Motivated by Nebraska and Oklahoma renewing their rivalry on Saturday, 50 years after the Cornhuskers and Sooners played their version of the Game of the Century in , The Associated Press has ranked the best of the best with the help of 33 sports writers and broadcasters. There were only two qualifiers: The pick had to be a regular-season game and it had to match No. A Game of the Century needs to occur organically.
Voters submitted a top five in order. First-place votes were worth five points, four for second and so on.
So here it is:. For about two decades, a case could be made that Oklahoma-Nebraska was the most important rivalry in college football. From , the Sooners and Cornhuskers played 15 top-five matchups.
This game launched that period of dominance in college football and it still stands as the best of the bunch. Cornhuskers star Johnny Rodgers became a legend with his punt return touchdown to start the scoring. I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting. The point is Oklahoma's level of commitment to a year-old game is impressive on its own. Obviously, it is not like Oklahoma is hurting for accomplishments to remember. They've done alright.
Yet they proudly celebrate their role in this game. Other than games that were landmark firsts such as Princeton vs.
Rutgers in , it's rare to have a team say "Hey - remember that great game we played in? We know we lost, but it was so cool we're going to commemorate it". Could you imagine Alabama doing it for the "Kick Six" game against Auburn? If the tables were turned, do you think Nebraska would repeatedly remember a game they lost? I know we Huskers love trumpeting our place in college football history, but I don't see it happening. I respect the heck out of Oklahoma for continuing to do it.
So far, we've cleared up the revisionist history that OU-NU was built on respect, and we've shown that Oklahoma has a very impressive football pedigree. But there's one other aspect of the rivalry that I've never fully considered:. I say that not to denigrate Nebraska, or to kick the Huskers while they're in a down era.
I'm simply saying the all-time scorecard is very decisive in Oklahoma's favor:. Arguably, the start of the rivalry was Nebraska's upset in , which ended OU's undefeated streak in conference games at It was also Nebraska's first win in the series since For as good as Devaney and Osborne were in the s, they only beat Oklahoma three times in the decade.
Nebraska's longest winning streak in the series seven games, - came when Nebraska was at their absolute peak, and Oklahoma was sinking to historic and horrific depths. The Oklahoma rivalry was good because it was served as an annual measuring stick for where NU was as a program. NU could spend September and October beating up everybody in their path, but In the Devaney, Osborne, and Solich eras, it was tough to have a truly great season if you didn't beat OU.
As Dirk Chatelain wrote this week, Oklahoma's overall success, and dominance in the series made Nebraska adapt, grow, and improve themselves in a quest to become equals. Nebraska fans still pine for the OU rivalry because in the 25 years since it stopped being an annual event, the Huskers have not accepted another rival. Oh, there have been several candidates - including a few teams wearing black and gold uniforms - but none have been deemed "worthy" of being named an official rival of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Fifty-five million people watched on ABC, the largest college football audience at that time. The telecast was laden with car commercials, not too much different than today. The first ad was for Brylcreem.
Ask your grandfather. He broke down Nebraska's I-formation offense noting it sometimes shifted into "the spread. The wishbone, used by Oklahoma, was still new, adopted by coach Chuck Fairbanks at the urging of Switzer. If it works, who gives a shit?
You could set your football clock to Nebraska-Oklahoma. They played 86 times, every year from to It was a time when coaches were gods, not living trust funds. Osborne used to make filibustering a fine science, going down the entire roster in preseason pressers so he wouldn't have to answer questions.
That was the polar opposite of Switzer, who once held court with writers at Kansas City's Union Station the night before the Big 12 Championship Game.
His wingman that night was a fur-coat wearing Tony Casillas, a defensive tackle who won championships playing for Switzer at Oklahoma and with the Dallas Cowboys. There was the game referred to as "Game of the Century II".
There was the game when Eric Crouch pretty much won the Heisman in October. Nebraska's quarterback caught a yard touchdown pass. Osborne became the Nebraska AD, then a U. He was the impetus behind the Texas-loathing move to the Big Ten. How has that one worked out? Five decades ago, the Big Eight was the nation's strongest conference, and it wasn't close.
The league finished the season with teams ranked No. The Thanksgiving Day game marked only the fifth such No. He was right. The stakes were so high, Nebraska brought its own meals to Oklahoma just to avoid food poisoning.
The game was the first matchup between two teams in the same state since Purdue and Notre Dame in , and it marked a shift in the landscape of college football to the Sunshine State. The next season, No. Eventually the Seminoles surpassed the Hurricanes and then the Florida Gators jumped up and won a national title, too. The network decided to bring its pregame show to South Bend to immerse itself in the hype that had been building for a month.
Eventual Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward and the Seminoles had been rolling through their schedule like a juggernaut, but the Fighting Irish jumped out to a big lead and then held on for the upset. The game was a thriller, but what it was how the season played out that makes it so memorable.
Notre Dame was upset by Boston College the very next week. Florida State moved back to No. The Spartans and Fighting Irish spent six weeks holding down the top two spots in the AP poll as the country eagerly awaited the clash of titans.
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