This list of Nebraska Cornhuskers bowl games are the bowl games the Nebraska Cornhuskers football program has participated in since the inception of college football's bowl system in 1902. Nebraska has played in fifty-four bowl games, including a then-record thirty-five straight from 1969 to 2003, with a record of 27–27. [1]
Nebraska declined an invitation to play in the second-ever Rose Bowl Game following the 1915 season and did not make its bowl debut until 1941. [2] Twenty-one years later, Bob Devaney's first season ended with the first bowl victory in program history, a 36–34 victory over Miami (FL) in the 1962 Gotham Bowl. [1] During Devaney's tenure, Nebraska began a stretch of thirty-five consecutive seasons with a bowl appearance that ended in 2004. The program regularly featured in the Orange Bowl due to the Big Eight's bowl affiliations, playing in the game seventeen times between 1954 and 1997, first against SEC opposition and later primarily against Florida State and Miami. [1]
National championship game [a] | Nebraska win | Nebraska loss |
Opponent
| Bowl
| Coach
|
The Nebraska Cornhuskers are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding twenty-four varsity teams in fifteen sports. Nineteen of these teams participate in the Big Ten, while rifle is a member of the single-sport Patriot Rifle Conference and beach volleyball and bowling compete as independents. The Cornhuskers have two official mascots, Herbie Husker and Lil' Red.
Thomas William Osborne is an American former football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and politician from Nebraska. He served as head football coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers from 1973 to 1997. After being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999, Osborne was elected to Congress in 2000 from Nebraska's third district as a Republican. He served three terms (2001–2007), returned to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as athletic director in 2007, and retired in 2013.
Barry Lee Alvarez is an American former college football coach and athletic director at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He served as the head football coach at Wisconsin for 16 seasons, from 1990 to 2005, compiling a career record of 119–72–4. He has the longest head coaching tenure and the most wins in Wisconsin Badgers football history. Alvarez stepped down as head coach after the 2005 season, and remained as athletic director until July 1, 2021.
Robert Simon Devaney was a college football coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Wyoming from 1957 to 1961 and at the University of Nebraska from 1962 to 1972, compiling a career record of 136–30–7 (.806). Devaney's Nebraska Cornhuskers won consecutive national championships in 1970 and 1971 and three consecutive Orange Bowls.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers football team competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Big Ten Conference. Nebraska has played its home games at Memorial Stadium since 1923 and sold out every game at the venue since 1962.
William Arlen Jennings was an American college football player and coach and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln from 1957 to 1961. He coached the Nebraska Cornhuskers for five losing seasons, compiling a 15–34–1 record (.310). His best seasons were 1959 and 1960, when the Huskers were 4–6 in each year. His conference record was 8–24 (.250) and his Husker teams never won more than two conference games in a season.
Mark Anthony "Bo" Pelini is a former American football coach and former player. He was most recently the defensive coordinator for the Louisiana State University Tigers football team. He is the younger brother of former Florida Atlantic head coach Carl Pelini, who has frequently worked under Bo as an assistant coach.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball team represents the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Big Ten Conference of NCAA Division I. The program's first year of competition was 1897, and NU has since compiled an all-time record of 1,535–1,417, with eight NCAA tournament and sixteen NIT appearances. The team has been coached by Fred Hoiberg since 2019.
Scott Andrew Frost is an American football coach and player who is the current head coach for the UCF Knights. He was the head coach for the Nebraska Cornhuskers from 2018 to 2022, and previously served as UCF's head coach from 2016 to 2017. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Frost played college football as a quarterback for the Stanford Cardinal and the Cornhuskers, the latter of which he led to a shared national championship in 1997. Frost has coached Heisman winner Marcus Mariota and Heisman candidate McKenzie Milton. He played six years in the NFL.
The 1971 Nebraska vs. Oklahoma football game was the 51st edition of the rivalry, one of several labeled as a "Game of the Century." The Big Eight Conference matchup was held on Thursday, November 25, 1971, in Norman, Oklahoma.
The 1973 Orange Bowl was the 39th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on Monday, January 1. The final game of the 1972–73 bowl season, it matched the ninth-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers of the Big Eight Conference and the independent #12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, led by their respective hall of fame coaches, Bob Devaney and Ara Parseghian. Nebraska scored early and won 40–6.
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 competing annually as conference opponents in 1948. The rivalry intensified in the 1980s as Colorado improved under head coach Bill McCartney, reaching its peak in the 1990s with several top-ten meetings. Conference realignment placed the teams in the same division, where they continued to meet annually through 2010, after which Colorado moved to the Pac-10 and Nebraska moved to the Big Ten.
The 1970 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team represented the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the 1970 NCAA University Division football season. The team was coached by Bob Devaney and played their home games in Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. The Huskers went 11–0–1 to win the first of two consecutive national championships.
The 1968 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team represented the University of Nebraska in the 1968 NCAA University Division football season. The team was coached by Bob Devaney and played their home games in Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
Matthew Kenneth Rhule is an American college football coach and former linebacker. He is the head football coach for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, a position he has held since 2023. He was also the head football coach for Temple University from 2013 to 2016, Baylor University from 2017 to 2019, and the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). Rhule played linebacker at Penn State from 1994 to 1997.
The Miami–Nebraska football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Miami Hurricanes of the University of Miami and Nebraska Cornhuskers of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The teams have most often met in bowl games which many times have decided a national championship. The series is currently tied 6–6.
The history of Nebraska Cornhuskers football covers the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's football program from its inception in 1890 until the present day. Nebraska competes in the Big Ten Conference as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and plays its home games at Memorial Stadium, where it has sold out every game since 1962.
Nebraska Cornhuskers football under Tom Osborne covers the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's football program during Tom Osborne's twenty-five-year tenure as head coach.