Minnesota vs. Nebraska
Minnesota and Nebraska have 65 meetings on file, the first in 1900; Minnesota leads the series 38–25–2 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Minnesota 7–3, and Minnesota has won the last 6. The winner takes home the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy, played for since about 2014. Minnesota has held it since the 2019 game. Share
2027 at Nebraska. As the programs’ Wikipedia articles list them (CC BY-SA).
- Minnesota wins
- 38
- Nebraska wins
- 25
- Ties
- 2
- Earliest on file
- 1900
- Longest streak
- 16 Nebraska
- Current streak
- 6 Minnesota
- Last 10 meetings
- Minnesota 7–3
- Most recent
- 2025
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 7–1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1910s | 3–1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 5–2 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 10–0 | ||||||||||
| 1950s | 3–2 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 1–5 | ||||||||||
| 1970s | 0–5 | ||||||||||
| 1980s | 0–3 | ||||||||||
| 1990s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 2010s | 4–5 | ||||||||||
| 2020s | 5–0 |
- Both ranked
- 1 meeting: Minnesota 0, Nebraska 1
- Average margin
- 19 points; 23 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Minnesota
- 26–13–2 Minnesota’s record at home
- At Nebraska
- 12–12 Nebraska’s record at home
- Shutouts
- 19
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy
- Played for since
- about 2014
- Games for it on file
- 11 Minnesota 8, Nebraska 3
Who holds it comes from the games on file: the winner of the latest regular-season meeting since about 2014 (bowl rematches aren’t played for it); a tie leaves it with the holder (the usual rule; the article doesn’t say). The rivalry’s article counts the games for it: Minnesota leads, 8–3–0. From Wikipedia’s list of rivalry games and the rivalry’s article (CC BY-SA). More on the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy.
Games that tell the story
- Minnesota’s biggest win1945: Minnesota 61, Nebraska 7by 54 points
- Nebraska’s biggest win1983: Nebraska 84, Minnesota 13by 71 points
- Upset1950: Nebraska 32, Minnesota 26Nebraska had a 25% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset1959: Nebraska 32, Minnesota 12Nebraska had a 32% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Upset2014: Minnesota 28, Nebraska 24Minnesota had a 33% chance, by our ratings before kickoff
- Ranked showdown1968: Nebraska 17, Minnesota 14No. 9 Nebraska at No. 17 Minnesota
Coach against coach
| Years | Minnesota | Series | Nebraska |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900–1905 | Henry Williams | 4–1 | Walter Booth |
| 1907–1910 | Henry Williams | 3–0–1 | King Cole |
| 1911–1913 | Henry Williams | 2–1 | Jumbo Stiehm |
| 1932–1936 | Bernie Bierman | 4–0 | Dana Bible |
| 1937–1941 | Bernie Bierman | 3–2 | Biff Jones |
| 1963–1971 | Murray Warmath | 0–7 | Bob Devaney |
| 2011–2014 | Jerry Kill | 2–2 | Bo Pelini |
| 2018–2021 | P.J. Fleck | 3–1 | Scott Frost |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Minnesota’s side (Williams 4–1 against Booth). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
Stars of the series
Biggest days
| Stanley Morgan Jr. Nebraska | 10 catches, 163 yards, 2 TD | 2018 Receiving |
Biggest days: the week’s best individual games by our big-days rule, from box scores (2004 on).
From the newspapers
1900 · The Denison review. (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, Iowa, Nov 30, 1900
1901 · The Red Cloud chief, Nebraska, Oct 18, 1901
1902 · The Saint Paul globe, St. Paul, Minn., Oct 19, 1902
1904 · Rock Island Argus, Rock Island, Ill., Oct 31, 1904
1905 · The Minneapolis journal, Nov 19, 1905
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
On television
| 2025 | FOX | 2.7 million viewers |
Viewers: Nielsen, as compiled by nschultz7’s ratings tracker.
Every game
Every game is listed as played on the field.