The SEC's longest current bowl streaks and droughts
For many of the top college football programs in America, going to a bowl game is an annual event. It’s the goal for everyone, but not all accomplish that goal.
Some do it better than others. For instance, Florida State currently holds the record for the longest bowl game streak at 34 consecutive games. The Seminoles have not missed an appearance in the postseason since 1982. The second-longest streak is held by Virginia Tech at 23 games.
For SEC schools, Georgia currently holds the record for the longest bowl game streak at 19 consecutive games. Here the top five current streaks in the conference:
1. Georgia: 19 games
2. LSU: 16 games
3. Alabama: 12 games
4. Texas A&M: 7 games
5. Mississippi State: 6 games
All five of these SEC teams are within the top 25 of the list of longest current bowl game streaks. In fact, Georgia’s is the third-longest streak in the country and LSU’s is fifth-longest.
Here are the other SEC streaks and their ranks inside the conference:
6. Ole Miss: 4 games
7. Auburn: 3 games
8t. Arkansas: 2 games
8t. Florida: 2 games
8t. Tennessee: 2 games
There are, of course, two sides to every coin. And while there are good things like appearance streaks, there are also bowl game droughts for teams that have gone multiple years without a postseason appearance. New Mexico State currently holds the longest bowl game drought at a whopping 55 consecutive years. They are followed by Massachusetts at 43 consecutive years.
Unfortunately, an SEC team appears early on in this list as well. Kentucky currently has the longest bowl game drought in the conference, with five consecutive seasons without a bowl trip. The Wildcats are tied for the eighth-longest drought in the nation. Of the Power 5 conferences, only Colorado (8) and Kansas (7) have longer droughts than UK.
The following teams in the SEC have bowl game droughts, ranked from longest to shortest:
1. Kentucky: 5 seasons
2. Vanderbilt: 2 seasons
3t. South Carolina: 1 season
3t.Missouri: 1 season