Iron Bowl loss seals historic Auburn football streak of losing seasons

AUBURN — It's official. Auburn football has posted a losing record this fall, falling to 5-7 after losing the Iron Bowl to No. 10 Alabama on Saturday, Nov. 29.

The 27-20 defeat nixed Auburn's hopes of a postseason berth, but more notably, it secured a historic streak. Albeit, not the good sort.

Auburn has now posted a losing record in five consecutive seasons. That has only happened once before, when Auburn didn't finish at or above .500 from 1946 to 1950.

Since the last lengthy stretch of losing, Auburn has claimed six national championships, secured eight conference titles, posted 14 10-win seasons and won 28 bowl games.

It obviously hasn't come close to those achievements since 2020, but it was nowhere near such a downturn. AU hadn't had four consecutive losing campaigns since before 1950. It only had three in a row once, between 1975 and 1977.

Here's a breakdown of the latest streak, and how it compares to its predecessor.

Looking at Auburn football's streaks of five straight losing seasons

Auburn's two five-year losing season streaks pale in comparison. The latest installment looks much better than what the Tigers did from 1946 to 1950, a span in which they won just nine games. Twenty-seven wins looks much better, but it's nowhere near contending for titles.

That's evidenced by the fact that Auburn has had just two five-year spans in which it won no more than 28 games since the 1946-50 streak. Only one of those, from 1975-79, saw Auburn win fewer than 27 games, making this the second-worst span of seasons in Auburn's modern history.

• 2021-25

  • Overall: 27-35 (43.5%)

    • 2025: 5-7

    • 2024: 5-7

    • 2023: 6-7

    • 2022: 5-7

    • 2021: 6-7

• 1946-50

  • Overall record: 9-35-4 (20.5%)

    • 1950: 0-10

    • 1949: 2-4-3

    • 1948: 1-8-1

    • 1947: 2-7

    • 1946: 4-6

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter. To support Adam's work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football's Iron Bowl loss marks fifth straight losing season