A mere five wins wasn't enough to keep the Huskers out of a bowl game in the first year of the Mike Riley Era.
Despite finishing below .500, Nebraska will make a postseason appearance, taking on UCLA in the Foster Farms Bowl on Dec. 26 in the Santa Clara, Calif., home of the San Francisco 49ers.
The Huskers lost their season finale against Iowa to drop to 5-7 and seemingly miss the postseason, but when there weren't enough teams with .500 records or better to fill the whopping 80 bowl slots, a couple spots opened up for 5-7 teams. Which 5-7 teams made the grade was determined by ranking those teams based on APR, or Academic Progress Rate. The No. 1 team in APR among the 5-7 teams, Nebraska was tabbed — along with fellow Big Ten team Minnesota — to play in a bowl game.
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Unlike many of the other matchups featuring Big Ten schools, Nebraska and UCLA have played quite a bit in the past, and the Foster Farms Bowl will mark their 13th all-time meeting. All the previous games have come during the regular season, with the series tied at six wins each. Most recently, the teams played a home-and-home in 2012 and 2013.
The Bruins are 8-4 on the season, barely missing out on a chance to play for a Pac-12 championship, suffering four losses during conference play.
The Huskers struggled during non-conference play this season, losing games to BYU and Miami and narrowly pulling out a win against Southern Miss.
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This will be the first-ever appearance in the Bay Area-based bowl game for Nebraska.