Purdue basketball’s 79-week AP Top 25 streak ends before the season begins originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Purdue’s streak of 79 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25 is over. The Boilermakers received 53 points in Monday’s preseason poll, but that was not enough to place them in the top 25. It is a notable change for a program that had been a fixture in the rankings for more than a year and a half.
The streak’s end is a snapshot of the poll’s current expectations, not a verdict on what Purdue can accomplish. The preseason vote arrives before a regular-season game has been played. A team can climb quickly once it starts winning, and an unranked team can still become a factor in March.
A poll omission still changes the conversation
Purdue’s 53 points show that voters did not ignore the Boilermakers. They placed just outside the top 25, among the teams receiving votes. Still, going from a 79-week streak to an unranked preseason position changes the way the season is framed: Purdue will have to earn its way back into the weekly rankings.
The AP poll is not a standings table, and it does not award tournament bids. It is a weekly judgment from media voters about the teams they believe are strongest. Purdue’s run ending is therefore a useful marker of shifting expectations, but it should not be confused with a forecast of the team’s final record.
Houston now owns the active streak
While Purdue’s run ends, Houston holds the longest active AP Top 25 streak at 127 weeks and counting, according to the AP. That contrast gives the poll a small bit of historical context: a long ranking streak is difficult to maintain, even for established programs.
Here’s a college basketball statistic that caught my attention. Purdue is OUT of the preseason AP Top 25. That ends a streak of 79 consecutive poll appearances for the Boilermakers. Matt Painter has built one of the country’s most consistent programs. Now Purdue has something to prove.
— Rodney Knuppel (@KnuppelRodney) October 19, 2026
The Boilermakers can make the streak a footnote by playing well. A strong start would put them back in the conversation quickly. But for now, the poll has handed Purdue an early-season storyline: a program that had been ranked week after week must show voters, and everyone else, why it belongs back in that group.