Top 5 winning streaks in college sports

A lot of news has been made of winning streaks in 2010. One massive winning streak in college basketball was broken and then abruptly came to an end. One academic institution's sports program was responsible for ending two streaks.

Here's a look at the greatest winning streaks in college Division I sports history. Will these records ever be broken?

Penn State Volleyball

Penn State's volleyball program has the longest team sports winning streak of the modern era. At 109 straight matches, Penn State has won four straight national titles including three in the midst of the unbeaten streak.

The Stanford Cardinal was the team which book-ended the streak—they defeated Penn State Sept. 15, 2007 and Sept. 11, 2010. Penn State has the second-longest team winning streak only to the University of Miami's tennis team which won 137 straight matches from 1957-1964.

UCLA Men's Basketball

A winning streak which will likely never broken is the UCLA men's basketball team under coach John Wooden. UCLA won 88 straight games in the early 1970s including consecutive 30-0 seasons in 1971-72 and the following year. In all, UCLA only lost two games on its home court when Wooden coached the Bruins.

The reason the UCLA streak won't be broken is the parity in men's basketball. Too many teams are too good in the modern game. Despite other NCAA winning streaks, the UCLA one will likely be the one remembered as the hardest win streak record to break for NCAA Division I men's basketball.

University of Connecticut Women's Basketball

After eclipsing UCLA's win streak of 88 earlier in December 2010, the University of Connecticut lasted two games beyond that before being defeated by Stanford 71-59 in Palo Alto Dec. 30, 2010. Just like the volleyball winning streak, Stanford was the last team to be UConn in the 2008 NCAA national semifinals and also stopped the win streak.

The streak for UConn was ratings gold—the game against Stanford saw ESPN's highest ratings for a regular-season women's basketball game ever. As the game was close to ending, even more people tuned in to watch. The previous high for regular season games was UConn versus Duke in 2003. If UConn hadn't lost to Rutgers by five points Feb. 5, 2008 and then to Stanford by nine points later that season, the win streak would have been 38 games longer.

North Carolina Women's Soccer

The North Carolina women's soccer team won a record 92 matches in a row ending in 1994 when Notre Dame played the Tar Heels to a scoreless tie. Along the way, the UNC women won an impressive nine straight national titles.

Mia Hamm was instrumental to the team's success and was one of the most decorated women's soccer players in history. Not only was the team undefeated in 92 matches but also untied in soccer which is a very rare feat in and of itself with a relatively low-scoring sport.

Oklahoma Football

Oklahoma's football program won 47 games in a row from 1953-1957. With so many good teams in college football's Bowl division this record streak will probably not be eclipsed any time soon.

Oklahoma won two national championships by going 10-0 and then 11-0 in 1954 and 1955. Head coach Bud Wilkinson also had the Sooners on a 31-game winning streak between 1948 and 1950. Notre Dame was the team which knocked the Sooners off the winning track by defeating them 7-0 Nov. 16, 1957 after they had handed OU its previous loss way back in 1953 which was also by seven points.

Apples and Oranges

Each winning streak is impressive in their respective sports. With parity and great competition in today's sports there are some winning streaks unlikely to be equaled or surpassed. It's difficult to compare each streak to others in different sports because the nature of each era and program are unique.

Each streak is special for their accomplishments. Each one took great players and coaches to make successful winning teams and programs. These winning streaks are each a testament to a high level of play and teams being the best at what they do.

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