Before Turducken, College Football Used to Eat Up Thanksgiving

Before the NFL became the centerpiece of Thanksgiving Day, college football dominated the holiday, with one of the most memorable games occurring on November 25, 1971. On that day, the No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners faced the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers in a highly anticipated Big Eight matchup, dubbed the "Game of the Century." Nebraska secured a 35-31 victory with a late touchdown by halfback Jeff Kinney, watched by approximately 55 million viewers. This audience represented over a quarter of the U.S. population at the time, a number not yet matched by NFL Thanksgiving broadcasts.

The significance of this game and its viewership was highlighted by comparisons to the 2006 Rose Bowl, which attracted 35.6 million viewers, and Super Bowl VI, which set an NFL viewership record at the time with 56.6 million viewers. The dominance of college football on Thanksgiving began to decline with the rise of cable television and a 1984 Supreme