With Notre Dame losing to Ohio State, CFB's longest active winning streak is so wonky

Very late into the evening last night, I brought up this question during Three Yards and a Cloud of Punt to recap the College Football Playoff National Championship Game to my False Start co-host and FanSided.com colleague Cody Williams: Now that Notre Dame lost, who has the longest active winning streak in college football? Notre Dame won an impressive 13 games in a row up until Monday.

Prior to falling to Ohio State in Atlanta, Notre Dame had not lost a game since its Week 2 debacle at home to Northern Illinois. Because Ohio State lost its regular-season finale to arch rival Michigan, the Buckeyes' winning streak only stands at four. That could not possibly be the longest active streak in the sport, right? Cody and I came to the conclusion that it was probably someone like a Marshall.

We were right about Marshall, but we forgot all about Ohio U being tied for them with seven in a row...

• Marshall Thundering Herd (7)
• Ohio Bobcats (7)
• Florida Gators (4)
• Illinois Fighting Illini (4)
• Ohio State Buckeyes (4)
• Syracuse Orange (4)
• TCU Horned Frogs (4)

Taking a look at the updated homepage for Winsipedia, it goes two conference champions out of the Group of Five in Marshall and Ohio U before getting down to a cluster of five Power Four teams who are currently riding four-game winning streaks. Joining Ohio State are the Florida Gators, the Illinois Fighting Illini, the Syracuse Orange and the TCU Horned Frogs. Some of these come as a big surprise.

What do the longest active winning streaks in college football tell us about the sport moving forward?

Longest active winning streaks in college football after the 2024 season

Removing Ohio State from the equation because the Buckeyes have been front and center for the sport throughout much of the season, I am a tad shocked the best the Power Four could do right now is rattling off four in a row. Seeing Florida, Illinois and Syracuse in the same cluster as Ohio State is not that surprising, as they all played very well down the stretch. TCU being there is a total shocker!

I think what this tells us is at the end of every season, only three types of teams will carry somewhat impressive active winning streaks into the following season. You have your College Football Playoff national champion in Ohio State. There are Group of Five champions who caught fire in the second half, won their league and their bowl game, but did not make the playoff such as Marshall and Ohio.

As for the third group of teams, you are looking at Power Four teams who were borderline top-25 teams at the end, but suffered too many losses in the early part of the season to justify possibly crashing the playoff party. Florida, Illinois and Syracuse definitely check that box, while TCU is just kind of there. Of course, we could get a Group of Five team who came on too late being here as well.

The wildest part in all this is Marshall and Ohio will both enter next season with new head coaches.