Taylor Swift 12, Purdue 0: Boilermakers' album release curse continues

Purdue suffered a tough 49-10 defeat to Notre Dame on Saturday, but it's hard to fault the Boilermakers -- history says the loss may have been preordained. The Boilermakers have never won a game occurring directly after Taylor Swift releases or rereleases a new album. As first explored on the college football podcast "The Solid Verbal" in 2025, Purdue has now played 12 games within seven days of Swift releasing or rereleasing an album. The team has lost all 12. Swift's latest offering, "The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore," was released on Friday. The pattern dates back to Oct. 24, 2006, when Swift's self-titled debut album preceded Purdue's 12-0 loss to 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. Last fall, Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" was released, and Purdue in turn proceeded to lose 43-27 to Illinois the next day. Unfortunately for the Boilermakers, Swift's influence seemingly has proved too strong once again. They'll have to hope her next album releases well outside of the college football season window.