The Boilers ain’t going to shake it off this week.
With Illinois’ 43-27 win over Purdue on Saturday in West Lafayette, the Boilermakers’ curse of Taylor Swift lives on, as the program now is 0-11 all-time
after the singer’s album releases.
Swift released “Life of a Showgirl” this week, and then Purdue lost. No shocker there.
Here’s the hard-hitting journalism from ESPN (crediting The Solid Verbal podcast this week):
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).
Good job, Illini.
