Oklahoma, Nebraska renewing football rivalry

Erick Smith, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

Expansion has caused a lot of damage to college football rivalries. At least one is making a comeback.

Oklahoma and Nebraska will play in consecutive seasons in 2021-22, the schools announced Thursday.

The first game of the series will be played in Norman with the following year slated for Lincoln.

"Classic rivalries like Oklahoma-Nebraska are part of college football's historic fabric," Oklahoma athletics director Joe Castiglione said in a statement. "The ability to rekindle a fabled series between two tradition-rich programs and two extremely loyal and passionate fan bases was very important to both universities.

The Sooners and Cornhuskers have staged some of the more memorable games in the history of the sports, including when the two schools dominated the Big 8.

The "Game of the Century" was played on Thanksgiving day in 1971. No. 1 Nebraska beat No. 2 Oklahoma 35-31 in a game that propelled Johnny Rodgers to the Heisman Trophy and the Cornhuskers to a national title.

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There were close games in the 70s and 80s with Barry Switzer and Tom Osborne on opposite sidelines.

Switzer held a 12-5 edge in those games, including a second No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in 1987 in Lincoln that put the Sooners in the Orange Bowl.

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"Our rivalry with Oklahoma has been one of the great traditional matchups in the history of college football," Osborne, who currently Nebraska athletics director, said in a statement. "The games between the two schools were generally to decide a conference championship, and many times helped determine the national champion. Those matchups were always played with great intensity on the field, but with a great deal of respect from both sides and among the fan bases."

The rivalry was no longer played on annual basis with the adoption of the Big 12 that put the teams in separate division.

The last meeting, appropriately, came in the Big 12 title game in Nebraska's final season in the league in 2010. The Sooners prevailed 23-20 and the Cornhuskers moved on to the Big Ten.

Now the two teams are guaranteed to renew acquaintances 11 years after that game.