College football’s longest active conference title droughts
By Zach Bigalke
Pac-12
Longest Drought: Arizona Wildcats (Last title: 1993)
Aside from recent additions Colorado and Utah, Arizona is the only member from the Pac-10 days who has not played in the Rose Bowl. The Wildcats won a share of the conference championship in 1993, but UCLA earned the invitation to play Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl that year. Arizona went 6-2 in league play, tied not only with the Bruins but also USC.
In the longer history, Arizona fans have suffered with regularity. Before that shared 1993 championship, the Wildcats’ last title came two decades earlier when they were still a member of the WAC. The greatest period of success for Arizona came in the 1930s and early 1940s, when they won four Border Conference titles prior to the formation of the WAC.
Related Story: Pac-12 Football: 5 most important 2017 non-conference games
There have been chances to win in the Pac-10 and the expanded Pac-12. Arizona finished with a 12-1 in 1998, but the lone loss to UCLA relegated the Wildcats to second in the league. They tied for second in the league in 2009, and won the Pac-12 South with a 10-win regular season in 2014. But the Wildcats have failed to clear the final hurdle over the past two decades and counting.
Honorable Mentions
- UCLA Bruins: It seems odd for such a storied program to have one of the Pac-12’s longest suffering fan bases, but UCLA has not won the conference since 1998. The Bruins did play in the first two Pac-12 championship games after league expansion. But they lost to Oregon by 18 in 2011 and by three to Stanford in 2012.
- Oregon State Beavers: Oregon State has been forced to watch as its state rival in Eugene has won multiple conference championships in the 21st century. The Beavers last took the Pac-10 title in 2000. They had a chance in 2008 to play in the Rose Bowl for the first time in 44 years, but a 65-38 blowout in the Civil War sent the Ducks to Pasadena instead.