Purdue, 2-3 on the season under new coach Barry Odom, has already come a long way in showing signs of progress after a 1-11 2024 campaign.
This Saturday, however, Odom and the Boilermakers' rebuild faced a hiccup after a 43-27 loss to the Illinois -- which may have been pre-ordained.
The Boilermakers have never won a game occurring directly after Taylor Swift releases a studio album.
As explored on the college football podcast "The Solid Verbal" on Thursday, Purdue has now played 11 games within seven days of Swift releasing or rereleasing an album. They have lost all 11.
Swift's latest album, "The Life of a Showgirl," was released at midnight Friday.
The pattern dates back to Oct. 24, 2006, when Swift's self-titled debut album preceded Purdue's 12-0 loss to the Penn State two days after its release. It continued for six consecutive albums: "Fearless" on Nov. 11, 2008 (22-17 loss at Iowa four days later), "Speak Now" on Oct. 25, 2010 (44-10 loss at Illinois five days later), "Red" on Oct. 22, 2012 (44-28 loss at Minnesota five days later), "1989" on Oct. 27, 2014 (35-14 loss at Nebraska five days later), "Reputation" on Nov. 10, 2017 (23-13 loss at Northwestern the next day), and "Lover" on Aug. 23, 2019 (loss at Nevada seven days later).
The trend paused in 2020 because Purdue's next game fell outside the one-week window of Swift's releases. When "folklore" dropped on July 24, 2020, Purdue didn't play a football game until Oct. 24, 2020 -- which was a 24-20 win over Iowa. Months after "evermore" and "Fearless" (Taylor's Version) were released on Dec. 11, 2020, and April 9, 2021, respectively, Purdue beat Oregon State on Sept. 4, 2021.
The pattern picked back up with "Red" (Taylor's Version) on Nov. 12, 2021 (59-31 loss at Ohio State the next day), "Midnights" on Oct. 21, 2022 (35-24 loss at Wisconsin the next day), and "1989" (Taylor's Version) on Oct. 27, 2023 (31-13 loss at Nebraska the next day).
The Boilermakers finally snapped the losing skid in 2024 with a 49-0 rout of the Indiana State after "The Tortured Poets Department" was released on April 19, 2024 -- though it still fits the overall pattern since that game fell outside the weeklong window.
Unfortunately for Purdue, Swift's influence proved too strong once again. They'll have to hope her next album releases well outside of the college football season window.
