Indiana Ranked For First Time Since 1994, so now Purdue has Longest Drought
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Now that Indiana is ranked in the AP college football poll, Purdue has the nation's longest drought among Power 5 schools.
The Boilermakers haven't been ranked since 2007.
Back on Sept, 20, 1994 — long before any current Indiana football players were even born — the Hoosiers were ranked No. 25 in the AP Top 25 football poll. A few days later, they went to Wisconsin and got beat 62-13, never to be heard from again.
Until Sunday.
Once again, for the first time in more than 25 years — that's 1,308 weeks, if you're counting at home — the Hoosiers have found a home in the AP poll, checking in at No. 24 with 108 votes. For good measure, they are No. 25 in this week's coaches poll.
The Hoosiers received no first-place votes (wink, wink).
It's been so long that Indiana has been ranked that Tom Allen was a high school football coach in Tampa, Fla., back in 1994. Indiana was coached by Bill Mallory that year, and it was his last winning season with the Hoosiers. Since then, Mallory, Cam Cameron, Gerry DiNardo, Terry Hoeppner, Bill Lynch, Kevin Wilson and now Allen have tried in vain to get the Hoosiers back to national recognition.
And now, with the Hoosiers at 7-2, it's happened again — after a bye week, no less.
They got in this week because Kansas State and Wake Forest both lost to fall out of the top 25, Indiana moved up, and it's probably a good thing, because No. 9 Penn State — which was unbeaten until losing at Minnesota on Saturday — and No. 14 Michigan are next. They Hoosiers travel to State College, Pa., this weekend and then host Michigan on Nov. 23 in their home finale.
The AP and Coaches polls from Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019, the first time Indiana has been ranked since 1994.
The Boilermakers have had some big wins since 2007, but they've never been able to string enough of them together to make the poll. They were a staple in the rankings for a decade or more prior to that.
