Boise State--11th Best Home Mark Since 1940

The mystifying magic of the Blue Turf continues in Boise, Idaho. Since 1999, Boise State has compiled a 54-2 record on the Blue and continues to climb the ladder of elite college football teams with their home record.

Last year, BroncoCountry broke the story that, with a win over Hawai’i in 2006, Boise State became just the tenth team since 1940 and the 28^th in the history of college football to compile a 50-game home record of 48-2 or better.  The Broncos began the streak in the 1999 season, reeling off 14 wins in a row on the Blue Turf before a loss to Washington State in 2001.  Following that defeat, Boise State accumulated one of the top home winning streaks in college football history with 31 in a row until a season-ending defeat to Boston College in the 2005 MPC Computers Bowl.   

With its 38-16 win over Southern Mississippi last Thursday, the Broncos are now 54-2 in Bronco Stadium since 1999 and continue to confront the history books.  That 54-2 home record is now the 11^th best home mark since 1940 and 31^st in the history of college football.  Further, since three each of Alabama, Michigan and Miami’s streaks are essentially the same and two Washington teams of the early 1900’s are listed, the Bronco teams from 1999 to the present rank behind five college football dynasties since 1940 and 23 in history.  There are only 16 schools with a better home mark than Boise State and they do not include such distinguished names as Texas, USC, LSU, Penn State, Ohio State, UCLA, Georgia, Arkansas, Auburn or Oklahoma.  

It was mentioned above that Boise State ranks behind just five college football dynasties since 1940 for their home record of 54-2.  Those are Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami of Florida and Nebraska.   Alabama was awarded six national championships during their run.  Miami and Nebraska were crowned three times each during their heyday.  Florida State picked up national titles in 1993 and 1999.  Florida was awarded the national championship in 1996 during their run.  Boise State is the only school in that group that has not been awarded a national championship; this despite being the nation’s only undefeated team last season.  Even the seven schools with worse home records than Boise State have been awarded national championships, including Harvard in 1898 and 1899 and Pennsylvania in 1895.  Nevertheless, it is only logical to conclude that it is coming soon, since every school with that long of a successful run has won the national title.

If the Broncos are fortunate enough to win four more home games in a row, they would pass up six of the teams listed below and tie with Miami of Florida for the 25^th best 60-game home record in college football history and the ninth best since 1920.  In the process, Boise State would surpass the best-ever efforts from elite programs such as Washington, Florida and Tennessee.

The most amazing three-loss home streak took place from 1869-1902, when the Princeton Tigers reeled off an unbelievable 133-3-1 record.  Yale’s teams from 1879-1899 nearly matched that feat, going 133-3-2.  The modern record belongs to Alabama, which went 84-3 from 1957 to 1986.  The Crimson Tide, however, played only selected games at their home stadium during that period.  The best home mark for a team that played a full slate of games each year at their home field belongs to Nebraska—the Cornhuskers were 75-3 from 1991-2002.  Nebraska also happens to be the last team prior to Boise State to achieve such a high level of home-field success.

Included in Boise State’s 54-2 record is a 3-2 mark against schools from Bowl Championship Series conferences, including a 3-1 record in the last five years. Boise State is 2-1 against Pac-10 teams, 1-0 vs. Big-12 teams, 0-1 against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, 24-0 against Western Athletic Conference foes, 6-0 vs. the Big West (Boise State’s conference affiliation through 2000), 2-0 against Conference USA,  5-0 vs. the Mountain West, 3-0 vs. Sun Belt teams, 2-0 vs. teams from the Metro Atlantic Conference, 1-0 vs. Division I-A independents,  and 8-0 vs. I-AA opponents.

Seven schools (Princeton, Miami of Florida, Alabama, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Yale) strung home streaks of 50 wins or more.  Boise State’s nation-leading streak of 33 games ended in the 2005 MPC Computers Bowl against Boston College. 

Besides Boise State, the other two powers you would expect to have been capable of such a streak recently are USC and Texas.  Texas had put together a 40-2 home record since 1999 but lost their third home game during that streak to Texas A & M at the conclusion of last season and their fourth yesterday to Kansas State.  The Longhorns are now 43-4 since ’99.  The Trojans have won a nation-leading 35 home games in a row since 2001 and are 36-2 since that time.    

Here are the top “three-loss home records of all-time”:

 1.  Princeton 133-3-1 (1869-1902)

 2.  Yale 133-3-2 (from Rutgers game of 1879-1899)

 3.  Michigan 99-3-3 (from Wisconsin game of 1893-1909)

 4.  Michigan 98-3-4 (from Albion game of 1891-1907)

 5.  Michigan 96-3-3 (from Minnesota game of 1893-1908)

 6.  Pennsylvania 87-3(from Yale game of 1889 through Carlisle game of 1899)

 7.  Alabama 84-3 (from Southern Mississippi game of 1957 to Memphis game of 1986)

 8.  Notre Dame 87-3-2 (from Knox game of 1907-1931)

 8.  Yale 87-3-2 (from 1900-Brown game of 1910)

10.  Harvard 85-3-1 (from Yale game of 1886-Princeton game of 1896 and not counting loss to Harvard Alumni) and (from 1887-Boston A.C. game of 1887)

11.  Alabama 78-3 (from 1957-Louisiana-Lafayette game of 1984)

12.  Nebraska 75-3 (from 1991 to Texas game of 2002)

13.  Alabama 75-3-1 (from Mississippi State game of 1956 to Cincinnati game of 1982)

14.  Army 77-3-2 (from 1922-Mississippi State game of 1935)

15.  Yale 76-3-2 (from Harvard game of 1875-Boston A.C. game of 1895)

15.  Yale 76-3-2 (from Princeton game of 1885-1899)

17.  Miami of Florida 70-3 (from 1985 to Pittsburgh game of 1996) and (from Cincinnati game of 1985 to Florida State game of 1996)

18.  Florida State 69-3-1 (from 1989-Miami (FL) game of 2001)

19.  Alabama 64-3 (from Sewanee game of 1907-Mississippi game of 1928) and (1908-Tennessee game of 1928)

20.  Miami of Florida 62-3 (from Boston College game of 1984 to Boston College game of 1994) and (from 1985 through 1994)

21.  Michigan 69-3-3 (from 1901-Michigan State game of 1913)

22.  Carlisle 68-3-3 (from Brown game of 1896-1917)

23.  Harvard 64-3-2 (from Boston A.C. game of 1895-1903) 

24.  Miami of Florida 58-3 (from Maryland game of 1984 to Georgia Southern game of 1994)

25.  Colgate 60-3-2 (from the St. Bonaventure game of 1920-Duke of 1937)

26.  Tennessee 61-3-3 (from Kentucky game of 1924-North Carolina game of 1935) and (1925-Alabama game of 1935)

27.  Florida State 58-3-1 (from 1992 to the Notre Dame game of 2002

28.  Washington 58-3-3 (from Oregon game of 1904 to the Whitman game of 1920)

29.  Florida 56-3 (from 1990 to the Alabama game of 1999)

30.  Washington 55-3-2 (from Oregon game of 1908-Montana game of 1920)

31.  Boise State 54-2 (1999-current)

32.  Florida State 54-3-1 (from Miami (FL) game of 1991-North Carolina State game of 2001)

33.  Harvard 54-3-1 (from 1898-Yale game of 1903) 

34.  Pennsylvania 52-3 (from Princeton game of 1889-Lafayette game of 1896)

35.  Texas 52-3 (from the Oklahoma State game of 1968-Houston game of 1978

36.  Florida 50-3 (from 1991-1999)

37.  Nebraska 48-3 (from 1988-1995)

38.  Oklahoma 48-3-1 (from Oklahoma State game of 1945-Colorado game of 1957) and (from 1946- Notre Dame game of 1957)