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 19th annual college football preview guide.

Without further ado, let’s get things started with my seventh 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. Northern Illinois has been upset by Ball State in three straight seasons– Starting this column, with a truly random tidbit! Three game win streaks over a particular opponent are quite common in this sport, but rarely do you see such a streak include three upsets. Even more interesting, the upsets have increased in size each season. Ball State upset NIU as a 4 point dog in 2022, as a 9 point underdog in 2023, and as a 12 point underdog in 2024. And most expect Ball State to be a sizable underdog again when they travel to Dekalb for their October 25th matchup against NIU in 2025. These two teams are also considered rivals in that they play for the Bronze Stalk Trophy every season (see photo below).

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14. Northern Illinois Statistical Anomalies: the better NIU plays, the less they win and vice-versa– Typically, teams that rank highest in collective offensive and defensive output and have the best turnover margin are the best teams in the league and the teams that are lowest in those categories are the worst. However, somehow, the NIU Huskies have bucked that trend on an almost annual basis over the half decade. Consider that 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. Then in 2022, the Huskies 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 their division! Their 2023 stats were unremarkable, but then last year they had the second best offense in the MAC and the # 1 ranked defense and they finished in the bottom half of the league again (7th out of 12 teams). Somehow, NIU continus to win in seasons where they aren’t especially good offensively or defensively and lose in seasons where they are really good on both sides of the ball.

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13. Kansas State has won 16 straight games over in-state rival Kansas– Despite the Jayhawks’ recent surge of success in the sport of football, they still cannot beat the Wildcats. This is currently the longest win/loss streak between two teams who are scheduled to play this season, as the Jayhawks host the Wildcats on October 25th.

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12. Southern Cal has not won a game in the eastern and central time zones since 2013 (0-13 record)– This fact does not bode well for the Trojan’s future success in the Big Ten, as it has now been over a decade since USC won a game east of the Rocky Mountains. Last year, despite entering the Big Ten, where 12 of the 16 members are located in the eastern and central time zones, the Trojans failed to win a road game besides their regular season finale against crosstown rival UCLA (losses at Maryland, Minnesota, Washington, and Michigan). This year they should end this streak in week 3, as they travel to West Lafayette to faceoff agains the lowly Boilermakers of Purdue. If the Trojans can’t win that one, then I am not sure they will ever win a game out east.

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11. Ohio State has not returned a kickoff back for a touchdown in 15 years– this is an especially surprising tidbit when you consider how good the Buckeyes have been over that time, winning national championships in 2014 and 2024, and being a top ten program almost every year since 2011. Nevertheless, the Buckeyes have not returned a kickoff back for a touchdown since Jordan Hall did so against Michigan in 2010.

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10. Ohio State enters the season as not only the defending national champion but also the winngest program in college football history (by the slightest of margins)- Last year at this time I wrote about how Ohio State and Michigan were tied in this category entering the 2024 season. Ohio State broke that time last year by virture of their run to the national title, which game them an all-time win percentage of .735. The next three winningest programs trail the Buckeyes by just two or three thousands of a point respectively (Alabama- .733, Michigan- .733, and Notre Dame- .732) so they could potentially pass the Buckeyes this season. The Wolverines of Michigan are still the only program to have won over 1,000 games as they have played the most games of any team in a Power 4 league (1,406) besides the originators of college football (Rutgers- 1,421).

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9. FIU enters the season with the lowest all-time winning percentage in college football history (.341)– Entering last season, this category was tied between the Golden Panthers and the Charlotte 49ers. However, Charlotte outperformed FIU last year to get themselves out of the basement.

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8.  Wake Forest and Oklahoma State are tied for best Power 4 bowl game win percentage of all-time– This fact was on last year’s list, and based on the fact neither of these teams played in a bowl game last year, they remained tied with a .647 win percentage. This is a really fun state when you consider my little ol’ Wake Forest Demon Deacons hold this prominent distinction, despite having the lowest Power 5 win percentage (.419) in all games played in the country! Think about that for a second, only in college football could a team be the all-time worst regular season team and also be the the all-time best in the postseason. The third best postseason win percentage belongs to Southern Cal with a .643 mark.

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7. The Iowa State Cyclones have the longest conference championship drought in the country (113 years)– 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. The Cyclones almost ended this epic drought last season as they qualified for, but subsequently lost, the Big 12 title game to Arizona State. The longest Group of Five conference championship drought was ended last year as Ohio’s MAC title gave them their conference title since 1956. Iowa State is considered a contender to end their drought in 2025.

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6. Iowa State also has the longest drought, by far, amongst all Power 4 Teams for home unbeaten seasons– This is a curious drought that almost ended last year, as the Cyclones won all of their home games last year except for a one point loss to Texas Tech. Somehow, Iowa State has not won all of their home games in a college football season since 1936. To put that in perspective, the next longest home unbeaten drought is Minnesota who last completed the feat over 30 years more recently than that in 1967. Every school has one year every now and then where they have a favorable home conference slate coupled with a couple of cupcake non-conference games and their team wins all of their home games. Heck, even my lowly Wake Forest Demon Deacons completed this feat as recently as 2021. Somehow though, the Cyclones have been unable to run the table at Jack Trice Stadium despite having quite a bit of success there over the past couple of decades. This year, however, Iowa State is blessed with a complete slate of winnable home games that includes matchups against: Iowa, Arizona, BYU, Arizona State and Kansas. In fact, the Cyclones could be favored in all of these contests.

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5.  UMass is the only full-fledged FBS team to never have played in a bowl game– Despite the Minutemen’s relatively successful basketball program, their football program has struggled mightily in FBS. In fact, UMass has never won more than 4 games in a single season since entering the FBS ranks in 2012. Can the Minutemen possibly breakthrough this glass ceiling in 2025? They do enter a conference (MAC) this season which should help matters. It is also worth noting that Kennesaw State, Missouri STate, and Delaware have also never played in an FBS bowl game, but they are all still in FCS transitional status and are not yet eligible to play in one.

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4. Sam Houston State and Texas State are the only two current FBS programs to be unbeaten in bowl games– Entering last season, Jacksonville State was on this list, but by virtue of their loss to Ohio in last year’s Cure Bowl, they are now off of it. Conversely, Sam Houston State also joins this list for the first time as a result of their first bowl game appearance and subsequent victory over Georgia Southern in last year’s New Orleans Bowl. On the other side of the ledger, there are two teams that are winless in bowl games, besides the teams mentioned previously that have never played in one. They are: Charlotte (0-1) and UL-Monroe (0-1).

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3. UTEP has by far the longest postseason win drought in the country, as they have not won a bowl game since 1967– Not only have the Miners failed to win a bowl game in past 57 seasons but they have also lost seven straight postseason matchups in the process. The next longest bowl victory drought belongs to Indiana and only dates back to 1991 (more on that below). This could be their year UTEP breaksthough, as they finished last year on a tear under new coach Scotty Walden.

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2. Wake Forest has not beaten a Top 10 team since 1946– I include this factoid about my alma mater in this article every year in hopes that this is the season this epic drought finally ends. Can new coach Jake Dickert (pictured below) be the one who finally leads to the Deacs to an epic victory during his tenure? In 2022, the Deacs came painstakingly close to ending this streak with an near upset win over fifth ranked Clemson. However, the Deacon defense unfortunately collapsed down the stretch, and the Tigers pulled out an overtime road victory. For better or worse, the Deacs might not have an opportunity to end that streak in 2025, as they dodge both Miami and Clemson in their ACC schedule this season. Their only shot could come on October 25th as SMU, who is preseason # 16, comes to Winston-Salem for Wake’s homecoming game.

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1. Speaking of historical droughts…Indiana football is still full of them despite last year’s success– Indiana has has some recent gridiron success over the past decade, most significantly their Cinderella run to the College Football Playoff last season, 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 Arbors since 1971 and hasn’t beaten Ohio State anywhere since 1988. The Hoosiers don’t have Michigan or Ohio State on their 2025 schedule, so their only chance of ending any of these droughts will have to come in the Big Ten title game and/or a subsequent bowl game.