Indiana, a national championship finalist, set a college football record for losses at 715 after a 27-17 defeat to Notre Dame in the first round of the 2024-25 playoffs. Since then, under Coach Curt Cignetti and Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza, the team has rebounded with 15 straight wins, keeping its loss total steady.
Meanwhile, in the same Big Ten conference, Northwestern entered 2025 trailing Indiana by three losses, holding at 712. As the Hoosiers extended their winning streak this season, the spotlight shifted to the Wildcats.
Northwestern stumbled late in the year, losing four of its last six games, and surpassed Indiana’s previous loss record by reaching 715 with a defeat at USC on Nov. 7. They ultimately dropped 6 games, finishing with 718 losses.
Northwestern Crept Its Way Into the NCAA Record Books With a 7–6 Campaign in 2025
Northwestern and Indiana have been playing college football for 138 years, and both have losing records heading into the 2025 season. The Hoosiers were 519-715-44 before the season started, while the Wildcats were 571-712-44.
David Braun’s men struggled in the first three weeks of the season, losing two of three games to Tulane and Oregon, leaving them one loss away from tying Indiana. They stopped the bleeding for a while, winning the next four against UCLA, Louisiana-Monroe, Penn State, and Purdue.
But they couldn’t avoid fate on Oct. 25 when they visited Nebraska, absorbing a 28-21 defeat that tied the Wildcats with Cignetti’s Hoosiers. The logjam for most losses lasted a week, as Northwestern had a bye before visiting USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
In front of 67,179 fans at the LA Memorial Coliseum, David Braun’s team could not escape history as Jayden Maiava pounded the Wildcats with a 24-of-33 effort for 299 yards and 2 TDs. At the same time, King Miller and Makai Lemon contributed with awesome performances of their own to lead the Trojans to a 38-17 win, handing Northwestern its 716th loss.
MORE: Jerry Neuheisel Sends 6-Word Message After Northwestern Football Announcement
Losses to Michigan (24-22) on Nov. 15 and Illinois (20-13)Â two weeks later gave the Wildcats 718 losses in 2025 and kept it there on Dec. 26 when they ended the season on a bright note, winning 34-7 over Central Michigan in the GameAbove Sports Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
With Northwestern part of the cutthroat Big Ten Conference, expect more losses to pile up and possibly pull away with second-place Indiana, as Cignetti keeps on building a college football dynasty with big NIL money in the program’s coffers for the coming seasons.
Big Ten Program Rutgers Follow Northwestern, Indiana in College Football’s Most Losses List
Aside from Northwestern and Indiana, the other college football program to reach 700 losses is Rutgers, with 708. The Scarlet Knights concluded the 2025 season at 5-7, dropping their all-time record to 686-708-42 over the program’s 156 years.
Wake Forest (698 losses), Kansas (694), New Mexico State (689), Iowa State (685), Kansas State (683), Tulane (680), and Vanderbilt (673) complete the Top 10 programs with the most losses in college football.
Rice (668), UMass (664), Kentucky (663), UTEP (655), and Virginia (653) are bubbling under the charts.
