With all the talk around schedule changes, and realignment, it seems like a good time to explore the teams the Nebraska football program has never faced.
On July 1, the college football world took another big shift and the Big 12, Nebraska football’s former conference was the biggest beneficiary of that. However they aren’t the only conference that saw changes to its makeup recently.
Nebraska football is going to be dealing with some big changes in the Big 10 next year as well with the additions of UCLA and USC. The SEC is getting a couple of big additions in Texas and Oklahoma. And with all those changes, it can be hard to keep track of who went where.
It can also be hard to keep track of who the Nebraska football team has played before and who they haven’t ever faced off. When looking at the list of teams the Huskers never played, it’s surprisingly long.
Considering how long the Cornhuskers have been around, it would seem as though they’d played almost anyone that’s been in the FBS for any period of time. However, it’s become obvious that intentionally or not, Nebraska football tends to play the same teams over and over again. There are currently 38 schools in the FBS the Huskers have never seen.
When putting together that list, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Power 5 teams don’t make up a majority of those squads. In fact, the Big 10 (duh) Pac 12 and Big 12 are the only three conferences where Nebraska has played every single team.
The Big 12 might seem like a no-brainer considering the Huskers used to be in that conference but it looks quite a bit different than it did when NU was a member. Even with additions like Cincinnati and UCF, that conference gets checked off.
The most interesting name of this group has to be the Pac 12. I assumed there was at least team in that conference the Huskers missed, but that’s not the case.
Having said that, read on to see who Nebraska football has never played in its 133 years of existence.
Nebraska football vs current AAC teams
There is not conference that currently has more teams in it that have never played the Nebraska football team than the AAC. There are a couple of different reasons for that but I have to admit that I was more than a little surprised there are so many.
The AAC has 15 teams in its latest iteration. The Cornhuskers have only squared off against six of them. There’s only one other conference anywhere near such a large majority of the schools that have never gone up again Big Red.
Tulane Green Wave: Considering that the Huskers have a pretty good history of playing less than impressive opponents, it’s a bit of a surprise that Tulane the NU have never crossed paths. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, the Green Wave haven’t been FBS all that long, which is obviously the biggest reason.
Navy: The Midshipmen aren’t just one of the more surprising squads in the AAC that the Huskers have never played, they’re the most surprising school in the dozens of squads on this list. Nebraska football has squared off against Army five times and Air Force twice but never played Navy somehow.
East Carolina: The Pirates are sort of in the same boast as Tulane in that they haven’t been FBS super long when compared to the Huskers and the two squads have just never crossed swords.
Tulsa: It’s pretty weird that the Golden Hurricane was never a Husker opponent considering how long Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were annual rivals. Perhaps Nebraska felt like it could ignore Tulsa for that reason.
Temple: Temple is also a late joiner to the FBS when talking about how long the Huskers have been around. The Owls, by the way, are the team I’d put money on being added to the schedule at some point during the Matt Rhule era for obvious reasons.
South Florida: The Bulls might be in the same boat as Tulsa considering the Huskers have played almost every other Florida school in the FBS.
UTSA: The rare Texas school that hasn’t been invited to Lincoln. UTSA is also one of the younger FBS schools.
Charlotte: Charlotte joins
Nebraska football vs the Sun Belt
The Sun Belt currently has the second most teams the Huskers have never gone up against in the country and that really shouldn’t be a huge surprise. While NU has played a decent number of teams from that conference historically, the Sun Belt has seen quite a bit of flux in recent years.
Appalachian State: Like most of the teams in this conference, they just haven’t been FBS all that long. They’ve also been really good since they joined the level and if we’re being honest, that would be a reason for the Nebraska football team to stay away a bit.
Coastal Carolina: The Chanticleers have only been at the FBS level since 2017. The Huskers had almost no chance to play this particular team. It’s not a surprise they’ve never met.
Georgia State: Yet another instance of a team not being at the Nebraska football level actually giving them a get out of jail card. It is interesting that Ga State is one of the only teams from that state the Huskers never faced off against.
James Madison: James Madison is playing in the FBS for the first time in 2023 so obviously, NU hasn’t played them.
Marshall: Unlike some of the other schools on the list, Marshall has been around long enough that it is a bit odd the two programs never crossed paths.
Old Dominion: Another school that’s been around at this level for a very short period of time.
Texas State: If you’re seeing a pattern emerge, yes Texas State is also an FBS newcomer.
Louisiana Monroe: The Warhawks are one of the only teams in the conference that isn’t really a newcomer to FBS and hasn’t played Nebraska football. However, 1994 isn’t all that long ago.
Nebraska football vs The MAC
Like a weird number of G5 conferences on this list, the MAC has a large number of teams the Nebraska football team hasn’t faced off against. In all, there are seven teams playing in the MAC in 2023 that have never gone up against the Huskers.
Bowling Green: The Falcons, like quite a few of the other MAC teams in the conference have spent most of their time at a lower level of football. The Huskers have faced off against a decent number of MAC squads but Bowling Green isn’t one of them.
Central Michigan: Central Michigan is one of those teams that might have ruled itself out of being a rival of the Nebraska football team simply by being pretty good for a mid-major program. It looks like the Huskers usually picked the programs that weren’t great in the MAC to play.
Eastern Michigan: If the school really was picking bad MAC teams it’s a bit of a surprise they never came calling for Eastern Michigan. However, for whatever reason, the two schools have not faced off against one another.
Kent State: Perhaps the fact that other than Ohio State, Nebraska football just never really ventured into Ohio for opponents explains why Kent State was a team the Cornhuskers went up against.
Miami(O): I can only assume that Nebraska had its fill with the Miami Hurricanes and decided it didn’t need to schedule the other Miami school.
Ohio: If the Huskers had ever played the Bobcats, especially in the last 15 years it would have certainly been interesting. There were more than a few people who would have enjoyed seeing the Huskers go up against their old coach in Frank Solich. However, it never got done.
Toledo: The Rockets have been around since 1917 and even though they’ve bounced up and down between FBS and FCS, it looks like there just hasn’t been interest in a game against Toledo.
Nebraska football vs. Conference USA
We’re officially entering the part of the college football world where the teams that have never faced off against Nebraska football are starting to dwindle. There are five schools in Conference USA that have never hosted nor visited Lincoln at any point in their existence.
It should come as no surprise that the schools in CUSA who have never seen the Cornhuskers are schools that don’t have a long history on the FBS level.
Florida International: The school that is affectionately known as FIU is one of those schools that simply doesn’t have a long resume of playing football at all. The program joined FBS in 2004 and that was only after three years at the FCS level. It’s still noteworthy that the Huskers never faced them considering how many other Florida schools there are out there that NU played.
Jacksonville State: 2023 will be the first time the school plays at the FBS level. Easiest mystery solved.
Liberty: Yet another program that simply hasn’t had time to schedule a game against Nebraska football. The Flames have only been on the FBS level since 2018.
Sam Houston: Like Jacksonville State, Sam Houston has just come up from the FCS level.
UTEP: When researching this article, I will admit I was surprised to see the Miners on this list. It’s not because they haven’t been on the same level of football. UTEP started its program in 1917. From 1967 to 2005, they played in the WAC. It’s odd that a Texas school never faced off against Nebraska football.
Nebraska football vs G5 stragglers
Technically, the teams on this list are not in a conference. In fact, they are free wheeling free agents, which seems like it would be pretty easy for Nebraska football to find a way to square off against them.
The Huskers have played Army a couple of times. Interestingly enough, the Huskers are even just 3-2 against the Cadets thanks to playing Army when the service academy was one of the best programs in the country.
The Huskers have also played Notre Dame 16 times. That’s one of the most games against non-conference opponents. The Nebraska football team is 8-7-1 against the Golden Domers. However, there are two schools that are currently Independents.
UCONN: The Huskies have been around since 1896. However, UCONN hasn’t been on the 1-A or FBS level since 2000. 23 years isn’t all that long when you’re talking about more than 100 teams all trying to find schools to play, that’s not long at all.
UMASS: Two of the worst teams in FBS are also two of the teams that have never faced off against the Huskers. UMASS has only been in FBS since 2011.
Over in the Moutain West, there are also only two schools that have never played the Huskers.
Boise State: The Broncos haven’t been around all that long but they’ve spent some time as a power in college football. They might have been too good for the Huskers to play them. It’s also possible it just didn’t make much sense for the two schools to go head-to-head geographically.
San Diego State: It feels like the Aztecs would have been a very interesting team to play for the Cornhuskers but it just never surfaced. Watching someone like Marshall Faulk run against the NU defense back in the day would have been fun.
Nebraska football vs Power 5 schools
There simply aren’t that many Power 5 schools that the Nebraska football hasn’t played at some point and time. The schools that they haven’t gone up against are not exactly the creme of the crop, which is interesting when you look at the schools from P5 on the list.
Kentucky
Vanderbilt
Louisville
Virginia
Boston College
Of all the teams in the SEC, it makes some sense that Vanderbilt is on this list because the Commodores have been so bad for so long. There simply hasn’t been any reason to play them. Kentucky is a bit more surprising because it seems like the two schools might have run into each other in some bowl or another. After all, that’s how the Nebraska football team met up against schools like Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, and others.
In the ACC, the same kind of thing can be said about Louisville, Virginia and Boston College. With none of these teams the cream of the crop and the Nebraska football team is looking to “just make a bowl” it seems pretty possible one of these schools is going to get taken off the list.