Cornhuskers

For decades the Cornhuskers and the Oklahoma Sooners settled the old Big Eight and Big 12 on the same weekend, a series both sides still call the fiercest, and it went unresolved onto no trophy at all — the rivalry simply had a fixture, not a bell or a cup, and that was enough. It faded once conference realignment split the two apart, and it ended for good when Nebraska left for the Big Ten in 2011. The bigger, longer feud actually ran against Kansas: 117 meetings from 1892 to 2010, Nebraska ahead 91–23–3, including a 36-game winning streak that stretched from 1969 to 2004 — the longest a team has ever strung together against one conference opponent in major college football.

The move to the Big Ten was a financial decision more than a football one. The Big 12 had been paying Nebraska roughly $9 million a year; the Big Ten offered a path toward $20 million, and the number since has climbed past $70 million annually. Bill Moos, who ran the athletic department from 2017 to 2021, later admitted he quietly explored a return to the Big 12 once fans made clear how much they missed the old rivalries and the shorter road trips. The regents said no.

None of that touches the years under Tom Osborne, who coached from 1973 to 1997 and built the bulk of the program's five consensus national titles, three of them his. Memorial Stadium, meanwhile, has not seen an empty seat since 1962 — every single home game sold out since, a streak now well past six decades.