Troy Dannen shares Nebraska’s stance of possibly playing Colorado every year

Conference realignment has taken away some classic rivalries. One of those is the game between Nebraska and Colorado, which, even though it’s been played multiple times since, as a non-conference game, is currently scheduled to be played again in the future.

The home-and-home that Nebraska and Colorado played in 2023 and 2024 seemed to reignite the rivalry. However, as Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen recently shared, there are some major challenges that are going to come with getting the Buffaloes back on the schedule any time soon.

“A couple of things,” Troy Dannen said. “With the exception of what we did with Tennessee, as it relates to the football schedule, the schedule here, and I haven’t really touched it, is virtually complete through 2032. I think Arizona is 2028 and 2031 in a home-and-home. I don’t know which is which. Oklahoma is 2029 and 2030, home-and-home. Then, we have Oklahoma State right behind that.”

Nebraska plays in the Big Ten, meaning the Cornhuskers have nine conference games and just three non-conference games each season. That, paired with a desire to schedule in a way that sets Nebraska up for postseason success, is going to limit the number of Power Four opponents that Troy Dannen wants to schedule in any individual season. Of course, if the College Football Playoff changes, so could that philosophy.

“A perfect schedule today – until the CFP looks different and says, ‘You need to schedule this way’ or the Big Ten does something different – is a home-and-home against an A-4, buy a G-6 ,and an FCS. That’s kind of the way it’s set up. I do not expect to touch the schedule or make any scheduling changes until after the stadium is done,” Dannen said. “And after the CFP decides what maybe its model is going to be. It’s like basketball, you have to schedule to get into the postseason. You have to. I don’t care if we haven’t been close to it. That’s where we want to be, that’s how we have to schedule. So, we’ll schedule what is optimal to get into the postseason.”

In 1948, Colorado joined the Big Six Conference, making it the Big Seven and joining Nebraska. From there, their rivalry would take off. From that point on, they’d play annually through 2010, until the Cornhuskers left for the Big Ten. The two would combine for six national championships during that time. They’d add another 31 combined conference championships. Nebraska has dominated the series and has a record of 50-21-2.

The push for Nebraska and Colorado has come from all over. That includes analyst and former Colorado player Joel Klatt, who shared that he thinks the game needs to be played annually this offseason. The game has become more of a common one for fans to see on the field again too. Since 2018, they’ve met four times.

Despite that, neither school has open non-conference games available for the foreseeable future. By the time they do, how schools try to schedule games will likely have changed once again with another change to the College Football Playoff.