For 9,182 days since the time of the publication of this article, the Hoosiers have not seen numerical decorations to the left of their name on scoreboards. That’ll end this upcoming week. Indiana ends the longest streak for not appearing in the AP Top 25 Poll among Power-5 conferences after they were selected as the No. 24 team in this week’s poll with 108 total votes.
For those trying to do the math, that’s Sept. 10, 1994 when the Hoosiers were last ranked by the Associated Press. That’s over 1,311 weeks ago.
As a preview for the AP Poll, Indiana also ended their drought in the Coaches Poll, which we announced earlier today.
Last week, the Hoosiers was third among teams that received votes, but remained outside of the Top 25. Indiana received 27 votes and were behind UCF (52) and Texas (37) among those that barely missed. With the help of losses from Kansas State, Wake Forest, San Diego State, and UCF, the Hoosiers were able to sneak in to the poll during their bye week.
The new owner of the longest AP Top 25 drought among Power-5 teams is just two highways away from Bloomington. The Purdue Boilermakers now have that title since their last ranking in 2007.
For the full AP Top 25 Poll rankings, you can see that list here.
How long can their rankings last? Well, that’s a bit of a different story. The Hoosiers will face a top-10 Penn State team with a noon kickoff on ABC. That battle of ranked teams will take place in Happy Valley, where Indiana has never won. In fact, the Hoosiers have only defeated the Nittany Lions just once in Bloomington out of their 22 contests in the 2013 season.
