Every summer since 2007, I have created an intricate set of college football predictions for each upcoming season.  This year is no exception, as I will be using my blog over the next few days to publish my 17th annual college football preview guide.

Without further ado, let’s get things started with my fifth annual facts and tidbits article.  This is a collection of interesting anecdotes and statistics that I have compiled while doing my college football research for the upcoming season. 

15. Michigan has good chance of becoming the first school with 1,000 college football wins this season– Let’s start this column with a look the all-time FBS win totals by school. Entering this season, the Wolverines lead the battle for most all-time wins in college football history with 989. The next closest teams are Ohio State and Alabama who have exactly 953 victories a piece. Therefore, it is almost a complete certainty that Michigan will be the first program to reach 1,000 wins, and they can reach that mark this season with a third straight 11+ win campaign.

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14. Michigan has lost six straight bowl games and Harbaugh has still never won a CFP or New Year’s Six game– The Wolverines quest for 1,0000 wins would be a lot easier if Harbaugh could find a way to get a major bowl victory (0-4 in CFP/NY6 games). The Wolverines again faltered in a big postseason game they were supposed to win last season when they lost to TCU in the Fiesta Bowl/National Semifinal. Harbaugh finally overcame his issues with Ohio State over the past two seasons. Now, he just needs to figure out how to navigate bowl season.

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13. Ohio State, Alabama, Michigan, and Notre Dame are in a dead heat to come winningest all-time college football program– While Michigan has a clear advantage in most total wins, the race to become the winningest FBS program by percentage is much closer. Currently, Ohio State holds the lead with a .733 mark, but the next three teams are separated by a thousandth of a percentage point each: Alabama (.732), Michigan (.731), Notre Dame (.730). All four of these schools are supposed to be really good in 2023, and a one or two game difference in each of their records could shake up these standings. Interestingly enough, the fifth winningest team by percentage is the Boise State Broncos with a .726 mark.

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12. Indiana has now surpassed Wake Forest as the losingest Power 5 program of all-time– On the flip side of things, Wake Forest has held the title for worst winning percentage amongst Power 5 schools for decades now. However, Dave Clawson’s successful run at Wake Forest has finally gotten the Deacons out of the gutter, as their .421 all-time winning percentage is now one-thousandth of a point higher than Indiana’s .420. There is more information about both of these teams’ losing ways below (see facts # 5 and 6 on this list). The losingest program in all of FBS is the Florida International Panthers who hold a .341 all-time win percentage.

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11.  The Iowa State Cyclones have the longest power 5 conference championship drought and the Ohio Bobcats have the longest group of five conference title drought– This stat is somewhat complicated by the fact that so many teams have switched conferences in the past decade or so, but nevertheless, the Cyclones last won a conference title in 1912 and Ohio hasn’t won since 1968. Both of these programs have had lengthy periods of success in the past 50+ years but neither has been able to get over the hump. Also, as you might expect, Vandy has the second longest power 5 conference championship drought, as they haven’t won a conference title since 1923.

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10. Only ten schools have won a college football and a college basketball national championship and four of them are from the same division of the same conference– The almighty Big Ten East can stick out its chest on this one. Arkansas and Florida are the only schools in the entire SEC to win championships in college’s two major sports, but the Big Ten East’s Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Maryland have all done it as well. The other four schools to achieve this feat, in case you were wondering, are: Syracuse, California, UCLA, and Stanford. Interestingly, three teams on this list (Syracuse, Cal, and Maryland) are among the final eight Power 5 teams to never to host ESPN’s College Gameday.

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9.  There are only two full-fledged FBS teams never to make a bowl game: UMass and Texas State– Both programs are relatively new to FBS so not a huge surprise but its still interesting to try and keep tabs on teams searching for their first bowl bid.  I don’t see either of these squads breaking through this year but keep in mind that Charlotte and Liberty earned their first bowl bids in 2019 and Coastal came out of nowhere to reach a bowl for the first time in 2020, so you never know. James Madison, Sam Houston State, and Jacksonville State have also never played in an FBS bowl game, but they are all still in FCS transitional status and not yet eligible to play in one.

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8. New Mexico State is the only team that is unbeaten all-time in college football bowl games- In 2021, there were three teams on this list and then App State lost to Western Kentucky to end their perfect postseason mark. Then, last year with the list trimmed down to two, both Liberty and New Mexico State earned bowl bids to put their unbeaten streaks on the line. Liberty lost the Boca Raton Bowl to Toledo, but New Mexico State knocked off Bowling Green to win the Quick Lane Bowl. Thus, the almighty Aggies of New Mexico State are now the only college football team that can say they have never lost a bowl game (record: 4-0-1). Aside of course, from the forementioned programs (UMass, Texas State, James Madison, Jacksonville State, and Sam Houston) who have never played in one.

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7. UTEP has by far the longest postseason win drought in the country, as they have not won a bowl game since 1967– Last year the # 1 tidbit on this list was the shocking fact that the UTEP football program had never won a game in the eastern time zone! They impressively ended that drought last year when they beat the Charlotte 49ers on the road. This season I am going to feature UTEP in this column again by pointing out they have not won a bowl game in 56 years and have lost seven postseason matchups in the process. This could be their year though, as I am calling for them to reach bowl eligibility and get a winnable Frisco Bowl matchup against Clay Helton’s Georgia Southern squad (see bowl prediction article in a few days).

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6.  Wake Forest has not beaten at Top 10 team since 1946– I include this factoid about my alma mater every year in hopes that this is the season this epic drought ends. Last year, the Deacs came painstakingly close to ending this streak with an upset over fifth ranked Clemson. However, the Deacon defense unfortunately collapsed down the stretch and the Tigers pulled out an overtime road victory (see picture below). This season, for better or worse, the Deacs may have several opportunities to end the streak, as Wake is scheduled to play three teams in the preseason top 13- Florida State, Clemson, and Notre Dame.

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5. Speaking of historical droughts…Indiana football is still full of them– Indiana has has dome recent gridiron success over the past couple of seasons, but they still have some major history to overcome. First of all, Indiana has by far the longest bowl victory drought in the Power 5 as the Hoosiers haven’t won a postseason game since 1991, which is 13 years longer than the next longest Power 5 postseason drought (Colorado- 2004). In addition, Indiana hasn’t beaten Michigan in Ann Arbor in 52 years and hasn’t beaten Ohio State anywhere since 1988. This year, the Hoosiers will get a shot an early shot at making history, as they host the Buckeyes in the season opener.

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4. MAC Statistical Madness: Northern Illinois’ inverted results– Try this one on for size… In 2021, Northern Illinois had the 4th best offense in the MAC East and the worst defense and turnover margin, yet they won the division title. Last year, they improved in all three of those categories (2nd in turnover margin, 3rd in offense, and 4th in defense) and they finished in last place in the division! I am not sure there has been another team in the history of football to improve relative to their peers in the three major statistical categories and fall from first to worst in their division/conference.

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3. MAC Scheduling Madness: Toledo finally playing Miami of Ohio–  I can always rely on the Mid-American Conference to occupy a couple of the spots on this list every year because this conference produces some of the wackiest anecdotes. This year, the Toledo and Miami of Ohio game on October 21st will be huge for several reasons. Not only, will it be a matchup between two conference rivals who are located less than 200 miles apart are both favored to either win of contend for their respective division titles, but it will be the first time the two teams have played each other since 2011! Like, how is this possible? And can the MAC administrators not figure out how scheduling rotations work? There are only 12 teams in this league, and every team plays three cross division games each year. That means theoretically you should play every team in the league at least every other season. Yet, somehow two such teams have not been matched up against one against in 12 years! See an ancient picture of the last time these two teams played below.

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2. Notre Dame will play an FCS opponent for the first time in school history this season, leaving Southern Cal as the only program never to schedule one– Last year, UCLA decided to take a “free FCS win” for the first time when they beat up on Alabama State in week 2. This season, Notre Dame will do the same when they play Tennessee State in week 1. Admirably, the Trojans of USC will then become the only FBS program never to have played a team from a lesser college football division.

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1. Mirror-Image Matchups– Speaking of upcoming firsts for this 2023 football season, this year marks the first time since 1987 that both schools named Miami play one another (September 1st), and this season will see the first-ever matchup between the only two Division 1 schools whose mascot is a Gamecock (Jacksonville State v. South Carolina, November 4th)