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ARLINGTON, Texas -- Nebraska will play Florida and Penn State will face SMU in the $1 million made-for-TV women's college volleyball exhibition set for next month at AT&T Stadium.
Spikes Under the Lights organizers announced the matchups Tuesday for the Aug. 27 event at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
The two matches will be followed by a final, with all played in a best-of-three set format designed to fit a three-hour broadcast window. Television and streaming coverage have not been announced.
Each team will be paid a $200,000 appearance fee. An additional $200,000 in prize money will be at stake, with the largest portion going to the winner. Each school will decide how it distributes the money among players.
Penn State has made a record 45 NCAA Tournament appearances and won eight national championships. Nebraska has 44 NCAA appearances and five titles and Florida has 36 appearances. SMU has played in three straight NCAAs and five overall.
Females gaining
Female athletes are reaching new heights in name, image and likeness participation.
College sports marketing companies report a rapid surge in female athlete engagement. Learfield saw a 123% increase in participation among female athletes over the 2025-26 fiscal year. Learfield's head of NIL says female athletes excel as content creators and storytellers. Women's sports are closing the gap with high-revenue sports.
Top partnerships included production shoots, social media posts and brand ambassadorships. Twenty-two national brands struck deals with college athletes over the fiscal year. More than 260 athletes across 69 schools were featured in national campaigns.
NIL bill updated
A reworked Senate bill designed to regulate college sports proposes to more than double the amount of money schools could share with players as part of a flurry of revisions designed to win the support of the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences.
Among the key changes would be up to $25 million devoted to a "retention" pool that would allow schools to pay athletes already on their rosters to stay. That would be in addition to the $21.3 million schools are allowed to spend this season. Some $5 million of the new money would be devoted to women's sports.
The House settlement, which dictates the terms of revenue sharing, calls for 22% of certain revenues to be shared with the athletes. The retention pool figures to drastically change that math.
Also uncertain is how it would impact name, image and likeness compensation from third parties, which allows schools to blow past the cap and many agree is the reason costs of assembling football and basketball rosters are spiraling out of control.
Jeffrey Kessler, the plaintiffs' attorney in the House case, told The Associated Press: "I would have to see the specific provisions of the entire bill to evaluate any issues with the settlement."