The 9 Longest Winning Streaks In College Football History

The nature of college football makes sustaining success over multiple seasons much easier said than done (especially in the Transfer Portal Era), as teams have to deal with constant and inevitable roster churn on a yearly basis. However, the best programs figure out a way to roll with those punches—including those responsible for the longest winning streaks in the history of the sport.

College football has spawned some truly dominant teams responsible for some awe-inspiring runs, and there’s obviously no better way to build a dynasty than going on a lengthy winning streak.

Dozens of schools have managed to pull off an undefeated season, but there are some notable names that really stand out thanks to their ability to either do that multiple times in a row or post nearly spotless records on either end while racking up some of the longest winning streaks in college football history.

Oklahoma—47 Games

The legendary Bud Wilkinson instantly transformed Oklahoma into one of the best teams in the country when he was hired as their head coach in 1948, and the Sooners went on an absolute tear midway through the 1950s.

Oklahoma lost to top-ranked Notre Dame to kick off the season in 1953 and tied with Pitt the following week. However, a win over Texas in the Red River Showdown marked the start of an unreal run that saw the  Sooners win 47 games in a row while racking up two national championships in 1955 and 1956.

The team would have had four perfect seasons in a row if not for the loss to Notre Dame that ended that streak after a 7-0 start to the 1957 campaign, although they still finished at 10-1.

Washington—40

I doubt most people are familiar with Gil Dobie, but he did pretty well for himself during the nine seasons he spent as the head coach at Washington between 1908 and 1916.

How well? Well, the Huskies didn’t lose a single game with Dobie at the helm and actually rattled off a 58-game unbeaten streak due to the three ties they were forced to settle for during his tenure.

The first of those deadlocks transpired in the Apple Cup against Washington State in 1908, but they dispatched their next 40 opponents before the winning streak was technically snapped when they failed to score a single point against Oregon Agricultural in a 0-0 contest on Halloween in 1914.

North Dakota State—39

I initially set out to limit this list to FBS teams, but I feel like I need to give North Dakota State some credit where credit is due.

NDSU has been no stranger to success over the course of an existence stretching back to the end of the 19th century, but the program emerged as an absolute juggernaut in the 2010s; it’s won nine national championships since 2011, with eight of them coming in the span of nine years.

The Bison went 14-1 in 2017, as their lone loss was sandwiched between the eight games they won to start the year and the six victories they notched en route to securing a title.

That second stretch kicked off a 39-game winning streak that included two undefeated runs before it was snapped by Southern Illinois three games into the 2020 season.

I’m not going to devote an additional spot to the Bison, but it’s worth noting they also boast the second-longest streak in FCS history with the 33 consecutive games they won between 2012 and 2014 before beating their own record.

Toledo—35

Clive Rush only spent a single season at Toledo after becoming the first head coach of a program that got off the ground in 1962, and Frank Lauterbur struggled to get things clicking after taking over the following year.

Toledo went 11-27-1 during his first four seasons but staged a dramatic turnaround by going 9-1 in 1967. The Rockets regressed the following year but returned with a vengeance in 1969 with the 11-0 campaign that preceded a 12-0 showing to kick off the 1970s.

Lauterbur was subsequently hired at Iowa to kick off an ill-fated stint with the Hawkeyes, but Jack Murphy picked up where he left off by leading Toledo to their third undefeated season in a row.

However, the streak ended at 35 when they lost to Tampa to open up the year in 1972 to kick off a 6-5 season that firmly marked the end of an era for a team that has never come close to matching that stretch.

Miami—34

Miami transformed into a perennial contender when Jimmy Johnson took over in the 1980s, and it was largely able to sustain that success until the Larry Coker Era came to an end shortly after the turn of the millennium.

This winning streak began during Butch Davis’ final year as the coach of the Hurricanes in 2000, as Miami rattled off 10 wins in a row after losing to Washington in Week 2.

Coker went undefeated and secured a national championship during his inaugural season in 2001, but the streak ended when Ohio State handed them a loss while securing a title of its own with a 31-24 double-overtime victory in the Fiesta Bowl the following year.

USC—34

It seemed like USC would end up regretting the decision to hire Pete Carroll when the former NFL coach led the Trojans to a 6-6 record during his first year in 2001.

However, it quickly became very clear they made the right call.

USC went 11-2 in 2002 and improved on that record the following year with a 12-1 season that ended with the Trojans winning a split national championship after bouncing back from a loss against Cal with a nine-game winning streak.

There was no controversy on the title front the following year thanks to USC’s spotless 13-0 season, and the Trojans almost pulled off the threepeat before their loss to Texas in their legendary Rose Bowl showdown brought the streak to an end.

This does deserve an asterisk, as 14 of the wins were officially vacated due to the Reggie Bush scandal, but that’s not going to stop me from including them.

Pitt—31

As was the case with Washington, this streak is fairly ancient history, as Pitt kicked it off all the way back in 1914 with a win over Carnegie Tech in its second-to-last game of the season.

In 1915, the legendary Pop Warner replaced Joseph Duff as head coach, and the Panthers subsequently went 8-0 two years in a row before going 9-0 in 1917.

They won the first four games of a 1918 season that was shortened due to the Spanish flu pandemic, but the streak—and year—came to an end with a loss to Cleveland Naval Reserve.

Oklahoma—31

Oklahoma is making its second appearance on this list thanks to what transpired just a few years before it went on the aforementioned tear that led to them ending up at the top.

Bud Wilkinson was also responsible for this one, as he lost his first game as head coach in 1948 before the Sooners had a spotless finish to the season and finished at 10-1.

Oklahoma won every single one of the 11 games they played the following year and was 10-0 heading into the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in 1951 before the streak ended with a 13-7 loss to Kentucky.

Texas—30

Darrell Royal is largely responsible for making Texas a force to be reckoned with after he was hired in 1957, and he won three national championships during a 20-year run where the Longhorns never posted a losing record.

Two of those titles were secured during the winning streak that began three weeks into the 1968 season that ended with Texas finishing at 9-1-1. They went 11-0 the following year to win their first championship and got off to a 10-0 start in 1970 before Notre Dame spoiled the streak with a 24-11 win in the Sugar Bowl (the Longhorns still won the UPI Poll and split the title with Ohio State and Nebraska).

I’m making 30 wins the cutoff point for this list, but it’s worth noting five teams—Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, and Michigan—all won 29 games in a row at one point.