Last year around this time, I decided to look at the 5 worst Power 4 programs heading into the 2024 season. I was going through our summer content from last year and thought it would be fun to look back on that article and it did not disappoint.

To wit, 3 out of last year’s 5 worst don’t make the list this year. A brief recap:

Boston College – 5th last year, they were middle of the pack in the ACC during Bill O’Brien’s 1st season with the program. They really benefitted from some others really being more terrible overall.

Indiana – I ranked them 2nd worse last year and they made the playoffs! Everyone can doubt whether this can be kept up (would anyone be surprised by a 4-8 season in 2025?) but for now the Hoosiers are experiencing a totally new stratosphere in modern times.

Vanderbilt – I had the Commodores in the no. 1 spot last year but Clark “Doing Good Things” Lea did enough to justify moving them right out of the bottom 5. You can maybe make a case they still belong (12th in the SEC and it’s still Vanderbilt with all due respect) but beating Alabama was genuinely really cool and we have to give Clark Lea his flowers.

So who enters these 3 spots that are now vacant?

An anchor down outside the top 5 worst programs right now!

Houston was considered last year and made a strong case to be included coming off a 4-8 season. Cincinnati (5-7) really hasn’t been having a fun time since their coaching change. Michigan State (5-7) is also currently going through a tough transitional phase. Baylor (8-5) ended 2024 on a high note and completely pulled themselves out of consideration. Syracuse, on any given year might make the list, but surprised with a 10-3 year in Fran Brown’s debut. Plus, Arizona State was under the microscope in last year’s article and made the damn playoffs! Pittsburgh was coming off a rough 2023 but at least finished above .500 last year and has strong enough recruiting chops.

Who else? Virginia? California? Northwestern? Have things gone so bad at Florida State and Oklahoma State that we need to include them?

#5 Maryland
2024 Record: 4-8
2024 FEI Ranking: 59th
2025 Composite Ranking: 25th
2026 Composite Ranking: 69th

I’ve seen enough, I’m putting the Terps in the no. 5 spot. Perhaps somewhat controversially. They’ve been frisky at times during the Mike Locksley era but he’s entering year 7 with Maryland and coming off his worst season since his debut in College Park. While we occasionally have seen the Terps playing well they are still 0-15 against ranked teams–in fact they last beat a ranked team in the season before Locksley arrived.

Feel the excitement!!

They really have no business being in this spot. Recruiting is strong enough alone to keep them out of the top 5 worst power programs–although they currently have a small class for 2026. Even with that lower ranking for 2026 they have an elite 5-star committed and will eventually move up once they start taking more commits. I’ll also point out, Maryland has really been poor in the Big Ten under Locksley–just 15 wins with 35 losses. Although, that one lone league win last year was against USC!

#4 Mississippi State
2024 Record: 2-10
2024 FEI Ranking: 72nd
2025 Composite Ranking: 28th
2026 Composite Ranking: 36th

The Dan Mullen-Joe Moorhead-Mike Leach combo was really a golden era for the Bulldogs wasn’t it? It’s gone really downhill since the untimely death of the Dread Pirate with just 7 wins in 2 seasons over the following competition: Eastern Kentucky, UMass, Western Michigan, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Miss, Arizona, and Arkansas.

At least they have the conference patch.

Jeff Lebby has his work cut out for himself. It’s the SEC so recruiting is going not bad at all. Still, no one can afford to lose basically every game against anyone with a pulse. Even more so in the SEC. Only Vanderbilt has a worse historical winning percentage among SEC teams so this is hardly surprising to include the Bulldogs. There’s currently zero excitement on campus.

#3 Stanford
2024 Record: 3-9
2024 FEI Ranking: 85th
2025 Composite Ranking: 56th
2026 Composite Ranking: 31st

No team has seen a reversal of fortune in recent years quite like Stanford. They went from 94-27 across 9 seasons (2010-18) and have been a depressing 20-46 ever since. They haven’t broken 4 wins in a season in any of the last 6 campaigns! That’s crazy futility and at some point the Cardinal had to fall back closer to their historical norm. However, this has been much worse than their overall history.

Why are you smiling?

Recruiting has been restored a little bit this cycle and the temporary installment of head coach Frank Reich at least brings some NFL buzz to the program. Stanford was also lucky to escape the collapse of the Pac-12, although their fit in the ACC will continue to be questioned. There’s probably just enough recent success to dig this out in a way that might not be available to other teams on this list but another 5 win-season or less really digs the hole of poverty even further for this program.

#2 Wake Forest
2024 Record: 4-8
2024 FEI Ranking: 80th
2025 Composite Ranking: 63rd
2026 Composite Ranking: 59th

Did you know that Wake Forest has the worst winning percentage all-time among all current Power conference programs? Ask me today, and I would pick this program to have the worst record of all power programs over the next 10-15 years. Dave Clawson is out after a successful 11 years in Winston-Salem and I’m not sure what the future looks like with Jake Dickert. Who is Jake Dickert? Exactly.

This guy gets it.

This might seem a tad aggressive to put the Demon Deacons this low on the list. They had winning seasons in 6 out of 7 seasons before last year’s drop down to 4-8 with just 1 win in the ACC. Their recruiting looks okay today but they will get passed by several other programs in the Composite and end up with one of the lower classes in the power conferences. This small private school just isn’t set up for success in the crazy NIL salary cap world right now. I can see them struggling big time and for a long time.

#1 Purdue
2024 Record: 1-11
2024 FEI Ranking: 120th
2025 Composite Ranking: 91st
2026 Composite Ranking: 46th

We can’t not put Purdue in the top spot this year. They were up and down bad, bad, bad last year. So bad for a power program that it’s almost impressive. Remember when they gained just 6 first downs and lost by 59 points to our Fighting Irish? Historically poor Boilermakers. To put things into perspective, Purdue was ranked 44(!!) spots lower in FEI last year than Notre Dame was during their abysmal 2007 season.

It literally cannot get worse than 2024!

The Barry Odom hire away from UNLV was a good decision for Purdue, though. They might make this list again next year but I expect pretty solid improvement across the board and a quality rebuild overall. The Boilermakers do have a tougher and resilient commitment to football that some other programs hovering around or on this list don’t have themselves. Their schedule is really tough in 2025 though (they’ll visit South Bend again) so I’ll reserve judgment for a while.