I couldn't quite make out the table, so I recreated it below. I also added eventual Husker Bowl opponent, Arizona State:
Note all the blacked out spaces during bowl season. Only Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Nebraska went bowling from the Big 8. What's more impressive about that, though, is that there were
only 11 bowl games in 1975. The Big 8 featured in 4 of them. Looking through this bowl schedule, it's hard not to wish that we only had maybe 10-15 bowl games again. Try as I might, I just can never bring myself to care about some Potato Chip Bowl featuring a 6-6 MAC team against a 7-5 Sun Belt team. Part of me wishes we could go back to the days of every bowl game being a big name, heavyweight boxing match, but I realize the ESPN/TV money will never let go of their 67 "Everyone's A Winner" Bowls.
Date | Bowl | | Pts | | Pts | Notes |
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1976-01-01 | Cotton Bowl | Arkansas (18) | 31 | Georgia (12) | 10 | Dallas, TX |
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1976-01-01 | Orange Bowl | Oklahoma (3) | 14 | Michigan (5) | 6 | Miami, FL |
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1976-01-01 | Rose Bowl | UCLA (11) | 23 | Ohio State (1) | 10 | Pasadena, CA |
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1975-12-31 | Peach Bowl | West Virginia | 13 | North Carolina State | 10 | Atlanta, GA |
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1975-12-31 | Sugar Bowl | Alabama (4) | 13 | Penn State (8) | 6 | New Orleans, LA |
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1975-12-29 | Gator Bowl | Maryland (17) | 13 | Florida (13) | 0 | Jacksonville, FL |
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1975-12-27 | Bluebonnet Bowl | Texas (9) | 38 | Colorado (10) | 21 | Houston, TX |
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1975-12-26 | Fiesta Bowl | Arizona State (7) | 17 | Nebraska (6) | 14 | Tempe, AZ |
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1975-12-26 | Sun Bowl | Pittsburgh (20) | 33 | Kansas (19) | 19 | El Paso, TX |
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1975-12-22 | Liberty Bowl | Southern California | 20 | Texas A&M (2) | 0 | Memphis, TN |
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1975-12-20 | Tangerine Bowl | Miami (OH) (16) | 20 | South Carolina | 7 | Orlando, FL |
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I also noticed that clear back in 1975, there was a lot of
inter-conference play between the Big 8, SWC, and Big Ten. Obviously the Big 8 + SWC makes sense, given the eventual history of the Big XII. But Nebraska played Indiana, Kansas played Wisconsin, and Missouri played Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan in 3 straight games. Oklahoma eventually wound up in the Orange Bowl vs. Michigan as well. Maybe that's some foreshadowing of Kansas or Mizzou eventually joining the Big Ten.