LINCOLN, NEB. ? Colorado already knows it’s going to the Big 12 championship game, where a BCS bowl invitation is at stake.

Nebraska, on the other hand, is playing only to keep the last of its cherished streaks alive and to make itself more attractive to bowl scouts.

This won’t be your typical Colorado-Nebraska game Friday at Memorial Stadium.

Or will it?

Former Colorado coach Bill McCartney in 1982 designated Nebraska as the Buffaloes’ red-letter rival, but the Huskers have been slow to reciprocate. After all, the Huskers are 15-4-1 against the Buffaloes the past 20 years, and until last year they had won nine in a row in the series.

“If I were in their shoes, realistically, I could see them considering us as a pain in the butt rather than a full-fledged rival,” Colorado coach Gary Barnett said.

Nebraska now seems ready to play along with this rivalry thing. That 62-36 humbling in Boulder, Colo., last season just might have something to do with it.

“You can say it’s kind of personal now,” Husker senior cornerback DeJuan Groce said. “Every game has been close except last year. Then, with them putting the score on their rings, that tells you where their heart was at when they won the Big 12 championship.”

The significance of the engraving of the Colorado-Nebraska final score on the Buffs’ conference championship rings is subject to debate. CU players downplay it. NU players take umbrage.

Regardless, it’s more fuel for the rivalry.

To Barnett, Friday’s game means as much as ever, even though the North Division champion Buffs already have a spot reserved in the Dec. 7 Big 12 title game in Houston.

If 13th-ranked Colorado (8-3 overall, 6-1 Big 12) beats Nebraska, it would have wins in eight of nine games after a 1-2 start. The Buffs will play Oklahoma in Houston for a Bowl Championship Series bid.

The Huskers (7-5, 3-4) need a victory to keep alive their hopes of stretching their unprecedented streak of nine-win seasons to 34. They also can enhance their bowl position. As it is, the MainStay Independence Bowl is among the second-tier bowls showing the most interest in the Huskers.