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 20th annual college football preview guide.

Without further ado, let’s get things started with my eighth 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. 

10. Kansas State has won 17 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 travel to Manhattan on October 17th.

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9.  Wake Forest has reclaimed their unusual distinction of being both the losingest program in Power 4 college football history and the all-time winningest postseason team in the Power 4 – Wake Forest has had the lowest all-time wining percentage (.420) amongst Power 4 conference teams ever since being bypassed by the Indiana Hoosiers in early 2025 during their incredible Curt Cignetti-led resuregence. Now, after last year’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory, Wake has ascended past Oklahoma State to possess the highest postseason winning percentage amongst Power 4 bowl teams (.667). 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!

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8. Syracuse was 1-7 last year in ACC conference play with the only league win coming at Clemson– This is really an absurd statistic when you think about how dominant the Tigers have been in this league over the past decade and a half, especially at home. It has been well-documented that the Tigers have taken a step back in national prominence the past couple of seasons but there are still a ton of teams that have long droughts without victories in Clemson’s Memorial Stadium (Wake’s last win there was 1998, Virginia and UNC haven’t won there since 2001). Yet, the worst team in the ACC won in that stadium that year. It should be noted that the Cuse’s starting quarterback Steve Angeli got hurt in their win over Clemson and didn’t play the rest of the season. Otherwise, the Cuse likely wouldn’t have dropped their last seven conference games in 2025. This is still a fun stat though.

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7. The Iowa State Cyclones have the longest conference championship drought in the country (114 years)– This stat is somewhat complicated by the fact that so many teams have switched conferences in the past decade or so, nonetheless, the Cyclones last won a conference title in 1912. The Cyclones almost ended this epic drought in 2024 when they qualified for, but subsequently lost, the Big 12 title game to Arizona State. The second longest drought in the Power 4 belongs to Vanderbilt who last won a conference title in 1923 when they played in the SoCon. The Commodores have of course never won an SEC title.

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6. Iowa State also has the longest drought, by far, amongst all Power 4 Teams for home unbeaten seasons– We have back-to-back Iowa State factoids on this list for the second consecutive season, as somehow, Iowa State has not won all of their home games in a college football season since 1936. This is a curious drought that almost ended in 2024, as the Cyclones won all of their home games that season except for a one point loss to Texas Tech. To put that in perspective, the next longest home unbeaten drought is owned 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. Last year might have been their best chance for a while, as the 8-4 Cyclones were favored in every home game they played last season but nevertheless, dropped consecutive games in Jack Trice to BYU and Arizona State late in the season. This year, Iowa State is in rebuilding mode and will likely be significant underdogs at home against Utah in week 4 and Kansas State, who they host in their season finale.

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5.  UMass is the only returning FBS school to never have played in a bowl game– Every other FBS team that is not new this season (North Dakota State and Sacramento State are making their FBS debuts in 2026) has sniffed a bowl game except for the Minutemen. In fact, all three teams who were still in FBS transitional status last season (Delaware, Missouri State, and Kennesaw State), two of which were playing their first season in major college football (Delaware and Missouri State), played in bowl games in 2025. To make matters worse, UMass hasn’t even come close to attaining the six wins necessary to become bowl eligible, as the Minutemen have never won more than 4 games in a single season since entering the FBS ranks in 2012. UMass did finally join a conference in football last season (the MAC) which should help recruiting and overall team morale. Nevertheless, the prospects of them ending this streak this season seem very bleak considering they still haven’t beaten an FBS team since they upset Army on the road in 2023, by far the longest such losing streak in the country. In fact, UMass hasn’t won a home game against an FBS foe since way back in 2021!

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4. Texas State is the only program in the country who has played in multiple bowl games without a loss– Two FBS schools are 1-0 in college football postseason play (Delaware and Sam Houston State), but the Bobcats of Texas State have played in three consecutive bowl games now and have won all three. On the other side of the ledger, there are three teams that are winless in bowl games, besides the forementioned schools have have never played in one (UMass, North Dakota State, and Sacramento State). Those winless bowl squads are: Charlotte (0-1), Missouri State, 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 58 seasons, but they have also lost seven straight postseason matchups in the process. The next longest bowl victory drought belongs to Colorado and that only dates back to 2004. UTEP’s current head coach Scotty Walden has generated some good vibes around the program in his first two seasons with the Miners, but the wins have yet to follow. This season UTEP makes a step up in the FBS ranks as they joined the revamped Mountain West conference. Can they somehow find a way to a bowl win in this new league?

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2. Indiana football has not beaten Michigan in Ann Arbor since 1967– The Hoosiers entered the 2026 in the midst of a ton of lengthy droughts that had been well-documented in this article before. Nevertheless, Curt Cignetti’s crew ended almost all of them last year en route to their incredible 16-0 national championship season! Still, Indiana did not play Michigan in 2025, so their epic losing streak in Ann Arbor, which extends to 22 games is still intact. This year they will have a chance to end this last great Hoosier football drought when they play at Michigan on November 22nd.

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1. Wake Forest has not beaten a Top 10 team since 1946– Throughout my 41 year old life as a sports fan (35 of which I have followed sports religiously), I have been obsessed with lengthy streaks and droughts by both teams and players across various sports. For multiple decades, I obsessed over the fact a 16 seed had never beaten a one seed in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament until UMBC finally broke through in 2017. In the 1990’s, I extensively followed Prairie View A & M”s record 80 game losing streak in football and then celebrated when it ended with a nail-biting 14-12 win over Langston in 1997. Later, I became riveted by both Great Britain’s drought at Wimbledon without a men’s singles champion, which extended 77 years, and the horse racing Triple Crown drought, which extended 37 years, until both were ended in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Now, my own alma mater, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, possess one of the most fascinating droughts in all of sports, which I have become enthralled with. At this point in time, every other Power 4 team in college football team has knocked off an AP top 10 team at some point since 2004…. except my Demon Deacons who haven’t done so since 1946, exactly 80 years ago! Wake, in fact, owns a 0-67 mark against Top 10 foes during that time period. In most of those matchups, the Demon Deacons were a college football doormat who didn’t stand a chance at knocking off a top 10 squad, but in the past two decades, Wake has had a resurgence in football that has led to two ACC divisional championships, one ACC conference championship, and 12 of the school’s 18 all-time bowl appearance. Nevertheless, they still cannot beat an elite college football opponent, home or away. The Deacs did come painstakingly close to ending this drought in 2022 when they fell in double overtime to fifth ranked Clemson. Since then, Wake has been blown out in their last two top ten matchups, falling to 4th ranked Florida State by 25 points in 2023 and to 5th ranked Ole Miss by 34 points in 2024. This season, they will almost certainly get a shot to knock off a top 10 opponent when they matchup at home against the Miami Hurricanes, the defending national runner-up, on Friday September 18th. The Deacs will almost certainly be heavy underdogs in this contest, but the Canes have lost games as a double-digit favorite in each of the past four seasons, including twice last year (vs. Louisville and at SMU). Can Wake catch the Canes sleepwalking again and end this epic drought? I will in attendance just in case it happpens!