Even before the 2024 Olympic Games, volleyball started gaining traction in the US market. In the 2022-2023 season, a reported 470,488 high school volleyball players were registered across the country. The next year, the Huskers made history by attracting 92,003 fans to Memorial Stadium for a match between Nebraska and Oregon, the highest number of fans in one place for a women’s volleyball game. Obviously, you’d expect the trend to continue. But it seems like the Big Ten volleyball is regressing instead of moving ahead.
With Penn State and Nebraska carving up the 2024 Big Ten volleyball title among themselves, the season finished on a high note. With the 2025 season inching closer, fans were quite possibly anticipating the conference to cash in on that momentum and gain a larger footing in the country with bigger plans for its matches. But alas!
An article on the official Big Ten website from July 28 notes that 79 women’s volleyball matches will be broadcast via television, with the coverage beginning with the AVCA First Serve Showcase. The matches will be televised via the “Big Ten Network, FOX, FS1 and NBC for the 2025 season,” as per the report, with the official Big Ten network set to broadcast at least 63 matches.
Undoubtedly, a step back. In 2024, 83 Big Ten volleyball matches were televised nationally via the same abovementioned networks.
The story is developing
The post Big Ten Volleyball Sees Minor Setback Despite Sport’s Rapid Growth in USA appeared first on EssentiallySports.
