Alabama Football: Crimson Tide streaks on the line in 2020

Keeping up with current and historical win streaks for Alabama football and other SEC opponents.

There are Alabama football win streaks and there are Nick Saban win streaks. Both are impressive. Unlike the designed parity of the NFL, college football teams achieve long win streaks.  LSU is on a current one of 16 games. Sixteen is good but a long way from Oklahoma’s 47-game win streak in the 1950s. Only 25 teams, going back to the early 20th century, have accomplished 25-game or greater winning streaks.

Narrow that data down more and the number of football programs to reach the 25-win milestone is 17 programs. Following the Sooners are Washington at 40, and Miami and Southern Cal at 34. It may or may not be valid to include Toledo, but the Rockets ran up 35 wins in 1969-1971.

The longest win streak for Alabama football is 28 games, achieved twice. The first Tide 28-win streak was 1978-1980 and the second in 1991-1993. The longest in the Nick Saban era is 26 games, in 2015-2016. The Tide’s three runs of 25-or-greater, win streaks is only matched by Oklahoma and Michigan.

Nick Saban has a win-streak record of his own. The Crimson Tide has not lost to an unranked opponent since Nov. 17, 2007. That is a streak of 91 wins against unranked teams. Before Nick Saban’s Alabama football teams shattered that record, it was held by Florida and Miami. The Gators and the Hurricanes did it with multiple coaches.

Saban is within reach of another wins record. He trails Joe Paterno’s 86, Top 25 wins; by just two. Paterno was a head coach for 41 seasons. 2020 will be Saban’s 25th. Nick also leads active coaches in career, total wins.

Among SEC football programs, the Alabama Crimson Tide has impressive win streaks against specific opponents. Florida leads the SEC in that category with 31 wins over Kentucky from 1987-2017. The Wildcats are also on the losing side of another series record, 26 Tennessee wins 1985-2010.

Though not against SEC opposition, Texas A&M won 24 straight over TCU in 1973-2001. There are six more, opponent specific, 22 game, SEC win streaks. Alabama football has two of them. The Tide beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs 22 straight games from 1958-1979. Also at 22 straight are Tide wins over Vanderbilt from 1985-2017.

The Tide and the Dores have not played since 2017, so that streak is 22 – and counting. Other current Alabama football win streaks are 13 wins over Arkansas and Tennessee, 12 wins over Mississippi State, seven over the Aggies and five over the Georgia Bulldogs.

All any Alabama football fan would ever want to know about win streaks, can be found here. For a thorough review of Crimson Tide (non-streak) winning records, click here.

All the Tide’s current win streaks are great and need to continue. Most importantly for 2020, is starting new streaks over LSU and Auburn.