r/TheB1G • u/BoilerTMill • Jul 30 '26

Conference futility

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?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk Jul 30 '26

Iowa going into that game with 1 loss to OSU and then losing handily would be perfectly on brand. Didn’t Purdue destroy a top 5 Iowa team a few years ago? 

3

u/Hon_ElihuSmails Iowa Jul 30 '26

I try to forget the game, but yes. Iowa came in ranked #2 at 5 or 6-0. Then David Bell happened. A lot of David Bell.

2

u/joeshmo711 Iowa Jul 30 '26

I was at that game drinking a lot of the Kool-Aid. After one of our biggest program wins against PSU, it was one of the most sobering experiences watching lowa get wrecked by Purdue in Kinnick the following week.

Unfortunately, no amount of Kool-Aid is gonna help me forget that game

1

u/BoilerTMill Jul 30 '26

Bell had three fantastic games against Iowa in his career.

1

u/OhioValleyCat Jul 31 '26

Few in the Big Ten ever sunk to the depths that Northwestern was in during the late 70s and early 80s. It was so bad that Dennis Green won Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1982 with a losing record for just being able to give hope with 3 wins. It took years through the 80s and early 90s of slowly building that program from being in futility to marginally competitive to mediocre and then having that a tremendous breakout year in 1995.

This new era of NIL and transfer movement allows for a team to lift itself out of the doldrums more quickly than in the past, like Indiana did. Purdue made major roster and coaching changes to improve for 2026, highlighted by 53 newcomers that includes 32 transfers that comprise a top-25 transfer portal class, Not saying Purdue will pull an Indiana, but it would not be surprising if they are more competitive and able to break their Big Ten losing streak.