Nebraska football’s 2025 season opener marks a handful of historic happenings.
To open Matt Rhule’s third year at the helm, the Huskers will face off against Cincinnati in Kansas City, marking their first trip to Arrowhead Stadium since the 2006 Big 12 championship game. It also marks the first regular-season neutral-site match for Nebraska since 2022.
The contest, dubbed the Battle Sports Kansas City Classic, is part of a two-game series against the Bearcats, with the next game scheduled for 2033.
The teams were originally supposed to clash in 2020 in Cincinnati, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the game to 2025. In October 2023, the University of Cincinnati announced it would host the game at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. The move was linked to recruiting and financial aspects.
However, in December 2024, the game was changed to a neutral site matchup at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
Why the switch?
Money.
Cincinnati Athletic Director John Cunningham believes that the move from Indianapolis to Kansas City can double the school’s revenue, potentially approaching a profit of $6 million, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Arrowhead Events, the Chiefs’ special event arm, lured in the contest after hosting four of the Kansas Jayhawks’ home games last season.
A rare occurrence in the modern era, the contest is Nebraska’s fifth neutral-site regular-season tilt in program history.
After Memorial Stadium was built in 1923, the first true neutral-site game for the Huskers was in 1931 in a postseason charity game against Colorado State. Held during the Great Depression, the game took place at Hilltop Stadium, located at the University of Denver. The first neutral site game for Nebraska would have been the 1915 Rose Bowl, but Nebraska declined the invitation for financial reasons.
Nebraska’s first regular-season neutral-site game was the 1983 Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the No. 1 Huskers defeated No. 4 Penn State 44-6. Nebraska proceeded to win two more Kickoff Classics in 1988 and 1994. In 1992, Nebraska traveled to Tokyo to play Kansas State.
The Huskers later played one more game overseas, the Aer Lingus Classic against Northwestern in Dublin in 2023. The season opener of Scott Frost’s final season with the team included his infamous second-half onside kick call that tainted the game.
Nebraska has played 11 games in Kansas City. There was a tilt against Missouri in 1893, a year after Mizzou forfeited its game against Nebraska because the Huskers had a Black player on the roster.
This season’s matchup in Kansas City marks Nebraska’s fourth game at Arrowhead Stadium. In 1998, the Huskers squared off for their first game at Arrowhead in the Eddie Robinson Classic, in which No. 4 Nebraska trounced Louisiana Tech 56-27. The Huskers later competed in two Big 12 conference championship games in the stadium, but lost both.
This season also doesn’t mark Nebraska’s first matchup against the Bearcats, though it’s been a while. The Huskers last faced off against Cincinnati on November 29, 1906, during head coach Amos Foster’s first season. Before coaching Nebraska, Foster served two seasons as Cincinnati’s football head coach and was also the Bearcats’ basketball coach from 1904-1909, coinciding with his football coaching stint at Nebraska.