Each week in college football presents unique challenges. Between player availability, travel and other unpredictable elements, winning is difficult. Winning multiple games in a row is even harder.
Throughout college football history, only 11 teams have accomplished a winning streak of at least 30 games.
47 games - Oklahoma (1953-1957)
Under head coach Bud Wilkinson, Oklahoma opened the 1953 season with a 28-21 loss to No. 1 Notre Dame. The Sooners then played unranked Pitt to a 7-7 tie. Oklahoma went the next 1,505 days without a loss, winning the national championship in 1955 and 1956. The streak came to an end in the eighth game of the 1957 season, in another showdown against the Fighting Irish. The Sooners fell to the Irish 7-0.
40 games - Washington (1908-1914)
Gil Dobie compiled an unbeaten 58-0-3 record as Washington's head coach from 1908 to 1916. Forty of those wins came consecutively between the 1908 and 1914 seasons. The Huskies' streak surpassed Yale's dominant teams in the late 19th century for the longest winning streak in college football history at the time.
37 games - Yale (1887-1889; 1890-1893)
Winning more than 31 games in a row is impressive. Doing it twice is flat-out improbable. Yale is the only team in college football history to do it. The Bulldogs ended the 1889 season with a 10-0 loss to mutually unbeaten Princeton, snapping their 37-game winning streak. After suffering a 12-6 defeat to Harvard the following year, Yale rattled off another 37 straight wins before again ending the season with a loss (6-0) to an undefeated Princeton squad on Nov. 30, 1893. Yale went 226-13-12 from 1872 to the end of the 19th century (28 seasons). That's a win percentage of .924.
35 games - Toledo (1969-1971)
Toledo recorded three straight perfect seasons from 1969 to 1971. Starting quarterback Chuck Ealey passed for 5,000 yards and 42 touchdowns in the three seasons. The first two seasons came under coach Frank Lauterbur. Lauterbur then left for Iowa following the 1970 campaign. The Rockets kept it rolling under Jack Murphy, going 12-0 in 1971.
34 games - Miami (Fla.) (2000-2002)
While Georgia racked up 29 straight wins from 2021 to 2023, Miami is the only school to string together 30 wins this millennium. The Hurricanes' streak started under coach Butch Davis and continued with Larry Coker, who led the team to a national championship in 2001. That squad featured 17 first-round NFL draft picks, including future Pro Football Hall of Famers Ed Reed and Andre Johnson.
34 games - Penn (1894-1896)
The Heisman Trophy is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. The trophy is named after John Heisman. Heisman's alma mater, Penn, ran college football's top division in the late 19th century, compiling a .893 win percentage (124-14-2) from 1890-99. The Quakers had two straight perfect seasons in 1894 and 1895 and a 14-1 campaign in 1896 to string together 34 consecutive victories.
31 games - Pitt (1914-1918)
The Pitt Panthers won 31 straight games beginning in 1914 under coach Joseph Duff and ending under coach Pop Warner in 1918. The streak included three national championships (1915, 1916 and 1918). Pitt's run began with back-to-back wins over Carnegie Tech and Penn State in November 1914 and ended with a 10-9 loss at Cleveland Naval Reserve that was heavily disputed by Warner. "We were robbed outright, and that is all there is to it," he said. "I can take a beating when it is fairly administered, as well as anyone, but I never liked to be cheated, and Pitt was certainly cheated at Cleveland. There was no attempt at fairness on the part of the officials. We hadn't a chance in the world."
31 games - Oklahoma (1948-1950)
Before posting its record 47-game win streak from 1953 to 1957, Oklahoma strung together 31 straight victories the previous decade. Wilkinson's Sooners went 145-29-4 from 1947 to 1963, winning the national title in 1950, 1955 and 1956.
31 games - Penn (1896-1898)
After a 6-4 loss to Lafayette in October 1896, Penn won its next 31 games. The Quakers' combined record during their two 30-plus-game winning streaks was 67-2-0 over a five-year span.
30 games - Texas (1968-1970)
Darrell Royal led Texas to 30 straight wins in the late-1960s, beginning with a 31-3 victory over Oklahoma State on Oct. 5, 1968. The Longhorns' wishbone offense led to back-to-back national championships in 1969 and 1970 and wins in the 1969 and 1970 Cotton Bowls against Tennessee and Notre Dame. The Irish got their revenge, snapping Texas' streak 24-11 on Jan. 1, 1971 in the Cotton Bowl.
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