Minnesota vs Nebraska$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy
A friendly bet on Twitter in 2014 that became a fan-built trophy, a charity drive, and a BettorEdge partner since 2019.
Updated · BettorEdge
Minnesota and Nebraska are not on each other's schedule right now. The trophy stays with Minnesota until they meet again. The teams are off in 2026 under the Big Ten's rotation; the next meeting is in 2027. The trophy is run by fans, not the athletic departments.
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Start a pick'em contestHow the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy came to be
In the week before the November 22, 2014 game in Lincoln, Minnesota's mascot account Goldy Gopher proposed a friendly bet on Twitter to @FauxPelini, a parody account of Nebraska coach Bo Pelini.
Faux Pelini's reply joked about $5 and smashing a wooden chair, and Goldy suggested turning the $5 or the leftover chair pieces into a trophy for the series.
Reddit's college football community picked up the idea, and Minnesota supporters built an actual broken-chair trophy before kickoff.
Minnesota won 28-24 at Memorial Stadium, its first win in Lincoln since 1960, and players carried the new trophy off the field.
Neither school created it. The trophy is still unofficial and run by fans, and since 2017 it has doubled as a charity fundraiser split between Nebraska's Team Jack Foundation and a Minnesota children's-hospital fund.
The tweets that started it
The whole trophy came out of about five minutes on Twitter on the Thursday before the 2014 game, as the posts were quoted in our 2023 write-up.
- Goldy Gopher@GoldytheGopher
Hey @FauxPelini, how about a friendly wager for this weekend's game? Team that gets the most points gets a conference win? Seem fair?
- Faux Pelini@FauxPelini
@GoldytheGopher OK how about if we win you give me $5, if you win I get to smash a wooden chair over your back
- Goldy Gopher@GoldytheGopher
.@FauxPelini just as long as we can turn that $5 or bits of broken chair into a trophy for next year's game
- Korked Bats@korkedbats
@GoldytheGopher @FauxPelini @RedditCFB How does this work? It's the best I could design with a $5 budget.
His mock-up, "The Bits-of-Wooden-Chair Trophy", came with a $5.00 price sticker on the plaque.
@korkedbats' mock-up, posted Nov 20, 2014, as shown in our 2023 write-up.
The trophy itself. A fan-made trophy built around a broken wooden chair. Minnesota fans built the first one in a few days in November 2014, and after it went missing, fans from both schools built a sturdier replacement in 2017.
BettorEdge and the Chair
BettorEdge got involved with the Chair in 2019. A friendly bet between two fanbases that grew into a traveling trophy and a charity drive is exactly what BettorEdge is built on, so a partnership around social betting and fundraising was a natural fit.
For the 2023 game, BettorEdge pledged $5,000 to the charity whose fanbase won a fan vote, Team Jack at Nebraska or the Team One Four Fund at Minnesota, and $1,000 to the other. New BettorEdge users who placed a friendly wager on the Nebraska-Minnesota game, using the codes Team14 or TeamJack, triggered a $5 donation to that charity.
The Broken Chair Trophy is a charity partner on BettorEdge and part of BE 4 Good, our give-back program, whose giving to causes including the Team Jack Foundation made BettorEdge a finalist for The Starties' 2025 Charity Act of the Year. It is the clearest example of what we think betting with friends should be: a small stake, a lot of pride, and something good at the end of it.
The causes behind the Chair
- The $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy · The trophy's official home: the story, the fundraiser and how to give.
- Team Jack Foundation · Nebraska's cause: funding pediatric brain cancer research. Watch Team Jack's story →
- Team One Four Fund · Minnesota's cause: Casey O'Brien's campaign to transform the infusion center at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital. Watch Casey's story →
$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy history
- 1900
First meeting: Minnesota wins 20-12 in Lincoln on November 29, 1900.
- 2014
Trophy is born on Twitter; Minnesota wins 28-24 in Lincoln on November 22 and takes it home.
- 2015
Nebraska wins 48-25 in Minneapolis and claims the chair.
- 2016
Nebraska wins 24-17, but the trophy then disappears.
- 2017
Fans rebuild the trophy as a charity fundraiser and raise $7,500 against a $5,000 goal; Minnesota wins 54-21.
- 2019
BettorEdge partners with the Chair, backing its social-betting, charity-first spirit.
- 2022
Fan fundraising around the trophy passes $125,000 for Team Jack and the Team One Four Fund.
- 2023
The fundraising goal rises to $15,000, and BettorEdge pledges $5,000 and $1,000 to the two charities through a fan vote.
- 2024
No football meeting on the Big Ten schedule, so the chair is put up at the November 14 Nebraska-Minnesota volleyball match in Lincoln.
- 2025
Minnesota wins 24-6 in Minneapolis on October 17, its sixth straight win in the series.
Recent results
| Season | Result | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Minnesota Golden Gophers 24, Nebraska Cornhuskers 6 | Huntington Bank Stadium |
| 2023 | Minnesota Golden Gophers 13, Nebraska Cornhuskers 10 | Huntington Bank Stadium |
| 2022 | Minnesota Golden Gophers 20, Nebraska Cornhuskers 13 | Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, NE) |
| 2021 | Minnesota Golden Gophers 30, Nebraska Cornhuskers 23 | Huntington Bank Stadium |
$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy facts worth knowing
The trophy started as a Twitter joke between a mascot account and a parody coach account, not with either athletic department.
The original chair vanished after Nebraska's 2016 win and was never found. Fans built a new one in 2017.
In 2024, with no football game scheduled, the chair was put up at a Nebraska-Minnesota volleyball match so the tradition would not skip a year.
Fan fundraising tied to the trophy had raised more than $160,000 for the two charities by late 2024.
In the 2025 game, Minnesota sacked Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola nine times, a Gophers school record.
Frequently asked questions
What does BettorEdge have to do with the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy?+
BettorEdge has partnered with the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy since 2019, backing its charity drive for Team Jack at Nebraska and the Team One Four Fund at Minnesota. For the 2023 game BettorEdge pledged $5,000 and $1,000 to the two charities through a fan vote, and the trophy is a charity partner in BettorEdge's BE 4 Good program.
Who started the $5 Bits of Broken Chair bet?+
Minnesota's mascot account @GoldytheGopher started it on November 20, 2014, asking the parody account @FauxPelini for "a friendly wager for this weekend's game." Faux Pelini offered $5 against smashing a wooden chair, and Goldy suggested turning "that $5 or bits of broken chair into a trophy."
Why is it called the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy?+
The $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy is named for a 2014 Twitter exchange: the parody account @FauxPelini joked about $5 and a smashed chair, and Minnesota's Goldy Gopher account suggested turning the $5 or the broken chair pieces into a trophy. Minnesota fans built it that week.
What is the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy?+
The $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy is the trophy Minnesota and Nebraska play for in college football, first awarded in 2014. A fan-made trophy built around a broken wooden chair. Minnesota fans built the first one in a few days in November 2014, and after it went missing, fans from both schools built a sturdier replacement in 2017.
How did the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy come to be?+
In the week before the November 22, 2014 game in Lincoln, Minnesota's mascot account Goldy Gopher proposed a friendly bet on Twitter to @FauxPelini, a parody account of Nebraska coach Bo Pelini.
Who has the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy right now?+
Minnesota holds the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy after winning the 2025 game, Minnesota 24, Nebraska 6. The live block on this page updates as soon as the next meeting is played.
Who leads the Minnesota-Nebraska series?+
Minnesota leads the all-time series 38-25-2 as of the end of the 2025 season. In games played for the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy since 2014, Minnesota leads 8-3.
When is the next $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy game?+
No Minnesota-Nebraska game is on ESPN's schedule right now. Conference schedules rotate, so check back as the next season's slate is released.
Where can I bet on the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy game?+
You can bet Minnesota vs Nebraska on BettorEdge, a peer-to-peer marketplace where you trade with other bettors rather than a sportsbook, so the price carries no built-in house vig. You can also run a free pick'em contest for the game with your group.
More college football
Records and the current holder are as of the end of the 2025 season; the next-game block and recent results update from ESPN.Sources: en.wikipedia.org, sbnation.com, web.archive.org, teamjackfoundation.org.
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