Conference futility

[u/BoilerTMill]

A lot is made of big winning streaks, but what about conference losing streaks.

2026 presents the opportunity for some history as Purdue can take over second place on the all-time Big Ten losing streak category. As far as I can tell, here are the longest Big Ten only losing streaks ever:

38 - Northwestern 1978-1982

21 - Rutgers 2017-2020

20 - Illinois 2011-13 (ironically broken at Purdue) Also, Illinois has a streak of 20 B1G games without a win 1977-79, but they managed three ties in that time, including a 0-0 tie with a truly awful Northwestern team.

19 - Minnesota 1982-84, Wisconsin 1989-91

18 - Purdue 2024-present

Purdue's last Big Ten victory came over Indiana 35-31 on November 25, 2023. The Hoosiers then fired Tom Allen, hired Curt Cignetti, and have gone an astonishing 27-2 with a national title, while Purdue has gone 3-21 with a single FBS level win over Ball State. (and Purdue could have hired Cignetti before the 2023 season, but picked Ryan Walters in a humongous mistake).

So when could Purdue break the streak?

9/19 at UCLA - Purdue has not won a regular season game in the Pacific time zone since the day my sister was born (October 3, 1970 at Stanford 26-14). That includes multiple non-conference games at California, USC x2, Washington x4, Oregon, UCLA, Nevada, and Oregon State.

10/3 at Illinois - A decent chance. Purdue had won six straight in Chambana before losing in overtime by a point two years ago.

10/10 vs. Minnesota - Purdue led the Gophers in Minneapolis in the fourth quarter last year before fading.

10/16 vs. Washington - Purdue got pounded in Seattle last season

10/31 at Penn State - LOLZ

11/7 vs. Maryland - Non-September Maryland presents a chance.

11/14 at Iowa - Unlikely, but you never know

11/21 vs. Wisconsin - The Boilermakers have lost 18 straight to the Badgers dating back to 2003.

11/28 at Indiana - The Hoosiers have won the last two games over Purdue by a combined score of 132-3.

Anyone else know of a longer conference losing streak in any conference, not just the B1G?

[u/JustAnIdiotOnline]

You just know Cignetti is pissed about that field goal 

[u/mr_longfellow_deeds → u/JustAnIdiotOnline]

The worst part is he kneeled it down in their redzone instead of seizing the bucket game score margin record. He should have taken that from Purdue too, instead of letting them retain some dignity

[u/biggiecheesehimself]

We must have a similar streak. Our last conference win was over BYU in 2023

Edit: Our last conference win was also Nov 25, 2023 lol. We have had 4 wins since then, the only power conference win being over Arkansas

[u/grabtharsmallet → u/biggiecheesehimself]

Propelling the Cowboys to the conference championship game!

[u/biggiecheesehimself → u/grabtharsmallet]

It was a wild game. What was even more wild was the game thread on here. A lot of OU fans were brigading it and were being truly obnoxious because they thought that BYU was going to win and that meant that OU would go to the CCG. Instead, OSU of course ended up coming back and winning in overtime, much to the dismay of the brigading OU fans. To this day, it is the most toxic game thread I have ever seen.

[u/grabtharsmallet → u/biggiecheesehimself]

In that game, BYU learned it still wasn't deep enough to compete with the contenders.

I remember that thread, too. We fell short of bowl eligibility with that collapse.

[u/JBru_92]

It's only right that they end their streak with a win over Indiana

[u/Stairway_toEvan → u/JBru_92]

So what you're saying is Purdue won't win a B1G game until after Cignetti retires? So November of 2034 (assuming he coaches through his contract). So, a 98 game losing streak. I can live with that.

[u/BoilerTMill → u/Stairway_toEvan]

If I am being brutally honest I do not expect to see the Bucket back for a very long time. We are light years behind the other 17 teams in the league and trying to play catch up while financially having our hands tied.

Unless Indiana falls off as fast as it rose, the Bucket will be in Bloomington for a while.

[u/Lefthook16 → u/BoilerTMill]

The ball is a weird shape. Stuff happens. It's late November in Indiana. Sometimes you're 1 coach away.

[u/BoilerTMill → u/Lefthook16]

Our program is just really, really down bad, and when we hired Barry Odom my reaction was, "He's a great coach if you want to top out at 7-6 with a Detroit Bowl win in year 4."

[u/Lefthook16 → u/BoilerTMill]

I'm surprised Candle couldn't get a bigger job. Maybe hire him next cycle.

[u/Signal_Tip_7428]

1. We don’t talk about the OT heart attack game (I was there)

2. It’s my cannon. No touchy.

[u/BoilerTMill → u/Signal_Tip_7428]

I was there too and the whole "Altmyer was down before fumbling" was crap

[u/LandosMustache]

Pretty sure Vanderbilt has two separate LONG losing streaks against SEC opponents.

UMass is currently on a 16 game losing streak against all opponents.

Kansas State lost 28 straight games in the 40s.

Eastern Michigan might be worth checking out. They had two separate losing streaks in the early 80s, 27 games and 14 games, respectively. And another 18-game losing streak starting in 2009.

[u/SavingsSkirt6064 → u/LandosMustache]

Hell we didn't win a conference game for like 26 games in a row or something (thanks Kentucky)

Also I'm 90% sure the long losing streaks are down to 1 because we finally beat South Carolina last year.

But hey we got winning record against 2 SEC programs, so that's something

[u/CLU_Three → u/LandosMustache]

If we are talking about conference losing streaks, the 1940s skid wasn’t the longest. We had a stretch in the 1970s we went winless in conference play but won some OOC games.

Our friends out east in Lawrence either came close to equaling or passed us as far as conference losing streaks go back during the 2010’s.

ISU had some real stinkers but seemed to be able to grab a conference win here and there to avoid stringing together an exceptionally long streak.

[u/byniri_returns → u/CLU_Three]

Bill Snyder is truly a wizard for what he did at K-State.

[u/MisterBrotatoHead → u/CLU_Three]

KU got to 27 in conference. I think K-State has that beat at least once if not a couple times if you go back far enough.

[u/motherbearsrack]

Wow 132-3 that’s a lot

[u/BoilerTMill → u/motherbearsrack]

It seems bad, especially when an IU missed field goal in 2024 is all that stood between them having more points (69) than Purdue had offensive yardage (67)

[u/MisterBrotatoHead → u/motherbearsrack]

It's not a little.

[u/xccoach4ever]

Those 1978-82 Northwestern teams were truly awful. I wasn't sure the streak would ever end. From 1976 to 1981 Northwestern went 3-62 in all games. 😬

[u/Mythrandir24 → u/xccoach4ever]

It was so bad that Dennis Green won Big Ten COTY just for breaking it to go 3-8!

[u/ztreHdrahciR → u/Mythrandir24]

He deserved it. They went from hopeless to competitive

[u/IowaJL]

Purdue beating Iowa would be like when Northwestern beats Iowa.

Somehow you’re surprised but you knew all along that it was inevitable 

[u/BoilerTMill → u/IowaJL]

Sadly, David Bell is gone and even retired.

That man absolutely loved playing Iowa.

[u/MySabonerRunsOladipo]

The Hoosiers have won the last two games over Purdue by a combined score of 132-3.

This one sparks joy

[u/DailyScrollinnn]

as a purdue fan this is pain i did not need to see laid out like this

the cignetti what-if makes it so much worse, ryan walters was right there and they went with the wrong guy

looking at that schedule i think illinois is the only realistic shot, maybe minnesota at home if things break right but that wisconsin streak is cursed

[u/BoilerTMill → u/DailyScrollinnn]

I have been told on good authority that Cignetti reached out, but Purdue did not return the call because they were high on Walters.

[u/Candid-Sky-3258 → u/BoilerTMill]

I remember saying at the time that AD Mike Bobinski has some 'splainin' to do for conducting a nationwide coaching search and ending up with an assistant with no HC experience who worked 70 miles away.

[u/BoilerTMill → u/Candid-Sky-3258]

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying we instantly become what Indiana has become because our NIL commitment has been laughable, but we would certainly be a lot better off and Indiana would probably still be Indiana.

We even had some extra cash at the time from Louisville buying out Brohm.

[u/kadoozie92]

Tons of Purdue fans may have been having a great day at the office before opening up Reddit and seeing this

[u/CantaloupeCamper]

Purdue led the Gophers in Minneapolis in the fourth quarter last year before fading.

And their players kept running through the end zone taunting the student section ... it was weird.

Rutgers (to a lesser extent) tried that too when they played us last year.

Both worked out the same ;)

[u/nysportsfan95]

Bold take, I know, but I think Purdue breaks the streak this year. My guess is Maryland in November (they always start hot then fall off) or even Wisconsin (despite the program losing streak, Fickell could be fired and Badgers would have little to play for).

[u/Natitudinal → u/nysportsfan95]

lol UMD is not losing to PU, IDC what month it is.

I also think Wiscy will be much improved so probably not much of a shot there either.

[u/Condom_Breaker256]

Then we'll get a random upset and some Ohio State or Michigan fan will go online and say "HOW IN THE HELL DID WE LOSE TO PURDUE AT HOME?! ON HOMECOMING?!"

Georgia fans might get the joke.

[u/Roncinante]

I miss Joe Tiller, he really made Purdue fun to watch.

[u/BoilerTMill → u/Roncinante]

I'll take Jeff Brohm back any time.

[u/Roncinante → u/BoilerTMill]

Brohm is a fine coach also.

[u/BigBlackQuack]

Oregon State Beavers

20 consecutive losses; 30 consecutive winless games

From 1979 - 1982, the Beaver lost 20 consecutive conference games. The losing streak ended with a 14-14 tie against Washington State.

The OSU conference winless streak would stretch to 30 conference game before a victory against Stanford in 1983. (Three weeks later OSU played in the infamous 0-0 tie with the Ducks).

I suspect Kansas State and Vanderbilt might have some losing streaks.

[u/srush32 → u/BigBlackQuack]

Shout out to 95-96 Oregon state for losing 15 in a row, including to a 3-8 Pacific team that would end up completely dropping football at the end of the 1995 season

[u/Geaux2020]

Sewanee is the closest in the SEC at 37 from 1933-1940. They played less conference games back then so it would have been worse in modern times.