska wouldn’t focus on improving the stadium’s WiFi until after the stadium renovations were completed.
Football’s financial impact, and evaluating other sports in the rev share era
***On how much football winning impacts Nebraska’s financial situation, Dannen didn’t sugarcoat his answer: “We have to win.” He said 85% of NU’s athletic budget came from football. Volleyball operates around “the Mendoza line” because of how much they invest in the program.
***Dannen will never give a coach or a program “a competitive goal” when it comes to season record and success. However, “you can tell a lot about where a program is at by being around it every day.” He’s around football daily, and he believes the culture of success is there with Nebraska football.
“I want to win at a level that Nebraska has seen before… There has to be progress.”
***Dannen said Nebraska has “probably 24 plans” for how to distribute revenue share money and resources to each of its athletic programs. He met with each coach last year to see what they all needed and quickly realized those needs were much different from sport to sport.
***On some schools frontloading NIL money before the revenue sharing went into effect, Dannen said the new issue was that it was now happening during the pre-enrollment period of the recruiting process.
***Dannen said a lot of the massive roster budgets you see these days resulted from frontloading NIL deals. In some cases, he thought some of those numbers were downright lies. He doesn’t worry about what other programs are supposedly paying. What he’s concerned with is getting tangible value and success from what Nebraska invests in each program.
Dannen said, “The stakes are really high” now with roster management because of the money involved.
“If you miss on a $250,000 rev-share allocation, it’s a big deal now.”
***On Nebraska basketball specifically, Dannen said, “Historically, the schools that have spent the most don’t win the most.” He admitted that basketball programs at football-centered schools like NU face challenges, but “there’s a cost for major college football.” At Nebraska, football will be the priority.
Ticket sales and schedule talk
***Dannen said the Michigan home football game was already sold out, but wasn’t sure where sales were with other games. He mentioned that a small percentage of tickets would always remain unsold the week of the game, including returned visitor tickets.
The sellout streak was not in jeopardy for any game.
***He said the opener in Kansas City was around 66,000, with roughly 6,000 of those going to buyers from Ohio and Kentucky addresses.
***Dannen doesn’t expect a Friday night home game next season, but “I’m sure we’ll have more.” He guessed maybe two more through the life of the TV deal (2032). He added that NU would never host an additional Friday home game in the years Cockeye plays in Lincoln.
***Dannen said the non-conference schedule would remain unchanged until the stadium project’s completion and once the CFP model was set in stone.
***Dannen said he didn’t have a target number for events at Memorial Stadium. “Right now, it’s seven,” referring to NU’s seven home football games. A lot of that will depend on how well the AD can work with the city to bring in unique events.