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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/e8odie on 2024-01-10 17:36:21.
This is a very simple proposition: What is each team’s best and worst cumulative records over any 20 year span?
Some clarifications:
- I initially semi-arbitrarily started looking in 1920 because most teams had at least close to 20 seasons, but in the cases where they hadn’t I did adjust when the window for them started until the first year they actually had 20 seasons to work with. It’s possible I wasn’t 100% accurate in this but, while I’ll edit this if I find errors, I think I got most of it. For context, for all but 11 programs this includes over 100 20-year-spans, and 8 of those 11 still have 80 such windows to look at – so significant enough in terms of data. Really the only schools that are truly limited in this manner are: Houston (minimally limited), Florida State (minimally limited), and UCF (quite limited).
- In the few cases where a team had the same cumulative win percentage in adjacent years, I just chose the most recent year.
- This is based on current definition of “P5” so obviously doesn’t mean they had that qualification the entire time.
| team | best 20 yr span | end year | worst 20 yr span | end year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notre Dame Notre Dame | 85.88% | 1926 | 60.24% | 2016 |
| Ohio State Ohio State | 85.71% | 2021 | 61.64% | 1940 |
| Nebraska Nebraska | 85.54% | 2001 | 35.42% | 1961 |
| Alabama Alabama | 84.42% | 1980 | 57.29% | 1958 |
| Miami Miami | 83.82% | 2004 | 45.02% | 1977 |
| Florida State Florida State | 82.59% | 2004 | 47.42% | 1976 |
| Penn State Penn State | 82.55% | 1986 | 51.45% | 1941 |
| Oklahoma Oklahoma | 82.20% | 1990 | 48.52% | 1937 |
| Tennessee Tennessee | 82.01% | 1945 | 51.57% | 1920 |
| Washington Washington | 80.67% | 1927 | 46.52% | 1958 |
| Arizona State Arizona State | 80.57% | 1975 | 41.26% | 1947 |
| Michigan Michigan | 79.52% | 1920 | 56.45% | 1968 |
| USC USC | 79.46% | 1933 | 57.43% | 1953 |
| Florida Florida | 79.22% | 2009 | 39.57% | 1950 |
| Texas Texas | 78.38% | 1978 | 58.82% | 1940 |
| Georgia Georgia | 77.90% | 2023 | 51.90% | 1968 |
| Pittsburgh Pittsburgh | 77.53% | 1934 | 39.11% | 1972 |
| LSU LSU | 77.39% | 2019 | 51.00% | 1957 |
| Minnesota Minnesota | 76.40% | 1920 | 36.77% | 1998 |
| Clemson Clemson | 76.12% | 2023 | 43.20% | 1926 |
| BYU BYU | 76.08% | 1996 | 31.77% | 1964 |
| Texas A&M Texas A&M | 75.60% | 1921 | 36.14% | 1966 |
| Vanderbilt Vanderbilt | 75.58% | 1922 | 25.68% | 2004 |
| Ole Miss Ole Miss | 75.12% | 1971 | 40.34% | 1934 |
| Virginia Tech Virginia Tech | 75.00% | 2012 | 36.93% | 1952 |
| Arizona Arizona | 75.00% | 1921 | 42.92% | 2021 |
| Georgia Tech Georgia Tech | 74.29% | 1922 | 44.44% | 1995 |
| Oregon Oregon | 73.81% | 2014 | 35.10% | 1984 |
| TCU TCU | 73.41% | 2017 | 26.05% | 1983 |
| Michigan State Michigan State | 73.12% | 1966 | 47.25% | 1986 |
| Wisconsin Wisconsin | 72.90% | 2017 | 37.74% | 1982 |
| Arkansas Arkansas | 72.52% | 1979 | 40.10% | 1953 |
| California California | 72.14% | 1938 | 36.41% | 1973 |
| Duke Duke | 71.58% | 1952 | 21.83% | 2011 |
| Auburn Auburn | 70.95% | 1972 | 40.84% | 1952 |
| Syracuse Syracuse | 70.86% | 1934 | 38.84% | 2021 |
| Utah Utah | 70.81% | 1941 | 42.48% | 1990 |
| Boston College Boston College | 70.27% | 1942 | 43.97% | 1920 |
| Illinois Illinois | 70.27% | 1929 | 34.73% | 2021 |
| Virginia Virginia | 69.70% | 1920 | 31.25% | 1977 |
| UCLA UCLA | 69.33% | 1988 | 45.88% | 1938 |
| Kansas State Kansas State | 67.87% | 2012 | 21.11% | 1966 |
| Oklahoma State Oklahoma State | 67.58% | 2021 | 40.30% | 1968 |
| Stanford Stanford | 67.16% | 1942 | 43.65% | 1963 |
| Kansas Kansas | 67.07% | 1921 | 30.54% | 2021 |
| Louisville Louisville | 66.67% | 2017 | 33.58% | 1946 |
| Colorado Colorado | 66.53% | 2004 | 36.51% | 2023 |
| Kentucky Kentucky | 66.47% | 1922 | 36.89% | 1975 |
| Iowa Iowa | 66.01% | 2021 | 30.73% | 1980 |
| Cincinnati Cincinnati | 66.01% | 2022 | 36.20% | 1998 |
| Iowa State Iowa State | 65.84% | 1921 | 32.73% | 1998 |
| West Virginia West Virginia | 65.59% | 2012 | 46.60% | 1946 |
| Rutgers Rutgers | 64.97% | 1977 | 31.53% | 2004 |
| Houston Houston | 64.29% | 1984 | 38.67% | 2004 |
| Washington State Washington State | 64.17% | 1920 | 35.07% | 1980 |
| Missouri Missouri | 62.99% | 1927 | 34.82% | 2002 |
| Maryland Maryland | 62.50% | 1964 | 43.27% | 1975 |
| SMU SMU | 62.32% | 1941 | 26.11% | 2008 |
| Texas Tech Texas Tech | 62.25% | 2013 | 45.50% | 1962 |
| North Carolina North Carolina | 62.11% | 1940 | 38.19% | 1969 |
| Purdue Purdue | 61.90% | 1945 | 36.76% | 1925 |
| Mississippi State Mississippi State | 61.08% | 1954 | 30.58% | 1977 |
| UCF UCF | 59.61% | 2023 | 51.82% | 1999 |
| NC State North Carolina State | 58.87% | 1920 | 35.94% | 1940 |
| South Carolina South Carolina | 58.17% | 2019 | 42.92% | 1978 |
| Baylor Baylor | 57.30% | 1939 | 36.24% | 2009 |
| Oregon State Oregon State | 56.98% | 1944 | 17.65% | 1992 |
| Northwestern Northwestern | 56.10% | 1943 | 16.82% | 1994 |
| Wake Forest Wake Forest | 53.37% | 1955 | 25.96% | 1921 |
| Indiana Indiana | 52.74% | 1920 | 27.47% | 1966 |
Tidbits & trends:
- For not being a blue blood, people often forget how consistent Arizona State is, including them being in the top 20 in all-time win percentage among all P5 programs. That said, I was still a little surprised to see that their best 20 year span was better than those of some serious programs in Michigan, USC, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and LSU - all teams above the Sun Devils in overall win percentage. I didn’t know this name before doing this, but the Frank Kush era was sweet.
- The worst ‘best 20 year span’ is Indiana with only ~53% of games won, and even that was over 100 years ago. (You’re welcome, Boilermakers)
- Georgia, Clemson, and UCF are the only teams currently in their best 20 year span. Whereas a ton of teams are about as far removed from their best as possible: Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington State, North Carolina State, Indiana, Texas A&M, Arizona, Kansas, and Iowa State.
- The state of Florida was more ridiculous than I think most of us realize from 1990-2004, with all of Florida, Florida State, and Miami being in their best spans at the same time.
- Expectedly, the blue bloods are still atop the list of teams with the best ‘worst 20 year span,’ with Ohio State and Notre Dame topping the list having never won fewer than 60% of their games in any 20 year span. Sickening.
- On the other end of the spectrum, kudos to Northwestern and all their tens of fans for surviving 1974-1994 and still maintaining a football program despite winning just 16.8% of their games.
- Georgia Tech managed to win a national championship in 1990 despite being in the middle of their worst 20-year span in. (Thanks to u/Wizard_Scotch for pointing this one out, as I didn’t even think to cross reference best/worst spans with national championships).
- Maryland has the most impressive gap between their best and worst spans, with only 11 years separating them. Yep, you read that right, with their worst span coming second, 9 of the years in their worst-20 are also a part of their best-20. After 3 10-win seasons in the 5 years before '55 (including a championship) and then 7 consecutive losing seasons from '65-'71, I guess that’ll do that.