The more things change in college football, the more things stay the same on a few campuses. Indeed, the folks in Akron, Amherst and Monroe, among other locales, have long awaited the winds of change, which have avoided blowing out the stale air caused by chronic losing.
Now in the back half of the 2020s, there are six teams that have yet to play in bowl game this decade. Only one is from a power conference and most of the others have played musical coaches in the hope of finally playing beyond the regular season.
Akron
Joe Moorhead’s Zips went into the final four games of the 2025 season with a 2-6 mark and needing to win out in order to attain bowl eligibly for the first time since 2017. They won three of four with the lone loss in overtime. A 5-7 finish, which included breaking even (4-4) in conference play in Moorhead’s fourth season leading the MAC program, was its best showing since the aforementioned 2017 campaign under Terry Bowden. That was a season in which the Zips were 7-5 before losing in the conference championship to Toledo and in the Boca Raton Bowl to FAU.
Akron has certainly been much more competitive under Moorhead, the former Mississippi State coach. Whether the Zips take one more step and make the bowl season will likely depend on getting over .500 in MAC play for the first time since Bowden. After all, a non-conference slate that includes trips to Wake Forest and Minnesota and a visit from UNLV will be difficult. The well-traveled Reese Poffenbarger (North Texas, Miami, Albany, Old Dominion) takes over at quarterback and will attempt to improve a passing game that was next-to-last nationally in completion percentage (51.7) last season.
Charlotte
The 49ers completed the first half of the 2024 season 3-3. A four-game losing streak with three of the defeats by more than 30 points scuttled any hope of a bowl and cost Biff Poggi his job. Associate head coach Tim Brewster took over as the interim and won both remaining games to finish 5-7. That equaled the program’s best record since achieving its only bowl appearance as an FBS member. That was a 2019 Bahamas Bowl loss in Will Healy’s first season at Charlotte, which finished 7-6 for the 49ers’ lone winning season since elevating to the FBS in 2015.
The 2025 season was a rough one in Tim Albin’s first season at the helm after arriving from Ohio. The coach inherited a mess and wiped the slate clean with 40-plus transfers. Alas, the 49ers went 1-11 and averaged 11.8 points per game against FBS opponents. Albin heads into his second season needing to put wins on the board in 2026. Don’t expect much early because of a non-conference slate that features trips to Ole Miss and Appalachian State and a visit from a solid Louisiana team.
Louisiana-Monroe
If only the Warhawks could win a game or two in November. Indeed, they have lost 15 straight during the month dating to 2022. Bryant Vincent’s team has teased in each of his first two years in Monroe, starting 3-1 last season before the roof caved in with eight straight setbacks. ULM completed the first half of the 2024 schedule 5-1 before, yes, going winless in the season half. It adds up to 8-7 before November and 0-9 in November under Vincent.
If a Happy Thanksgiving is in store this year, it will be thanks in no small part to a non-conference slate that includes visits from Southeast Louisiana and FAU and a trip to UAB. A bowl would be the Warhawks’ first since a 2012 Independence Bowl loss to Ohio under Todd Berry. That is the only bowl game the program has played in 32 seasons since rejoining the FBS in 1994, though they were eligible and passed over in 2013 and 2018 when they went 6-6 both years. (ULM also played at the highest level, then known as I-A, from 1975 to 1981 without a bowl appearance before dropping down to what was then I-AA.)
Massachusetts
Fourteen seasons have been played since the Minutemen elevated to the FBS and 14 seasons have gone by the board without making postseason plans. Make no mistake about this: It is not about bowl games for UMass, but getting into the win column. That has been a massive chore as demonstrated by a 26-134 (.162) record since the program moved up from the FCS.
The Minutemen, who returned to the MAC in 2025 following nine years of independence, have not won as many as five games in any of their 14 FBS seasons. They lost all 12 games in Joe Harasymiak’s first season at the helm last year with eight of the defeats by at least 28 points. UMass has lost 24 straight against FBS opponents.
For the record, UMass appeared in a pair of bowl games as a member of the Yankee Conference prior to Division-I splitting into I-A (FBS) and I-AA (FCS) in 1978. The Minutemen lost to East Carolina in the 1964 Tangerine Bowl and defeated UC-Davis in the 1972 Boardwalk Bowl in Atlantic City.
Stanford
The only power conference team on this list last played in a bowl in 2018. The Cardinal have since gone 24-54 with no than four wins in any of seven seasons, including 4-8 under interim coach Frank Reich last season. That broke a string of four straight 3-9 seasons, though not the monotony of a program that has slipped well below the radar as it heads into its third season in the ACC.
It is now up to Tavita Pritchard to breathe some life into a program that under David Shaw and Jim Harbaugh went to a bowl 10 straight seasons (2009-2018), a run that included four top 10 finishes.
Pritchard knows all about Stanford’s prior success. He spent 17 years as a Cardinal quarterback and assistant before a three-year stint coaching the Washington Commanders’ QBs. Former teammate and football general manager, Andrew Luck, brought Pritchard back to Palo Alto. The first half of the schedule is a potential nightmare. While the first two games are at home, they are against what should be a very exciting Hawaii team and Miami. There are cross-country trips to Duke and Wake Forest and a date in South Bend against Notre Dame.
Temple
It appeared K.C. Keeler was going to lead the Owls to a bowl in his first season in North Philly. Temple was 5-3 heading into the final month of the season before losing its final four games, including by a point at West Point.
A wide open American Conference could help end the Owls’ bowl drought, which dates to Rod Carey’s 2019 squad that went 8-5, though lost the Military Bowl to North Carolina. It will likely be a tough chore, however, to pick up early-season wins against a schedule that includes non-conference foes Penn State and Toledo and a conference opener on a short week against Army. Then there is the fact Keeler is starting over at quarterback, which could add to early-season challenges.
