Colorado–Nebraska football rivalry

The Colorado–Nebraska football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Colorado Buffaloes and Nebraska Cornhuskers. The teams first played in 1898 and began meeting annually when Colorado joined the MVIAA in 1948. The rivalry intensified as Colorado improved under Bill McCartney, peaking in the 1990s with several high-profile matchups. The annual series ended when both schools departed the Big 12 Conference in 2011.

Colorado–Nebraska football rivalry

Colorado Buffaloes Nebraska Cornhuskers
Sport	Football
First meeting	November 17, 1898 Nebraska, 23–10
Latest meeting	September 7, 2024 Nebraska, 28–10
Statistics
Meetings total	73
All-time series	Nebraska leads, 50–21–2[1]
Largest victory	Nebraska, 59–0 (1981)
Longest win streak	Nebraska, 18 (1968–1985)
Current win streak	Nebraska, 1 (2024)

220km
137miles

Nebraska

Colorado

   

Locations of Colorado and Nebraska

The rivalry's intensity was often disputed – while Colorado generally viewed Nebraska as its biggest rival, Nebraska historically prioritized its series with Oklahoma.^[2][3] After the formation of the Big 12 in 1996, Colorado replaced Oklahoma as Nebraska's traditional Black Friday opponent.

History

Early years

Colorado and Nebraska first met on November 17, 1898, a 23–10 NU victory in Boulder. They met five more times through 1907, when the series was paused for over forty years. The Buffaloes and Cornhuskers began an annual series when CU joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (later the Big Eight Conference) in 1948. Colorado won nine of the first fourteen MVIAA meetings to take its only series lead (10–9–1).

Nebraska hired Bob Devaney in 1962 and quickly took control of the series against Colorado. Devaney and his successor Tom Osborne combined to lose to CU just once prior to 1986. Despite his team's dominance in the series, Osborne interviewed for Colorado's head coaching position in 1979, later saying "I thought there was enough unhappiness [in Lincoln] that maybe I ought to look for a job."^[4] CU offered a considerable salary increase and Osborne even traveled to Boulder to meet the team, but he ultimately declined the offer.^[4] Colorado instead hired former Oklahoma head coach Chuck Fairbanks, who led the Sooners against Devaney and NU in the famous "Game of the Century." Turner Gill made his first start as Nebraska's quarterback in 1981, setting an NCAA record with forty-two first downs in a 59–0 victory over Colorado, the largest margin of victory in series history.^[5]

McCartney ignites a rivalry

When Fairbanks was dismissed in 1982, CU turned to Bill McCartney, who loudly declared Nebraska to be Colorado's primary rival.^[2] His proclamation was met with ridicule, as Colorado was among the country's worst programs at the time, but his upstart Buffaloes ended an eighteen-game losing streak to Nebraska with a 20–10 upset in 1986.^[2] By the late 1980s McCartney had established CU on the national scene with his "flexbone" offense, defeating Nebraska in the rivalry's first top-five meeting, three months after starting quarterback Sal Aunese died of cancer.^[6] CU beat NU for the third time in five years in 1990 to repeat as Big Eight champion, the last time McCartney defeated the Cornhuskers.

After a tie in 1991 led to a split Big Eight title, Nebraska reasserted control of the series. The Cornhuskers dominated the Buffaloes 52–7 the following year in the first game ever between teams tied in the AP poll.^[3] It was the same week that Nebraska defensive coordinator Charlie McBride, a former Colorado player, made an abrupt switch to the 4–3 defense, a departure from his traditional 5–2 designed to counter the pass-heavy offenses of Colorado, Florida State, and Miami.^[7]

McCartney retired in 1994, weeks after a 24–7 loss to the Cornhuskers in which McBride's defense again acted as "Kordell's Kryptonite," shutting down Buffaloes star quarterback Kordell Stewart for a third straight meeting.^[8]

Big 12 era and the end of the series

In 1996, Colorado and Nebraska were placed in the Big 12 North Division when the Big Eight merged with four Texas schools of the Southwest.^[9] With Oklahoma in the South Division, Colorado replaced the Sooners as Nebraska's day-after-Thanksgiving opponent. The Cornhuskers beat the Buffaloes 17–12 in the first Black Friday game of the rivalry, which was widely expected to determine half of the national championship game, but NU was upset by Texas a week later.^[10] By the end of the decade Nebraska extended its win streak in the series to nine, six of them by five points or fewer, including a wild 1999 game in which No. 3 NU won in overtime after losing a 27–3 lead.^[10]

Nebraska visited Boulder in 2001 as the BCS's top-ranked team to decide the Big 12 North championship. Colorado led by as many as thirty-two points and won 62–36 behind a school-record six touchdowns from running back Chris Brown. The game is often cited as the end of Nebraska's dynasty, though the Cornhuskers were still controversially selected over Colorado and Oregon to face Miami in the national title game.^[10][11] The Hurricanes won convincingly, prompting sweeping changes to the BCS selection process, including the elimination of margin-of-victory criteria and an increased emphasis on human polling.^[11]

In 2007, Colorado beat Nebraska 65–51 in Bill Callahan's final game as NU's head coach, a game that featured 1,128 combined yards of offense. The Cornhuskers won the next three meetings under Bo Pelini, the final games between CU and NU as conference opponents. During the last of these, already-fired head coach Dan Hawkins sat in the press box at Memorial Stadium to watch his son Cody play quarterback for the Buffaloes.^[10] The annual series ended when Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference in 2011, with Iowa replacing Colorado as NU's Black Friday opponent.^[12] Colorado joined the Pac-12 the same year, but returned to the Big 12 in 2024.

The series was renewed for four games between 2018 and 2024, with three Colorado victories, including a 2018 upset in Scott Frost's debut as Nebraska head coach.^[13] In 2023, the teams met in the second game of Deion Sanders's tenure at Colorado and Matt Rhule's tenure at Nebraska, a decisive Buffaloes victory in Boulder; a year later, Nebraska defeated CU in Lincoln.^[14] No future games are scheduled.

Bison head trophy

In 1927, Nebraska's Innocents Society began exchanging the Victory Bell with Missouri's QEBH. Decades later, the Innocents Society created a second trophy game, a mounted bison head named Mr. Chips to be traded with Colorado's Heart and Dagger Society. CU won the first game of the trophy series in 1951. The exchange ended in 1962 when the Heart and Dagger Society lost the trophy and could not present it after NU's victory in Boulder.^[15]

Game results

Colorado victories

Nebraska victories

Tie games

No. Date Location Winning team Losing team 1 November 17, 1898 Boulder Nebraska 23 Colorado 10 2 October 4, 1902 Boulder Nebraska 10 Colorado 0 3 October 24, 1903 Lincoln Nebraska 31 Colorado 0 4 October 8, 1904 Boulder Colorado 6 Nebraska 0 5 November 11, 1905 Lincoln Nebraska 18 Colorado 0 6 October 26, 1907 Lincoln Nebraska 22 Colorado 8 7 October 9, 1948 Boulder Colorado 16 Nebraska 9 8 November 19, 1949 Lincoln Nebraska 25 Colorado 14 9 October 14, 1950 Boulder Colorado 28 Nebraska 19 10 November 17, 1951 Lincoln Colorado 36 Nebraska 14 11 October 25, 1952 Boulder Tie 16 Tie 16 12 November 14, 1953 Lincoln Colorado 14 Nebraska 10 13 October 23, 1954 Boulder Nebraska 20 No. 11 Colorado 6 14 November 12, 1955 Lincoln Nebraska 37 Colorado 20 15 October 27, 1956 Boulder Colorado 16 Nebraska 0 16 November 16, 1957 Lincoln Colorado 27 Nebraska 0 17 October 25, 1958 Boulder No. 12 Colorado 27 Nebraska 16 18 November 14, 1959 Lincoln Nebraska 14 Colorado 12 19 October 22, 1960 Boulder Colorado 19 Nebraska 6 20 November 18, 1961 Lincoln No. 8 Colorado 7 Nebraska 0 21 October 27, 1962 Boulder Nebraska 31 Colorado 6 22 October 26, 1963 Lincoln Nebraska 41 Colorado 6 23 October 24, 1964 Boulder No. 5 Nebraska 21 Colorado 3 24 October 23, 1965 Lincoln No. 3 Nebraska 38 Colorado 13 25 October 22, 1966 Boulder No. 7 Nebraska 21 Colorado 19 26 October 21, 1967 Lincoln No. 4 Colorado 21 No. 13 Nebraska 16 27 November 16, 1968 Boulder Nebraska 22 Colorado 6 28 November 1, 1969 Lincoln Nebraska 20 No. 18 Colorado 7 29 October 31, 1970 Boulder No. 4 Nebraska 29 Colorado 13 30 October 30, 1971 Lincoln No. 1 Nebraska 31 No. 9 Colorado 7 31 November 4, 1972 Boulder No. 3 Nebraska 33 No. 15 Colorado 10 32 October 3, 1973 Lincoln No. 13 Nebraska 28 No. 17 Colorado 16 33 November 2, 1974 Boulder No. 9 Nebraska 31 Colorado 15 34 October 25, 1975 Lincoln No. 4 Nebraska 63 Colorado 21 35 October 9, 1976 Boulder No. 6 Nebraska 24 Colorado 12 36 October 22, 1977 Lincoln No. 18 Nebraska 33 No. 7 Colorado 15 37 October 21, 1978 Boulder No. 5 Nebraska 52 Colorado 14 No. Date Location Winning team Losing team 38 October 27, 1979 Lincoln No. 2 Nebraska 38 Colorado 10 39 October 25, 1980 Boulder No. 9 Nebraska 45 Colorado 7 40 October 10, 1981 Lincoln Nebraska 59 Colorado 0 41 October 9, 1982 Boulder No. 7 Nebraska 40 Colorado 14 42 October 22, 1983 Lincoln No. 1 Nebraska 69 Colorado 19 43 October 20, 1984 Boulder No. 5 Nebraska 24 Colorado 7 44 October 26, 1985 Lincoln No. 5 Nebraska 17 Colorado 7 45 October 25, 1986 Boulder Colorado 20 No. 3 Nebraska 10 46 November 28, 1987 Boulder No. 5 Nebraska 24 Colorado 7 47 November 12, 1988 Lincoln No. 7 Nebraska 7 No. 19 Colorado 0 48 November 4, 1989 Boulder No. 3 Colorado 27 No. 2 Nebraska 21 49 November 3, 1990 Lincoln No. 9 Colorado 27 No. 3 Nebraska 12 50 November 2, 1991 Boulder Tie 19 Tie 19 51 October 31, 1992 Lincoln No. 8 Nebraska 52 No. 8 Colorado 7 52 October 30, 1993 Boulder No. 6 Nebraska 21 No. 20 Colorado 17 53 October 29, 1994 Lincoln No. 2 Nebraska 24 No. 3 Colorado 7 54 October 28, 1995 Boulder No. 2 Nebraska 44 No. 7 Colorado 21 55 November 29, 1996 Lincoln No. 4 Nebraska 17 No. 5 Colorado 12 56 November 28, 1997 Boulder No. 2 Nebraska 27 Colorado 24 57 November 27, 1998 Lincoln No. 14 Nebraska 16 Colorado 14 58 November 26, 1999 Boulder No. 3 Nebraska 33 Colorado 30OT 59 November 24, 2000 Lincoln No. 10 Nebraska 34 Colorado 32 60 November 23, 2001 Boulder No. 14 Colorado 62 No. 2 Nebraska 36 61 November 29, 2002 Lincoln No. 13 Colorado 28 Nebraska 13 62 November 28, 2003 Boulder No. 25 Nebraska 31 Colorado 22 63 November 26, 2004 Lincoln Colorado 26 Nebraska 20 64 November 25, 2005 Boulder Nebraska 30 Colorado 3 65 November 24, 2006 Lincoln No. 23 Nebraska 37 Colorado 14 66 November 23, 2007 Boulder Colorado 65 Nebraska 51 67 November 28, 2008 Lincoln Nebraska 40 Colorado 31 68 November 27, 2009 Boulder Nebraska 28 Colorado 20 69 November 26, 2010 Lincoln No. 16 Nebraska 45 Colorado 17 70 September 8, 2018 Lincoln Colorado 33 Nebraska 28 71 September 7, 2019 Boulder Colorado 34 No. 25 Nebraska 31OT 72 September 9, 2023 Boulder No. 22 Colorado 36 Nebraska 14 73 September 7, 2024 Lincoln Nebraska 28 Colorado 10 Series: Nebraska leads 50–21–2[1]

See also

• List of NCAA college football rivalry games