Big Ten Program Emerges on List of College Football Teams With Most-Ever Vacated Wins

Iowa's recent punishment lands them in some new company... but far down the list of vacated wins.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and his Hawkeyes had to vacate four victories as NCAA punishment. They're still way behind the leaders in that category. | Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With the recent NCAA sanctions against Iowa, the Hawkeyes join a club they'd as soon rather miss. Part of Iowa's punishment is the vacation of four Iowa victories, much to the dismay of Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz. It's a fairly unusual remedy now, but the Hawkeyes have a long way to go to catch the programs that have suffered the most vacated wins.

For that matter, the entire idea of the vacated win is somewhat farcical. The games happened, they were viewed by million on television, and tens of thousands in person. But somehow, the NCAA engages the fiction of pretending that the victories actually weren't. In an era of increasing NCAA detachment from rules, it's likely that vacated wins won't be a step the Association will likely indulge.

Iowa's Vacated Wins

With four vacated wins, Iowa ranks just 14th all-time in vacated victories. For that matter, the Hawkeyes share that spot with Arkansas State and California. The 13 teams with more vacated wins have each lost a double-digit total of wins. In fact, Iowa would have a long way to go to catch up with the most prominent offenders.

Most Vacated Wins of All Time

#1 LSU 37

#2 Ole Miss 33

#3 Louisiana 22

#4 Alabama & Notre Dame 21

#6 North Carolina 16

#7 USC 14

#8 Florida State 12

#9 Ohio State 12

#10 Syracuse & Tennessee 11

#12 SMU & Kentucky 10

#14 Arkansas St, Cal, & Iowa 4

#17 Georgia Tech 1 pic.twitter.com/QFGojfxGHR

— CFB Home (@CFBHome) April 14, 2026

Teams Vacating the Most Victories

Alabama and Notre Dame each tie for fourth all-time with 21 vacated victories. All 21 of Alabama's vacated wins span from the same 2005-2007 era. The Tide were engaged in a massive NCAA scandal with athletes from 16 sports misusing school-provided scholarships to obtain free textbooks for themselves or for friends. Alabama lost 10 wins from 2005, six from 2006, and five of Nick Saban's seven wins from 2007.

Notre Dame vacated all 12 wins from 2012, when the team lost in the BCS title game, and all nine wins from 2013. The penalties in that instance arose from NCAA violations when a student assistant completed classwork for players.

Louisiana (formerly Louisiana-Lafayette) is the lone G5 representative on the list, finishing third with 22 vacated wins. The Ragin' Cajuns vacated wins from 2011 through 2014, but never all wins in any season. The NCAA violations in question came from an assistant coach who arranged fraudulent ACT scores for five players, who thus were ineligible.

Ole Miss is second on the vacated win list with 33 vacated victories. Amazingly, the results again stem from one course of conduct. The school vacated all wins from 2010-2012, all wins except the Music City Bowl in 2013, all wins except a game against Presbyterian in 2014, and all wins in 2016. The issues were a series of academic problems that led to Ole Miss using ineligible players under coaches Houston Nutt and Hugh Freeze. Among the vacated wins was a 2014 victory over Alabama that led to fans storming the field and tearing up the goal posts.

But LSU tops the list with 37 vacated victories. The Tigers gave up all the wins from four seasons (2012-2015) after an NCAA scandal indicated that the Tigers had paid improper benefits to the father of a player. It took a mix of on-field success and misconduct to make the Tigers end up taking 37 wins away. Those wins being obliterated has left LSU coach Les Miles just shy of the winning percentage needed to qualify for the College Football Hall of Fame.

Former Kansas coach Les Miles saw LSU vacate 37 wins the Tigers had gained under his leadership. | Rob Ferguson-Imagn Images