The Kansas State–Nebraska football rivalry was an American

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

between the

Kansas State Wildcats The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The School colors, official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are gener ...

and

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) 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 t ...

. The schools first met as non-conference opponents in 1911, and then played a conference game annually from 1922 to 2010, first in the Big Eight and later in the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

. The rivalry dissolved when Nebraska left the Big 12 for the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

in 2011. With only 135 miles separating the two schools, Nebraska and Kansas State were the nearest cross-border schools in both the Big Eight and Big 12 conferences. Overall, Nebraska has dominated with a record of 78-15-2.

History

The 1939 meeting between Kansas State and Nebraska was televised in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, making it the second-ever televised college football game. In 1992, the teams met in the Coca-Cola Classic at the

Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium (whose former site is now occupied by the Tokyo Dome Hotel and a plaza for this stadium). In Japan, it is often us ...

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

defeated

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public inst ...

38–24 to clinch the Big Eight championship. When the Big Eight merged with the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

in 1996, Nebraska and Kansas State were placed into the Big 12 North division. The Wildcats never defeated legendary Nebraska coach

Tom Osborne Thomas William Osborne (born February 23, 1937) 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 (25 sea ...

, who retired in 1997, but the two schools played several high-profile games in the years that followed. The most famous game in series history took place in 1998, when Kansas State ended its 29-year losing streak to Nebraska. The final game between Nebraska and Kansas State was a 48–13 NU victory on October 7, 2010. No future games are scheduled, though there have been discussions between the two schools of renewing the rivalry.

Game results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kansas State-Nebraska football rivalry College football rivalries in the United States Kansas State Wildcats football Nebraska Cornhuskers football Recurring sporting events established in 1911

History

Game results

See also

References