USC will join Nebraska in the Big Ten next year. The Trojans and Huskers never did meet when both schools had historically great juggernaut teams, but they both attained and maintained elite status during the same period of college football history.
We noted a few weeks ago that “When USC and Nebraska first met in 1969, Nebraska was unranked. The Huskers lost only one game after the Trojans beat them in the 1969 season opener, but they finished No. 11 that year, which was — measured against the NU standard at the time — a modest result for coach Bob Devaney’s program.
“In 1970, the teams met again. USC managed to tie the Huskers, but the Trojans actually labored through the rest of their year, losing four games. Nebraska didn’t lose to anyone else it played, winning the national championship.”
USC and Nebraska never meeting for a national championship despite having tremendous teams in the late 1960s and early 1970s is one of college football’s biggest “what-if” scenarios. However, this long history of missed connections — not meeting when both teams had great squads — is compensated for by an extraordinary fact. We’re not going to reveal the fact directly until the end of the piece, but just look at decades of history between the two schools. They created an incredible reality which magnifies the two programs.
Let’s start with the year 1962 and go from there. You will be blown away by the fact which emerges at the very end.
Here we go: