It's hard to believe, but the last time Oklahoma and Nebraska met on the football field was in the 2010 Big 12 Championship Game. Prior to that 23-20 Sooners victory, the two teams had met 85 times, building one of the more storied rivalries in college football.
Unfortunately, conference realignment killed the rivalry, as it has with so many other historic, yearly college football matchups. Nebraska moved to the Big Ten in 2011, while Oklahoma stayed put in the Big 12. In 2012, the two schools announced a home and home series for 2021 and 2022, which at the time felt like it was multiple decades away.
But on Saturday the waiting will be over, when Big Red takes on Boomer Sooner for the first time in over a decade. Sadly, this one feels over before it's even started, as Oklahoma is a 22.5-point favorite and expected to roll over the middling Cornhuskers. Close game or not, though, it should produce plenty of nostalgia, especially for fans who were around in 1971, when No. 1 Nebraska played No. 2 Oklahoma in "The Game of the Century," which Nebraska won 35-31 on Thanksgiving Day.
On Saturday, both teams will wear a helmet decal that will celebrate the 50th anniversary of "The Game of the Century," which technically isn't until November, but who cares. These are scorching-hot fire:
If you're going to get your doors blown off, you might as well look good doing it. Everybody knows that.
If we put on the optimism cap for a second, we can definitely see this being a gloriously nostalgic game that Nebraska can maybe kinda sort hang in for the first half of? It's the noon FOX game, Gus Johnson will be on the call, the sun will be shining in Norman and the uniform matchup will be all time. Let's not kid ourselves here, this game is going to be awesome, at least for an hour.
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