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March 24, 2008 9:52 AM

A look at Pac-10's double losing seasons

The realization a few days ago that this is the first time in 50 years UW has suffered losing records in football and men's basketball (thanks to this note from Seth Kolloen over at Enjoy the Enjoyment ) led to some other inevitable questions.

Specifically, when's the last time that's happened for every other team in the conference?

So during some NCAA Tournament down time --- they really didn't show that Britney Spears commercial often enough --- I did a little research.

Here's the list, and the parameters are that the losing seasons happen during the same academic year, meaning 2007 football season, 2007-08 basketball basketball season, etc.

We'll put them in order of most recent:

Washington 2007-08 (4-9 football, 16-17 basketball)
Washington State 2005-06 (4-7, 11-17)
Oregon State 2005-06 (5-6, 13-18)
Arizona State 2003-04 (5-7, 10-17)
UCLA 2003-04 (6-7, 11-17)
Cal 1997-98 (3-8, 12-15)
Oregon 1993-94 (5-6, 10-17)
Stanford 1985-86 (4-7, 14-16)
USC 1983-84 (4-6-1, 11-20)
Arizona 1980-81 (5-6, 13-14)

Obviously this is a bad time for UW right now.

On the bright side for UW fans, the Huskies had a streak 23 years longer than anyone else in the conference avoiding the double el foldo before this season.

The next step would be to figure out how many times all those other schools did it during the 50 years the Huskies went without doing it once. I may save that for the Sweet 16 commercial breaks.

I do know this --- UCLA also did it just once during that span. UCLA has had only two losing basketball seasons since 1946, and had a losing record in football only one of those two, the one mentioned above.

I also know USC did it just once during that span, the 1983-84 season refererenced above. Interestingly, USC also did it during the same 1957-58 academic year when the Huskies last had losing records in both (and what an anamalous year that was as it is also the last time Oregon State won titles in both sports).

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