And make no mistake, the AVCA First Serve Showcase benefits from Nebraska’s presence.

The Huskers are the reigning champions of the Big Ten Conference and are ranked No. 2 in the country. And Nebraska is gold in sports ratings. Unofficially, eight of the top 10 most-watched regular-season games last season were NU.

Nebraska’s game against No. 9 Kentucky is at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

“Nebraska has to be there to promote this — I’m sure we’ll get a lot of fans there,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “It’s great exposure. We’re trying new things (like) what they did in the Olympics without the rows (of judges), which I’ve been fighting for for years. The replay system is faster. We’re trying to go where the competition needs to go.”

Years ago, the AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) hosted the AVCA Showcase in Omaha to kick off the season, but that has not happened since.

This year it will be held in Louisville, where the NCAA Final Four will be played in December.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase volleyball before (most college football teams start the season). That’s the key,” Cook said.

After the Nebraska-Kentucky game, No. 3 Wisconsin will face No. 6 Louisville.

The AVCA received a waiver from the NCAA to play a few days earlier than planned.

The AVCA First Serve Showcase could include more teams next season, but Cook doesn’t yet know if Nebraska will be one of them.

A UNL police officer will travel with the team throughout the season, meaning there will be increased security at the team’s hotel and bench during games.

That’s something that’s common for college football teams. And Nebraska volleyball has added more security around the bench and outside the locker room during home games in recent years.

At times, the Wisconsin volleyball team traveled with a police officer. And the Iowa women’s basketball team added extra security for Caitlin Clark last season.

Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen made the decision.

“We’ve been assigned to travel with the police,” Cook said. “I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ But you saw what happened to Caitlin Clark and what’s happening now. You saw in (the ESPN documentary about Nebraska volleyball) some of the negative things that are happening now in this day and age. The rules of the game have changed and the pressure of expectations of a volleyball team has changed.”

Fans will be keeping a close eye on who Nebraska’s top two outside forwards emerge from the group consisting of Lindsay Krause, Taylor Landfair, Harper Murray and Skyler Pierce in the early part of the season.

Nebraska’s coaches will also be closely studying the stats to see if Nebraska’s best modus operandi will be to replace the pin hitters as they rotate to the back row, in favor of more playing time for defensive specialists like Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch.

That limits the use of the back row offense, but could make the Huskers better at serve-receive and floor defense.

“It’s an interesting problem because we have some elite back-row guys,” Cook said. “We have elite forwards. But you’ve got to get a rhythm in your team. It’s going to be a good development story. We’ll see how it goes. We haven’t decided yet, but we’re putting a lot of energy into talking about it right now.”

One of the rule changes in college volleyball this season allows teams to use two liberos per set of the match.

Cook doesn’t plan to take advantage of that — he wants three-time All-American Lexi Rodriguez at the game as much as possible — and expects teams at the NCAA Division II level to benefit more from the rule change than Division I.

“I’ll be shocked if I see a Big Ten team do this,” Cook said. “I think it’s hard enough to find one great libero, let alone two. And I want our libero to be there all the time.”