Nebraska–Wisconsin football rivalry

Non-conference series

Nebraska and Wisconsin first met on November 2, 1901, an 18–0 Badgers victory in Milwaukee.^[3] The teams did not play again until 1965, the first of three consecutive NU victories before a 1974 Badgers upset of the fourth-ranked Cornhuskers in Lincoln.

Barry Alvarez, a former Nebraska linebacker who faced the Badgers in 1966, became Wisconsin's head coach in 1990.^[4] He modeled his program after Tom Osborne's run-heavy scheme that emphasized offensive line play, which became the foundation of a Wisconsin program that remained strong after Alvarez stepped down to become athletic director in 2005.^[4]

Conference series

The teams did not meet again until Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference in 2011. The Cornhuskers and Badgers were placed in separate divisions, but met in both 2011 and 2012. College GameDay visited Madison for NU's first Big Ten game, a 48–17 Wisconsin victory at Camp Randall Stadium. The following year, Nebraska made the second-largest comeback in program history to defeat the Badgers at Memorial Stadium.^[5] In a Big Ten Championship Game rematch two months later, Wisconsin upset No. 14 Nebraska in a dominant 70–31 victory.^[5] Though the series had little history, the game was often labeled a rivalry given the similarity between the programs and their high-profile matchups shortly after NU joined the conference.^[5][6][7]

Big Ten realignment in 2014 placed NU and UW in the West Division, the same year the schools announced the creation of the Freedom Trophy to be presented to the winner of the annual meeting.^[1] The trophy is made of bronze and features images of both teams' stadiums with an American flag in the center.^[1] Half of the trophy is the east side of Memorial Stadium and half is the north side of Camp Randall Stadium.^[1]

Wisconsin won the first Freedom Trophy game 59–24 behind an FBS-record 408 rushing yards from Melvin Gordon (broken by Samaje Perine just one week later).^[8][9] It was the second of ten consecutive Wisconsin victories in the series, including two in overtime. Nebraska ended the streak with a 44–25 victory in 2024.^[10]