Tag: All time wins

Wisconsin among winningest college football programs without national championship

Wisconsin among most wins of any college football program without national championship

The Wisconsin football program has been the model of consistent success over the last few decades.

The program has qualified for 22 consecutive bowl games, the third-longest active streak behind only Georgia and Oklahoma. It has experienced only two losing seasons (2001, 1995) since Barry Alvarez’s initial breakthrough in 1993.

Related: Full recap of power rankings for every Big Ten football position group entering 2024 season

Wisconsin has achieved that consistent success with a few peak seasons including a 12-1 mark in 2006, 11-2 in 2010, 11-3 in 2011 and 13-1 in 2017. But none of those breakthrough years have included a College Football Playoff appearance.

The Badgers have been either good or really-good in nearly every season over the last 30 years. The program has not, however, had a truly ‘great’ season. It has been unable to reach national title contention.

That leads us into a look at the context surrounding Wisconsin’s steady success but lack of top-end breakthrough. The Badgers are toward the top of the list of FBS programs with the most all-time wins without a claimed national championship (all win numbers via Wikipedia):

Where does Nebraska stand in all-time wins among Big Ten teams?

The Big Ten has some hefty totals in all-time program wins!

On May 20, 1949, the Michigan State Spartans joined what was then known as the Big Nine Conference and adopted the Big Ten moniker as we know it today. The conference would remain unchanged for 40 years, and then in 1990, it would accept the membership of football independent Penn State. The conference would look into adding teams like Missouri and Kansas in the mid-90s as the Big Eight would transition to the Big 12. They even talked to Notre Dame in 1999 about joining the conference full-time, but those talks failed partly due to the Irish’s desire to retain their independent home broadcast contract.

The expansion would not occur until July 1, 2011, when the University of Nebraska applied and was approved for membership. Fun fact, this was the third time that Nebraska had applied for Big Ten membership as they first petitioned in 1900 and 1911 but were denied both times. However, the third time is a charm. Further expansion would occur in July 2014 as Maryland and Rutgers joined as the 13th and 14th member schools.

The list below looks at the all-time records for each school’s football program. Even with their struggles, Nebraska features prominently on the list.

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