Nebraska–Oklahoma football rivalry

Nebraska–Oklahoma football rivalry

Nebraska Cornhuskers Oklahoma Sooners
Sport	Football
First meeting	November 23, 1912 Nebraska 13, Oklahoma 9
Latest meeting	September 17, 2022 Oklahoma 49, Nebraska 14
Next meeting	September 15, 2029
Statistics
Meetings total	88
All-time series	Oklahoma leads, 47–38–3[1]
Largest victory	Nebraska, 69–7 (1997)
Longest win streak	Oklahoma, 16 (1943–1958)
Current win streak	Oklahoma, 3 (2010–present)

230km
143miles

Oklahoma

Nebraska

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Locations of Nebraska and Oklahoma

The Nebraska–Oklahoma football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Oklahoma Sooners. The two programs are among the most storied in the sport's history, and their traditional Thanksgiving-weekend meeting often carried conference and national championship implications. They met eighteen times with both ranked in the national top ten, including two AP poll and two BCS No. 1 vs No. 2 games.

The teams were conference opponents as early as 1921, but the annual meeting did not immediately gain prominence – Nebraska's domination of the MVIAA prior to World War II was followed by sixteen consecutive Oklahoma conference championships from 1946 to 1959. The rivalry became nationally significant as Bob Devaney built NU into a power in the 1960s, culminating in a 1971 meeting (the "Game of the Century") that is often considered the best game in college football history. Tom Osborne and Barry Switzer, both promoted to head coach in 1973, entrenched the series as one of the sport's great rivalries. Switzer won thirteen of eighteen meetings with Osborne, coining the term "Sooner Magic" to describe OU's often uncanny success in these games. Nebraska controlled the series in the decade following Switzer's 1988 resignation.

The annual series ended in 1996 when the Big Eight merged with the Southwest to form the Big 12 Conference, with Nebraska and Oklahoma in separate divisions. The teams played several high-profile games in the Big 12, including the first two No. 1 vs. No. 2 games in BCS history, but have met infrequently since Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011.

Nebraska and Oklahoma first met on November 23, 1912, a 13–9 Cornhuskers win in Lincoln. Oklahoma joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1920 and the teams began an annual series when Nebraska rejoined the following year (NU was temporarily banned from the MVIAA for hosting a game against Oklahoma in Omaha, when conference rules required schools to play home games on campus).^[2] In 1923, NU defeated OU in the first game at Memorial Stadium on a field of mostly dirt; the Cornhuskers were forced into blue practice jerseys when Oklahoma mistakenly brought home reds to Lincoln.^[3]

The series was uneventful in its early years, with Nebraska winning twenty-one MVIAA titles prior to World War II and losing just three times to Oklahoma. The balance of power shifted when Bud Wilkinson turned OU into a national powerhouse through the early 1950s, winning three national championships and beginning an NCAA-record seventy-four-game conference win streak. Prior to his first game against Nebraska in 1947, NU's student council protested a longstanding agreement among MVIAA universities prohibiting black athletes and accused OU's athletic board of perpetuating this agreement.^[4]

Nebraska hired a pair of Wilkinson assistants as its head coach in the latter part of the decade, Pete Elliott and Bill Jennings, who brought Wilkinson's split-T formation to Lincoln.^[5] Both coaches were largely unsuccessful, but Jennings snapped OU's sixteen-game win streak in the series in 1959, considered one of the biggest upset victories in school history.^[5] Jennings, a lifelong Sooner, became ostracized in Norman for his role in a "slush fund" scandal that ended in NCAA sanctions and Wilkinson's resignation, despite being officially exonerated. Police surrounded him during Nebraska's 1960 victory at Oklahoma because of pregame threats by fans.^[5] Jennings came to resent his alma mater and former boss, stating decades later: "Bud refused to take the blame for anything. It all came down on me, and my family paid a heavy price for it. I was run out of my hometown, and that still hurts."^[6]

The series became one of college football's most intense when Nebraska hired Bob Devaney in 1962. After a dominant Sooners victory in Devaney's first year, the teams met in Lincoln in 1963, the first of many NU–OU games that determined the Big Eight champion and a trip to the Orange Bowl. The game, a 29–20 Nebraska win, was nearly canceled due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy the day prior.^[7] Despite Wilkinson, a personal friend of Kennedy's, receiving permission from his brother Robert to play the game, both schools were criticized in the aftermath.^[7] OU struggled in the immediate aftermath of Wilkinson's 1963 resignation, but upsets of NU in 1964 and 1966 kept the Cornhuskers out of national championship contention.

The programs followed similar paths after taking a step back in the late 1960s – Devaney promoted I formation disciple Tom Osborne to offensive coordinator, while OU head coach Chuck Fairbanks allowed Barry Switzer to install the wishbone offense, a variation of the T formation made famous by rival Texas.^[8] This culminated in the "Game of the Century" in 1971, often considered the best game in college football history.^[9][10] After unprecedented buildup, top-ranked Nebraska defeated No. 2 Oklahoma 35–31 in Norman in a game described as "the greatest collegiate football battle ever," and later claimed a second consecutive national championship.^[11]

Nebraska's Tom Osborne (left) and Oklahoma's Barry Switzer coached eighteen games against each other

Osborne and Switzer were both promoted to head coach in 1973 and established one of college football's most famous coaching rivalries. Switzer maintained the upper hand throughout the 1970s, winning his first five meetings against Osborne and coining the term "Sooner Magic" to describe OU's success in these games.^[12] Switzer led OU to national titles in 1974 and 1975 despite NCAA sanctions to begin his tenure.^[12] Osborne's first victory over Switzer came in 1978, when Nebraska recovered six OU fumbles to upset the top-ranked Sooners.^[13] Nebraska lost to Missouri the next week to end its national title hopes, and then to Oklahoma in an Orange Bowl rematch, the only time the schools have met in a bowl game.^[14]

From 1973 through 1979, OU and its run-heavy wishbone went 7–1 in the series despite averaging less than five pass attempts per game.^[15] Osborne had always used some option concepts in his offensive design, but unlike Switzer, he did it primarily with pro-style quarterbacks.^[15] Osborne committed to an option-based attack and under the guidance of dual-threat Turner Gill, NU won three consecutive games in the series in the early 1980s. This included a regular season-finale victory in a 1983 season that saw NU break many of OU's offensive records set a decade prior.^[16]

Oklahoma again took control of the series in the mid-1980s, defeating a top-five Nebraska team in four consecutive seasons. The last of these, billed as the "Game of the Century II," did not match its predecessor from 1971 – trailing 7–0 at halftime, No. 2 Oklahoma dominated the second half to upset top-ranked Nebraska.^[17] Switzer resigned following the 1988 season in the wake of sweeping NCAA sanctions.^[18]

Nebraska won nine of ten games following Switzer's departure, its longest run of success against OU since World War II. In 1996, the annual series ended when the Big Eight merged with four Texas schools of the Southwest to form the Big 12 Conference, with NU and OU placed in separate divisions.^[19] The schools won at least a share of seventy-one of eighty-nine MVIAA and Big Eight championships.

Nebraska won its first two Big 12 games against Oklahoma 69–7 and 73–21, the two most lopsided results in series history. In 2000, after a two-year series hiatus, eventual national champion OU and second-year head coach Bob Stoops overcame an early 14–0 deficit to defeat NU in the first regular season No. 1 vs. No. 2 game in Bowl Championship Series history.^[20] They met again as the BCS's top two teams in 2001, and a fourth-quarter touchdown reception by quarterback Eric Crouch became the signature moment of his Heisman Trophy-winning season.^[21]

In July 2010, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln announced it would join the Big Ten Conference by 2011, essentially ending the school's rivalry with Oklahoma.^[22] NU and OU met in the 2010 Big 12 Championship Game, their last game as conference opponents, a 23–20 Oklahoma victory.^[23] The series was renewed in 2021 and 2022 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Game of the Century.^[24] The teams are scheduled to meet in Norman in 2029 and in Lincoln in 2030.^[25]

Since the Associated Press began weekly polling in 1936, Nebraska and Oklahoma have met nine times with both ranked in the top five, including AP No. 1 vs. No. 2 games in 1971 and 1987 and BCS No. 1 vs. No. 2 games in 2000 and 2001. Oklahoma is 6–3 in these meetings.

• List of NCAA college football rivalry games