Each year in my magazine and usually in my summer blog series, I list the teams that lost the most or fewest games due to injuries or disciplinary reasons or opt outs. The inclusion of a team on either list is generally attributable to good old-fashioned luck as some teams just develop an injury bug one year that affects their teams’ performance.
I re-evaluate every article and tweak some parameters. I adjusted the starts lost threshold to 34 or more (from 32) and started using fewest starts lost as in this transfer portal era, more teams miss starts especially if they make a bowl. I also found that NO team with 10 or more wins, when also having 34 or more starts lost, improved therefore they were omitted. Here I list the results for this system for the last 18 years for the teams that lost the most starts from the previous year and this team should expect better fortune and an improved record this year. I have broken it down into 7 different categories.
Total Starts Lost Total Improve Weaker Same %
0-4 22 5 17 0 22.7%
5-7 58 16 33 9 27.6%
8 35 12 18 5 34,3%
9-18 449 189 215 45 42.1%
19-31 442 200 188 54 57.5%
32-46 163 84 59 20 63.8%
47+ 41 27 7 7 82.9%
Here is the updates numbers this year the top teams that lost a lot of starts and will be GOING UP this year!
Going UP!!
I did eliminate 2021 as in 2020 some teams played anywhere from two to 7 games and due to Covid restrictions, there were a TON of missed starts so I could have had almost every team qualifying for +35 on the starts missed category.
The chart above is for teams that lost a lot of starts the previous year. In 2023 there were 12 teams that qualified for 34 points or more. The teams that made the biggest jumps in 2023 were Southern Miss which went from 3-9 to 7-6, LSU which went from 6-7 to 10-4, Ohio U which went from 3-9 to 10-4 and the biggest winner was Washington which went from 4-8 to 11-2.
In 2024 there were 23 teams that made the list. The teams that had the biggest improvement were USF which went from 1-11 to 7-6, Boston College which went from 3-9 to 7-6 and Miami Ohio which went from 6-7 to 11-3 in 2024.
I did not do the blog in 2024 or in 2025 but last year the teams that were at or near the top of the chart were Oklahoma which went from 6-7 to the playoff after an amazing 73 starts lost in 2024 and Kent St which improved from 1-11 to 5-7.
This year there are 10 teams that made the GOING UP box for the Starts lost. Hopefully your favorite team stays healthy this year and has a solid year.
In 2022 I had the article in the magazine and there were four teams that qualified for five starts or fewer missed and those four teams were SMU, Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Middle Tenn St. Of those 4 teams only Middle improved their record.
In 2023, Five teams made the fewest starts lost list including East Carolina and TCU which went from winning years (TCU National title game) to losing years.
Here is this years’ chart.
Going Down!!
This year 4 teams make the list. It used to be 5 starts or fewer but as mentioned above with players opting out of a bowl I have increased it to 7 starts or more.
Phil Steele Plus list the start charts for every team, and it is updated weekly during the season so you and keep track of all 134 teams and their injury situations. Here are two samples from last year with a team in North Texas that had very few injuries and a team like UMass that had a lot of injuries.
NORTH TEXAS START CHART
UMASS START CHART
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Team pages include
Individual Stats updated weekly including Game by Game Stats, Start Charts, Last 45+ years results, Last 38 years coaching history, Schedule with half time stats, box scores for every game, Draft history, updated team stats including AGG in all categories
Updated Plus minus ratings weekly
YPG vs Opp Avg
Pass Efficiency Defense updated weekly
Special teams Ranking updated weekly
Phil Steele College Football Preview (digital version)
Phil Steele FCS College Digital Magazine (two full pages on every FCS team!)
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