A match at Wrigley Field could be the biggest moment yet for Kentucky volleyball
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- Kentucky will play Penn State at Wrigley Field on Sept. 6.
- All 18 Big Ten and all 16 SEC schools will participate in Sept. 1–6 challenge.
- Skinner said the Wrigley Field match had already sold upwards of 37,000 tickets.
Last winter, Kentucky’s Craig Skinner traversed the rafters of Rupp Arena and flew in a plane to encourage attendance at high-stakes Wildcat volleyball matches.
This summer, Skinner and his likely top-10 squad will embrace another out-of-the-box approach to win fans’ attention when UK participates in a two-match showcase hosted at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Sept. 6.
Kentucky will face Penn State and Missouri will face Nebraska during the headlining final event of this season’s Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge Week, and will mark the first time the home of the Chicago Cubs will ever host a volleyball match.
Skinner, who told the Herald-Leader on May 28 the event had already sold upwards of 37,000 tickets, said the idea stemmed from a continued effort by league administrators and coaches to further invest in women’s college volleyball.
“The league, and our head coaches, we’ve been trying to get conferences together for several years to do a challenge of some sort,” Skinner said. “Last year we did the ACC Challenge, and we did the neutral site in Fort Worth.”
When the SEC office informed Skinner a Big Ten challenge was coming this year, the thought was “Where do we do a neutral site?” he said.
“The Big Ten approached the SEC about Wrigley,” Skinner said. “And, of course, the SEC wants to invest in volleyball, like they did last year with the sport with the conference tournament. And here we are.”
All 18 Big Ten and all 16 SEC schools will participate in the event, which begins Sept. 1 and ends with the Wrigley Field doubleheader five days later. In addition to the Penn State match in Chicago, Kentucky will host UCLA on Sept. 2.
The potential dream scenario of bringing a pair of formidable matchups to a wider audience was, at least in part, inspired by a similar event three years ago.
On Aug. 30, 2023, perennial college volleyball power Nebraska hosted more than 92,000 fans in Memorial Stadium — which typically houses the Huskers’ football team — for an outdoor match against Omaha, which was reported at the time to rally “the largest crowd to watch a women’s sporting event in the United States.”
The experiment, which was also recognized as a world attendance record for a women’s sporting event, dropped one of the sport’s most popular programs into an open-air football stadium and dared to pose the question of just how popular it really is.
Vanderbilt resurrected its volleyball program in 2025, more than 40 years since its discontinuation with an outdoor, season-opening match against fellow Nashville program Belmont on Wyatt Lawn on Vanderbilt’s campus. Vanderbilt head coach and former Kentucky associate head coach Anders Nelson made the match a free, general-admission event and promised local food trucks and a post-match country music concert.
As with any sport gaining rapid attention — and with it, the resulting additional resources-turned-competitive advantages — there is a desire among coaches and university and league administrators to capitalize on momentum by continuing to grow the game.
It’s the same reason why exclusive holiday showcase tournaments are prime real estate on a college basketball schedule, or why college football coaches might schedule a top-10 opponent outside their conference slate; more eyes means the potential for more fans and increased opportunities.
And yet, Skinner called the opportunity to play at Wrigley Field “a gamble,” noting that volleyball may not always translate well when played outdoors in the elements.
“I think the fans need to be prepared that it won’t be as clean of volleyball as they’re used to seeing indoors,” Skinner said. “Because the ball is lighter, and when you play beach volleyball outside, it’s a heavier ball, so it travels through the wind better.”
Skinner said there is a backup plan that had yet to be contracted at the time of the interview, in the event weather gets in the way.
There is also the matter of logistics — organizing practice time, sharing the facilities with three other programs and ensuring that preparation can remain the same for a program fresh off its second-ever national championship match appearance.
But the biggest difference between Kentucky taking on the Nittany Lions within the Friendly Confines and a gamble like Nebraska’s sweep of Omaha in 2023 or, what was in essence, Vanderbilt’s program-opening match in 2025 being played outside?
“For us and Penn State, that’s a top-10 matchup,” Skinner said. “I mean, it’s a lot.”
During that week alone, Kentucky will face a pair of programs with championship pedigree in UCLA — a home rematch of the 2025 NCAA Tournament second-round matchup — and 2024 national champion Penn State.
Fans of the program are used to Skinner’s nonconference scheduling strategy (read: brutal), and this season’s also includes the likes of Utah State, South Florida, North Carolina, SMU and Louisville. The UK season officially begins with opening-weekend matchups against 2025 Final Four programs Wisconsin (Aug. 21) and Pittsburgh (Aug. 23) as part of the AVCA First Serve at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Armed with Skinner’s decades-marinated competitive culture, multiple All-Americans, another unrelenting schedule and a plethora of opportunities to prove itself on a national stage against other national title contenders, Kentucky’s 2026 calendar is largely business as usual.
So then, why not take a chance at something that could continue the sport’s rise?
“I’ve always tried to do anything and everything to bring awareness to the amazing athletes that we have in the sport,” Skinner said. “And so, if it was going to create nationwide interest, absolutely. It’s hard to fathom how it’ll all work, but you just pray that there’s good weather and no wind.”
