For the majority of college football’s 150+ year history, there were no playoffs. If we were lucky, the national champion was determined in a bowl game between the #1 and #2 teams. But in most years, the “mythical national champion” was the team who got the most votes in a poll – often a poll that was conducted before the bowl games.
As a result, dozens of teams with championship potential never got the chance to earn it on the field. After various attempts to match top teams (remember the Bowl Coalition, Bowl Alliance, and BCS?) the College Football Playoff debuted in 2014. It placed the top four teams into a winner-take-all bracket.
After a decade as a four-team playoff, the CFP expanded to 12 teams in 2024.
But what about all those teams from the past who never got an opportunity? And more importantly to my Husker fandom: How many times would Nebraska have made the playoffs, and what would their path have been to a championship?
Using the framework and rules of the new 12-team playoff, I went back and found all of the times Nebraska would have made the playoffs, what seed they would have been, and who they would have played.
Since the College Football Playoff Selection Committee did not exist prior to 2014, I’m using the AP poll for rankings. The AP poll has been in existence since 1936, which is where we’ll start.
Methodology
I went through the HuskerMax season pages for every year starting in 1936 (the first year of the AP poll). I looked for seasons where Nebraska won its conference or was in the top 12 of the final regular season rankings – both ways that a team can make the 12-team playoff today.
When I found a match, I followed the 2024 playoff selection process: The five highest-ranked conference champions receive automatic bids – regardless of if they’re a “Power 4” or “Group of 5”. The top four seeds go to the four highest ranked conference champs. Independent teams cannot be one of the top four seeds.
For the remaining seeds, I used the ranking of the final regular season AP poll (i.e., after the last game, but before the bowls) in lieu of the CFP Committee’s poll. The brackets were laid out just as they will be this year: the 12 seed plays at the 5 seed, the 11 visits the 6, 10 goes to 7’s campus, and the 8 seed hosts the 9. The winners of these games advance to play the 1-4 seeds, who all received a first-round bye.
Notes & Caveats
We’re going to start in 1936, the first year of the AP poll. But Husker history buffs will note that Nebraska won 21 conference championships before the AP poll was born. One of those championships was the 1935 Big Six Conference title, which might have made them eligible for our hypothetical playoff in 1935.
Alas, the Huskers (6-2-1 and #21 in the UPI poll) were not one of the five highest-ranked conference champions and would not have made it.
I bring up 1935 to point out that if we took this hypothetical exercise all the way back to the dawn of college football, the Huskers would have many more playoff appearances than what we’ll cover in this series.
Nebraska: 7-2-0, First place in the Big Six
Conference champion automatic qualifiers (and their AP ranking at the end of the regular season)
At-large teams (and their AP ranking at the end of the regular season)
First two out
Minnesota was the #1 team in the AP poll, but Northwestern won the Big Ten (the Wildcats beat the Gophers 6-0). This means Minnesota – the eventual national champion – ends up as the 5 seed, hosting 12 seed Yale. The winner would play Nebraska.
The Huskers snuck into the 4 seed due to Pittsburgh, Santa Clara, and Notre Dame all being independent.
Team that won the National Championship: Minnesota
Nebraska: 6-1-2, First place in the Big Six
Automatic qualifiers
At-large teams
First two out
The large number of independent teams in the 1930s means that the Committee has to go all the way to #17 Colorado for the fifth highest ranked conference champ. The Buffaloes come in as the 12 seed, leaving AP #12 Yale on the wrong side of the bubble.
The Buffs would travel to 5 seed Pittsburgh (#1 in the AP). The winner would play 4 seed Nebraska.
Team that won the National Championship: Pittsburgh
Nebraska: 8-1-0 (regular season), first place in the Big Six
Automatic qualifiers
At-large teams
First two out
Nebraska opened the 1940 season with a 13-7 loss at Minnesota. The game cost the Huskers a first-round bye. NU ends up as the 7 seed, hosting 10 seed Washington. Stanford – the 2 seed – awaits the winner in the Rose Bowl. Nebraska lost to Stanford 21-13 in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1941, their first-ever bowl game.
* * *
After the 1940 season, World War II hit the Nebraska program hard. The Huskers went 15-29 between 1941 and 1945, with just two winning seasons between 1941 and 1961.
The Huskers did appear in one bowl game during this stretch: the 1955 Orange Bowl. However, that team (6-4-0) finished a distant second to Oklahoma in the Big Seven conference. The Huskers were sent to Miami because the conference had a “no-repeat” rule that prevented OU from going two years in a row. The Huskers were blown out 34-7 by #14 Duke, who would not have made the hypothetical playoff in 1954.
But in 1962, a new head coach arrived from Wyoming. He would launch a new era of Nebraska football.
Next time, we’ll look the 12-team playoff appearances from the Devaney era.
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