My nomination
Game of the Century
1971 Nebraska vs. Oklahoma
Main article: 1971 Nebraska vs. Oklahoma football game
November 25, 1971: The University of Nebraska, defending National Champions, ranked Number 1 with a 29-game winning streak, and led by flanker, Johnny Rodgers, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy the next season, played the University of Oklahoma, ranked Number 2 and led by running back Greg Pruitt, a favorite for the Heisman this time.
The game was played at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma on Thanksgiving Day, on ABC in front of a national television audience. The game would decide the championship of the Big Eight Conference and a bid to the Orange Bowl. Despite Oklahoma's national prominence, gained in the 1950s, having slipped in the 1960s, and Nebraska not having a national following prior to the previous year's National Championship, over 55 million people watched, the largest TV audience yet for a college football game.
The game went back and forth. The Cornhuskers struck first, with Rodgers shocking the Sooners with a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown after the Sooners' first possession was stopped. The punt return remains one of college football's signature moments, though it remains controversial. Some observers and many Sooner fans claim Nebraska cornerback Joe Blahak appeared to clip Sooner receiver Jon Harrison as Rodgers stormed for the touchdown, but no penalty was called. Referees for the game have continued to deny that there was a clip on the play, even after having studied film footage of it.
The first half was atypical for both teams, as the Cornhuskers' potent offense was stymied by the underrated Sooner defense; meanwhile, the Sooners devastating wishbone offense was blunted by the brutal Cornhusker defense, as the Sooners had several turnovers and were continually frustrated by Husker lineman Rich Glover, who would end up with twenty-two tackles on the day.
Nebraska held a 14-3 lead, but Oklahoma came back, relying almost entirely on Jack Mildren's arm and legs, and the Sooners grabbed the lead at halftime, 17-14, on two long passes from Mildren to Harrison with just seconds left in the first half. For the first time all season, the Cornhuskers were trailing in a game.
Relying on a power running game, the Huskers retook the lead and led 28-17 going into the fourth quarter. Quarterback Jack Mildren led the Sooners back, and Oklahoma led 31-28 with 7:05 to play. The Huskers got the ball back on their own 26-yard line. Getting to the Oklahoma 48, Husker quarterback Jerry Tagge threw to Rodgers, who broke tackles and ran all the way to the 15. Jeff Kinney then carried four times, the last resulting in his fourth touchdown of the game, and Nebraska led 35-31 with two minutes to go. Sacks of Mildren on third and fourth down in Sooner territory finished the game off as a Nebraska win.
This game, much more than the previous year's National Championship, made Nebraska a program with a national following. Already having sold every seat available at their Memorial Stadium since coach Bob Devaney arrived in 1962, they would be a perennial National Championship contender and a frequent presence on national TV, with fans across the country seeing banners at Memorial Stadium reading "Californians for Nebraska," "Floridians for Nebraska," and so on. Nebraska native Johnny Carson (an alumnus of NU) would often take pride in the Cornhuskers' accomplishments during his monologue as host of The Tonight Show, and fellow Nebraskan **** Cavett would also mention them on his talk show.
The Cornhuskers went on to defeat the University of Alabama, by then ranked Number 2, 38-6 in the Orange Bowl, completing their back-to-back National Championships. Devaney coached for one more year, going 9-2-1, before becoming Nebraska's athletic director and handing the reins over to assistant Tom Osborne.
Pruitt ended up not winning the Heisman, which went to Auburn University quarterback Pat Sullivan. By a coincidence, Auburn was the team Oklahoma would end up playing, in the Sugar Bowl, and the Sooners won, 40-22. (By another coincidence, these two arch-rivals, Nebraska and Oklahoma, would end up playing each half of another nasty rivalry, Alabama and Auburn, and beat them both.)
Despite the defeat, Oklahoma's program was also relaunched by this game, and they would be a perennial National Championship contender throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s. Oklahoma coach Chuck Fairbanks left the Sooners following the 1972 season to become the head coach of the New England Patriots of the NFL. Offensive coordinator Barry Switzer succeeded Fairbanks and compiled a 157-29-4 record from 1973 through 1988 and guided the Sooners to national championships in 1974, 1975, and 1985.
Nebraska vs. Oklahoma, considered a minor rivalry before this Game of the Century, became one of the biggest in the country, usually played on the day after Thanksgiving, until scandal caught up with Oklahoma in the late 1980s, sending it into a decline, which coincided with the rise of the football program at the University of Colorado, which began to replace Oklahoma as Nebraska's biggest rival.
Oklahoma would rise again in the late 1990s, as the Big Eight took on four Southwest Conference schools to become the Big 12, but since one of those four schools was Texas, and they already had a big rivalry with Oklahoma, that rivalry grew in importance. Since Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University were put in the Big 12 Southern Division, while Nebraska and the other Big Eight teams went into the Big 12 North, Nebraska and Oklahoma no longer even play each other every season, resulting in a further diminishing of that rivalry.
The Sporting News named the 1971 Cornhusker team the greatest team of the Twentieth Century in 1988.
And, this is one of his better posts, if you can believe that.
Congratulations, pizzatyme! 
Be sure to get yourself plenty of 
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