Streak Watch: North Dakota State Have Won 4 Straight (College Football)

Streaks are the league's pulse. You can read the whole mood of College Football off who keeps stacking wins and who cannot find the exit, and this morning's board, counted straight from the results table, has some runs worth talking about.

As of this morning, 42 different teams are riding runs of three or more in one direction or the other, a busy board by any standard.

Riding high

North Dakota State have won four straight, the longest active run in the league. Winning streaks change how a club carries itself, every bounce feels earned, every close game feels like it belongs to them until somebody proves otherwise.

Behind them, USC have quietly won 4 in a row.

Add Kansas State to the list too, 3 in a row.

Going the wrong way

The skid to watch belongs to Western Kentucky, losers of three in a row. Runs like this always end eventually; the only question is how much damage gets done before they do.

It is not much prettier for Rutgers, losers of 3 straight.

Bowling Green have lost 3 straight themselves, in case anyone at the cold end needed company.

The board

The full board, longest runs first:

The fine print

The longest run on the board sits at 4 games, and runs that size have a way of bending a whole week's storylines around them, every broadcast, every pregame note, every nervous manager quote.

Streaks end, that is the one thing every single one of them does. They tell you where a team has been, loudly, and nothing at all about where the next game is going.