Three-time All-American setter shares how academics, NIL negotiations and the support around her are shaping her future beyond her sport
Four attackers can be calling for the ball at once.
For Bergen Reilly, Nebraska volleyball’s All-American setter, that means making a split-second decision about where the ball goes. It’s a responsibility she’s grown accustomed to while becoming one of the best players in college volleyball.
But some of the most valuable decisions Reilly has made at Nebraska have come away from the court, where she’s excelled academically while navigating the business opportunities that have accompanied her athletic success.
And she’s discovering how much those experiences complement one another.
“School sharpens my brain for volleyball, and volleyball sharpens my brain for school,” Reilly said.
A three-time American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American, Reilly made history almost immediately at Nebraska, becoming the first freshman to earn Big Ten Setter of the Year honors since the award’s creation in 2012. She won it again as a sophomore and, in 2025, joined Wisconsin’s Sydney Hilley as the only three-time recipients.
Reilly also added Big Ten Player of the Year and AVCA Setter of the Year honors last season while directing one of the most efficient offenses in Nebraska history. The Huskers led the nation with a school-record .351 hitting percentage, surpassing a mark of .331 that had stood since 1986.
Reilly continued adding to her legacy in 2026, becoming the only player in Nebraska history to record at least 4,000 career assists, 1,000 digs and 200 blocks. Her impact helped Nebraska to a 25-0 start and the No. 1 national ranking in 2026, with the Huskers clinching a share of their fourth consecutive Big Ten championship on Nov. 8.
Reilly’s accomplishments in the classroom have been just as impressive.
A two-time first-team Academic All-American, Reilly was named the Division I women’s volleyball Academic All-America Team Member of the Year following the 2025 season. She became only the fifth Nebraska volleyball player to receive the distinction and the first since Sarah Pavan in 2007.
Reilly, who carried a 3.83 cumulative GPA, earned her bachelor’s degree in business and law in May 2026 before returning for this season.
Reilly credits much of that success to the expectations her parents established long before she arrived in Lincoln. Academics were always a priority, as was the importance of putting her best effort into whatever she pursued.
“I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, and I think a lot of setters are perfectionists,” Reilly said. “That also makes me a perfectionist in school.”
Reilly’s interest in law started with her father, Brendan, an attorney who attended Creighton Law School. Her older sister and former Illinois volleyball standout, Raegen, is following a similar path through law school at South Dakota. Growing up around the profession sparked an interest in law, though Bergen Reilly wasn’t certain what career she wanted to pursue.
“I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do coming into college, but my dad always said that the one thing that he wished he had more background on was business,” Reilly said. “So I just figured like the business law major was perfect. It encapsulates a lot, and I can kind of go wherever I want with it at the end of college.”
The decision has already proved useful in college.
As Reilly’s profile has grown through her success at Nebraska, so have her name, image and likeness opportunities. With more than 200,000 followers on Instagram, Reilly has built a sizable platform that extends her influence beyond the volleyball court.
In 2024, she became a Red Bull athlete — the brand’s first college volleyball athlete — and added to a portfolio of partnerships that includes national brands such as Adidas, JBL and Quest Nutrition.
Those opportunities have also given Reilly a chance to apply what she’s learned in the classroom to real-world business decisions.
“I essentially am running a business,” Reilly said of her NIL opportunities. “I think having that degree has helped a lot with the marketing part and even contracts.”
Her father still helps review many of her agreements. But Reilly has developed enough understanding of contracts to recognize what she’s agreeing to and to identify potential issues herself.
“Now I can kind of skim some contracts, and I pretty much know what they’re saying and I know what to look for and what’s kind of a red flag,” she said. “That’s been kind of cool to see, too, how that integrates into my life.”
Some of the most valuable lessons, however, have come from experiences that can’t be replicated in a classroom.
Take negotiating, for example.
Reilly studied negotiation in one of her classes, but putting those lessons into practice through NIL agreements has been another experience entirely.
“That’s one of the things that NIL has just taught me about the real world a little bit is just going back and forth and coming to a compromise and negotiating — and you don’t necessarily learn that in a class,” she said.
These experiences have also opened her mind to a potential career path.
While Reilly isn’t certain what she wants to do after volleyball, she’s interested in the possibility of using her education and firsthand experience to help other athletes navigate NIL.
“How can I continue to help athletes and help people in the NIL world? Because it’s a hard and confusing world,” she said.
For Reilly, volleyball, academics and NIL aren’t entirely separate pursuits. Each offers lessons she can apply to the others.
“I really do try and apply different aspects of my life to each other and kind of make it all feel like one, a little bit,” Reilly said.
But balancing those responsibilities hasn’t always been easy.
Practices, matches and travel take up considerable time, particularly during the Big Ten season. Academic assignments and exams don’t disappear when the Huskers hit the road. Neither do the responsibilities associated with NIL partnerships or the desire to maintain relationships outside volleyball.
“You get put in tough situations a lot and learn how are you going to adapt and how are you going to adjust?” Reilly said. “College sports do a great job of preparing you for the real world.”
She remembers one particularly stressful stretch toward the end of a Big Ten season. With the demands of the season mounting and a major assignment approaching, she turned to her academic advisor at the time for help.
“I went to him, and he just kind of like walked me through the assignment first but just talked me off a ledge and really kind of put it all into perspective,” Reilly said.
Reilly credits much of her academic success to the resources available to student-athletes, from advisors who help manage class schedules and keep them on track to graduate to tutors and professors willing to work around the demands of competition and travel.
Beyond academics, she said Nebraska’s Life Skills program has helped prepare her for responsibilities outside college sports, including learning about taxes and participating in community volunteer opportunities, among others.
“It’s hard to fail if you use the resources that they’ve given us and you put yourself out there. It’s really hard to fail,” Reilly said.
That support extends beyond campus, too.
Her parents continue to help with the responsibilities of NIL, whether it’s her father reviewing contracts or her mother responding to an email when Reilly’s schedule gets crowded.
Reilly has leaned on that support as her responsibilities and opportunities have grown. She arrived at Nebraska as a 17-year-old in 2023. Three years later, she has earned a college degree, collected national honors in the classroom and on the court and gained firsthand experience navigating the business opportunities available to college athletes.
She still isn’t certain what comes next. Professional volleyball and representing Team USA at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics remain goals, as does eventually putting her business and law background to use helping other athletes navigate NIL.
Whatever direction she takes, Reilly hopes to be remembered for more than her accomplishments.
“I think I would just love for everyone to remember the human I am,” she said. “And a lot of us, we always talk about our sport is what we do, it’s not who we are.”
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