Which fans have been waiting the longest to celebrate a conference title? Here are the teams with the longest droughts in each college football conference.
Programs like Alabama, Ohio State, and Oklahoma are perennial conference contenders. Not every school, though, can be a powerhouse. Every conference has its group of teams that are rarely in the hunt for the championship. Once in a blue moon the school will contend for the league title, but even in those instances the usual storyline is one where the team falls just short. (Think, for instance, of Kansas in 2007.)
We often reward excellence, but don’t always acknowledge the loyalty through long years of suffering. This post is for the fans who have stuck by their teams through one lean season after another. Today we take a look at which team has been waiting the longest for a conference championship in each FBS league.
To determine which team has suffered the longest championship drought in each current conference, we assessed date of last title for all current FBS teams. This included titles won in conferences other than a team’s current league. This was also based on chronology, so teams that have never won a championship were considered based on the first year of play for the program.
Click ahead to learn which fan base has been waiting the longest to celebrate another league championship in each conference.
American Athletic Conference
Longest Drought: SMU Mustangs (Last title: 1984 in SWC)
In the early 1980s, SMU was one of the most dynamic teams in the country. Under Ron Meyer and Bobby Collins, the Mustangs won three Southwest Conference titles between 1981 and 1984. Each year, Southern Methodist was in the hunt for the national title.
Most know what happened next, as it was revealed that the Mustangs had been operating a payroll for their players. The NCAA came down hard, issuing the only death penalty ever given to a football team. More than three decades later, SMU is still trying to recover from the two seasons when its program was shuttered.
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After the SWC collapsed, SMU spent time in the WAC and in Conference USA before moving to the American in 2013. In the time since the team’s last conference title, the Mustangs had a four-year stretch of bowl appearances between 2009 and 2012. That serves as the high-water mark at this point for a program that is still looking for its next conference championship.
Honorable Mentions
- Navy Midshipmen: The Midshipmen have never won a conference championship. That, of course, is largely due to the fact that they long operated as an independent program in football. Navy have only played two seasons in the American, so their drought is technically not all that long.
- South Florida Bulls: The Bulls played their first season in 1997 in the I-AA ranks. They joined Conference USA in 2003, and two years later moved on to the Big East. South Florida came closest to winning a championship in 2007, but have never finished higher than third in a given season.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Longest Drought: N.C. State Wolfpack (Last title: 1979)
Upon leaving the Southern Conference to become a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953, NC State was not always an afterthought in football. The Wolfpack won their first ACC championship in 1957, and followed up with four titles during the 1960s. They won again in 1973 after Lou Holtz took over for Al Michaels as coach.
The two-decade run of success also included a seventh ACC title at the end of the 1970s when Bo Rein led the Wolfpack to the 1979 crown. NC State’s only conference loss during that season came against state rival North Carolina. Though they also fell to Auburn, South Carolina, and Penn State in non-conference play, the Wolfpack did enough to take the conference championship.
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Since that championship season, NC State finished second in league play in 1986, 1991, and 1994. Under Chuck Amato they went 11-3 in 2002, but that was good enough for only fourth in the ACC standings. The Wolfpack came close to playing for an ACC title under Tom O’Brien in 2010, but finished a game behind Florida State.
Honorable Mentions
- North Carolina Tar Heels: North Carolina’s last ACC championship came one year after their intrastate rival. At this point UNC fans have gone nearly four decades without celebrating a football title. At least they’ve had plenty of basketball success in that period to drown out their sorrows.
- Duke Blue Devils: Duke has made great strides in recent years, playing in several ACC championship games. But the Blue Devils have not broken through for a conference title since Steve Spurrier led the team to a crown in 1989.
Big Ten
Longest Drought: Indiana Hoosiers, Minnesota Golden Gophers (Last title: 1967)
It was a strange season for the Big Ten in 1967. That year, Indiana and Minnesota shared the Big Ten championship with Purdue after all three teams finished with a 6-1 record in league play. The trio all finished a game ahead of Ohio State in the standings. For the Hoosiers and Gophers, it would be their last time atop the Big Ten for the next half-century.
Indiana ended up representing the conference in the Rose Bowl, where they lost 14-3 to top-ranked USC. The Hoosiers had opened the year with an eight-game winning streak. The run came to an end on November 18, when Indiana fell 33-7 at Minnesota. They recovered to beat Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket and a trip to Pasadena after a 9-1 regular season.
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Minnesota, meanwhile, missed out on the bowl invitation largely because of a September loss to Nebraska. The Gophers won five straight after falling 7-0 in Lincoln to the Cornhuskers, including shutouts of Michigan State and Iowa. But they fell 41-12 at Purdue on Nov. 11, blemishing their Big Ten record and preventing them from an outright crown.
Since sharing the 1967 championship, both Indiana and Minnesota have fallen hard. Neither team has finished in the top two of the Big Ten standings since that point. The Gophers have crept into the top three on a small handful of occasions, while the Hoosiers have become regular cellar dwellers in the league.
Honorable Mention
- Nebraska Cornhuskers: For such a storied program, it is wild to realize that Nebraska has not won a conference championship in the 21st century. The last title for the Cornhuskers came in 1999 while they were still a member of the Big 12. They have played in both the Big 12 and Big Ten championship games but come up short each time.
Big 12
Longest Drought: Iowa State Cyclones (Last title: 1912)
No FBS school has been suffering without a conference championship longer than Iowa State. They are the only school whose title drought extends for more than a century at this point. The Cyclones won the second of their back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference (the precursor to the Big 6, Big 7 and Big 8) crowns in 1912.
The 1912 title marked the last year of head coach Clyde Williams’ five seasons in Ames. Iowa State lost their season opener against Minnesota. The Cyclones rebounded to rattle off five straight wins before suffering another loss against rival Iowa. Concluding the season with a 23-3 win over Drake, then an MVIAA member, Iowa State ensured that they would end the year atop the league standings.
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But they did not finish there alone. In both 1911 and 1912, Iowa State had to share the title with Nebraska. As such, Iowa State has never won an outright conference championship in the 125 years that its football program has existed.
Honorable Mentions
- Kansas Jayhawks: The Jayhawks, as mentioned in the introduction, were pipped by rival Missouri in the 2007 Big 12 North race. If not for Iowa State they’d easily lead the rest of the Big 12 in terms of the title drought. Kansas last won a championship when they earned the Big 8 title in 1968.
- Texas Tech Red Raiders: The Red Raiders are the only other Big 12 team besides Iowa State and Kansas that has not won a conference championship in the 21st century. Texas Tech last celebrated a title in 1994, when they won a share of the SWC race. They missed out on a chance to play in the 2008 Big 12 championship game after losing a BCS standings tiebreaker to Oklahoma.
Conference USA
Longest Drought: UAB Blazers (Last title: none)
A few years ago, UAB’s football program was shut down by the board of trustees of the University of Alabama System. The public outcry that ensued eventually led the Blazers to regain their football team, which returns to the field this season after a two-year hiatus. Now that the program has a new lease on life, UAB now turns its attention toward winning a first championship.
It is important to note that UAB has fielded a football team only since 1991. They began as a Division III independent and moved quickly through the divisions during the 1990s. In 1999, they affiliated with Conference USA after moving up to the I-A level. Under head coach Watson Brown, the Blazers finished their first year of conference play in a tie for second in the C-USA standings.
Five years later, the Blazers came in second place yet again in 2004. It would prove to be the closest they have yet come to winning a championship. Since C-USA split into two divisions in 2005, UAB has finished no higher than third in the division standings. Their best finish came in 2014, but any momentum that might have built up was severed by the initial decision to close down the program.
Honorable Mentions
- UTEP Miners: The Miners have only been a member of Conference USA since 2005. Before that, they played in the now-defunct Western Athletic Conference. As a member of the WAC, UTEP won its last championship in 2000. Since winning that championship, the Miners have been to just five bowl games and lost all five.
- North Texas Mean Green: Between 2001 and 2004, North Texas won four straight Sun Belt championships under head coach Darrell Dickey. Things fell off soon thereafter, and the Mean Green have been struggling to come anywhere near those highs since. Now in Conference USA, North Texas has finished with a winning record just once since winning its last championship.
Mid-American Conference
Longest Drought: Ohio Bobcats (Last title: 1968)
The Mid-American Conference is currently the only conference in the FBS where every current member has won the league. That makes Ohio the MAC team that is suffering the longest title drought. The Bobcats are rapidly approaching the half-century mark since they last celebrated a MAC title.
That last championship came in 1968 under head coach Bill Hess, right in the middle of his 20-year tenure at the school. That year the Bobcats went 10-0 in the regular season and won their six conference games by an average of 16 points. Their high-powered offense was third nationally in scoring as they put up 38 points per game. The 1968 title capped a period where Ohio won four MAC titles during the 1960s under Hess.
The Bobcats have come close in the years since. After taking over Ohio in 2005, Frank Solich has put the Bobcats in position to end their drought. Ohio won the MAC East in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2016, but lost all four times in the MAC championship game in Detroit. They came close in their most recent appearance, but ultimately fell 29-23 to undefeated Western Michigan.
Honorable Mentions
- Kent State Golden Flashes: Kent State won its last MAC championship just four years after Ohio’s last crown. The Golden Flashes played in Detroit for the conference title in 2012, but lost to Jordan Lynch and Northern Illinois in double overtime. This year marks 35 years of drought for the program.
- Eastern Michigan Eagles: The Eagles won the 1987 MAC title and were invited to their first bowl game in the program’s history. Last year, Eastern Michigan played in its second bowl game in school history. In between, they have suffered through nearly three decades of barren seasons.
Mountain West Conference
Longest Drought: San Jose State Spartans (Last title: 1991)
The Mountain West is a rather modern creation. Born in 1999 after the defection of eight longtime WAC members, the MWC has been one of the premier mid-major conferences since its formation. It offered the first BCS Buster when Utah won the 2005 Fiesta Bowl over Pitt. But the league has also seen its membership turn over as Utah and TCU made the leap to Power Five conferences and BYU went independent.
It is now the last available home for teams that have bounced around various mid-major western conferences that have existed over the years. One such team is San Jose State, which is the MWC member with the longest current championship drought. The Spartans won their last title in 1991, when they were a member of the Big West. That proved to be the end of a 17-year stretch beginning in 1975 where San Jose State won eight PCAA/Big West titles.
The Spartans finished second in the Big West standings the following year, and have struggled to approach that level ever since. After moving to the WAC in 1994, San Jose State would not finish second again until their final season in the WAC in 2012. Once that conference dissolved its football sponsorship, the Spartans have failed to finish above .500 in any of the past five years.
Honorable Mentions
- Wyoming Cowboys: Last year the Cowboys played San Diego State for the Mountain West championship. That appearance came twenty years after Wyoming played BYU in the inaugural version of the short-lived WAC championship game. They haven’t celebrated a football championship in Laramie since the 1993 WAC title.
- UNLV Rebels: The Rebels can celebrate the fact that the relocation of the Raiders to Las Vegas will provide a new space for the college program to play. Perhaps titles, which have been nonexistent since UNLV shared the WAC championship in 1994, will follow with the move.
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.
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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.
SEC
Longest Drought: Vanderbilt Commodores (Last title: 1923)
The SEC’s slew of national titles during the BCS era was concentrated in the hands of a few schools. Since expanding to 12 teams and hosting its first conference championship game in 1992, the SEC has been rather exclusive at the top. Alabama and Florida have each won seven of those 25 titles. LSU, Auburn, Tennessee, and Georgia are the only other teams to win a championship over that period.
That means a half-dozen fan bases have been suffering for quite some time. One, though, stands out as the only charter member of the SEC to have never won the conference. Vanderbilt left the Southern Conference in 1932 to help form the SEC. They had been a Southern Conference powerhouse under Dan McGugin, winning 11 conference championships between 1904 and 1923.
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They were still a contender after 1923, but never could quite break through in either their old or new league. Vanderbilt came close to winning the SEC in 1935, finishing a half-game behind LSU. The Commodores went 5-0-0 in 1943, but the SEC did not play league schedules during World War II. Since the resumption of SEC play in 1946, Vanderbilt has finished above .500 in league games just four times.
Honorable Mentions
- Mississippi State Bulldogs: Mississippi State debuted atop the inaugural College Football Playoff standings in October 2014. It was the closest the Bulldogs would come to winning the conference since they lost to Tennessee in the 1998 SEC championship game. As of now, Mississippi State still has won just one conference title in its history, earned by the 1941 team that went 8-1-1.
- Ole Miss Rebels: The Rebels have spent more than five decades pining for another conference championship. Ole Miss nearly played for the SEC championship in 2003, but a 17-14 loss at home to LSU served as the tiebreaker to determine who faced Georgia that year. On only one occasion prior to the 1992 expansion did Ole Miss finish second in the league standings.
Sun Belt
Longest Drought: New Mexico State Aggies (Last title: 1978)
The Sun Belt has seen plenty of turnover since the league began sponsoring football in 2001. Former champions like Middle Tennessee and North Texas have moved on to Conference USA. So too has a current Group of Five sensation, Western Kentucky. That opened the door for other schools to come in from both the FCS ranks and as a lifeline as conferences realigned over the first decade of the 21st century.
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New Mexico State fits into that latter camp. They have been rather transient over the years, and their last conference championship came four realignments ago.
In 1978, the year of the Aggies’ last football championship, they were playing in the Missouri Valley Conference before it stopped sponsoring football. Beginning in 1983 they moved to the Big West. The Sun Belt provided a lifeline in 2001 when the Big West stopped sponsoring the sport, but the Aggies bolted for the WAC in 2005.
When the WAC dissolved football eight years later, the Aggies came crawling back to the Sun Belt. This, however, is their last season in the league before they are sent off into an independent future. Unless the team pulls off an upset championship this season, it could be a long time before New Mexico State breaks its title drought.
Honorable Mentions
- Idaho Vandals: Like New Mexico State, Idaho is also about to leave the Sun Belt after 2017. In their case, however, the Vandals are actually transitioning back down to the FCS and joining the Big Sky. So, if Idaho does not earn a share of this year’s Sun Belt title, their next conference championship will likely come in the lower subdivision.
- ULM Warhawks: Louisiana-Monroe transitioned to I-A football in 1994 but spent its first seven seasons as an independent. After joining the Sun Belt in 2001, the Warhawks earned a share of the conference championship in 2005 with a 5-2 league record. But they lost all four non-conference games that year to finish 5-6 overall, and have gone bowling just once since the move to the FBS.
Who has suffered through the longest conference championship drought in the FBS? Read more at @SaturdayBlitz: https://t.co/BTR35DJIse pic.twitter.com/duANXOCLwp
— Zach Bigalke (@zbigalke) June 12, 2017
Next: NFL Mock Draft 2018: Way-too-early edition
There you have it, the longest droughts for each conference’s title.