RotoWire.com is breaking down the most penalized college football teams during the 2025 season. Your source for the best college football betting promos will update this weekly for the most up-to-date stats, to see which teams are the most disciplined. Using TeamRankings.com, we ranked teams based on a discipline score, which is found by taking Penalties per game + Penalty yards per game and dividing it by two. [(Penalties per game + penalty yards per game)/2]
Here's where things stand through Week 6 of the college football season. Check out our CFB futures odds page too.
2025's Most Penalized College Football Teams: Weekly Rankings & Analysis
Rank | Team | Discipline Score |
1 |
| 49.0 |
2 |
| 47.6 |
3 |
| 46.4 |
4 |
| 46.2 |
5 |
| 45.8 |
6 |
| 45.6 |
T7 |
| 44.8 |
T7 |
| 44.8 |
9 |
| 42.8 |
10 |
| 42.7 |
11 |
| 42.4 |
12 |
| 42.2 |
T13 |
| 41.8 |
T13 |
| 41.8 |
T15 |
| 41.6 |
T15 |
| 41.6 |
17 |
| 41.1 |
18 |
| 40.6 |
19 |
| 40.4 |
20 |
| 40.0 |
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (↑1) 
Georgia State Panthers (↑14) 
Duke Blue Devils (↓2) 
Boise State Broncos (↑2) 
Texas Tech Red Raiders (↓2) 
James Madison Dukes (↑9) 
Wake Forest Demon Deacons (↑2) 
UNLV Rebels (↓2) 
Mississippi State Bulldogs (↓6) 
Texas Longhorns (-) 
App State Mountaineers (↓6) 
Texas A&M Aggies (↓2) 
South Carolina Gamecocks (↑4) 
Toledo Rockets (↑5) 
Tulane Green Wave (↓4) 
USC Trojans (↑4) 
UCLA Bruins (↓9) 
Missouri State Bears (↑5) 
Pittsburgh Panthers (↑2) 
Florida Atlantic Owls (↓8) This combination of stats is brought to you by RotoWire.com, where we give you a snapshot of the best U.S. sportsbooks so you can decide where to wager.
Who Are America's Most-Penalized CFB Teams?
Leading the way through six weeks of football are the Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech, who currently rank dead last in the 136-team FBS when it comes to penalty yards per game, at 89.0, while the school's penalties per game figure isn't much better, ranking 131st, with 9.0 per game.
Surprisingly, that lack of on-field discipline hasn't come back to bite Sonny Crumbie's bunch, as Louisiana Tech is 4-1 overall and 2-0 in Conference-USA play, having beating New Mexico State, Southern Mississippi and UTEP in succession by a combined score of 109-45.
Overall, committing massive amounts of infractions doesn't appear to be a deal-breaker in today's world of college football, as all but one of the teams in our top 10 are below .500, that being the 1-4 Georgia State Panthers, with two teams (Texas Tech and UNLV) posting matching 5-0 records out of the gate in 2025.
Throw in the 4-1 JMU Dukes, 4-2 Duke Blue Devils and Mississippi State Bulldogs and 3-2 Boise State Broncos, Wake Forest Demon Deacons and Texas Longhorns and you have a decent snapshot of how undisciplined play can sometimes not correlate with unsuccessful football in the FBS ranks.
When you zoom out a bit and look at spots 11-20 on our least disciplined FBS teams list, the story's much the same, with seven of those 10 teams posting records of 3-2, 4-1 or 5-0 in 2025, led by 5-0 Texas A&M and including 4-1 teams like Tulane and USC, further drilling in on the asymmetry between on field infractions and win totals at the highest level of college football.
Bookmark RotoWire's Heisman Trophy odds as the season rolls along.
Which CFB Miscreants Have The Best Odds in 2025?
Of the 20 teams that made our list at this point in the college football season, the program with the best CFP title betting odds on DraftKings Sportsbook as of Monday afternoon was the Longhorns of Texas, which ranks in a tie with Ole Miss and Oklahoma for sixth nationally, at +1800. Throw in Texas A&M, which ranks in a tie with LSU for ninth at +2000, Texas Tech (+3500/T-13th) and USC (+6000) and you have the championship odds of the least disciplined teams in the FBS covered through six weeks of the 2025 regular season.
College Football Penalty Rankings Q&A
Q: What are the most penalized college football teams in 2025?
A: Each week of the 2025 season, RotoWire updates its rankings of the most penalized college football teams using penalty data from TeamRankings.com. Teams are ranked by their discipline score, which combines both penalties per game and penalty yards per game. The teams with the highest scores are considered the most penalized and least disciplined.
Q: How is the discipline score calculated?
A: The discipline score is designed to balance both the frequency of penalties and their impact. The formula is: (Penalties per game + Penalty yards per game) / 2. This ensures that a team that commits a lot of penalties and/or racks up significant yardage losses, gets reflected properly in the ranking.
Q: Why do penalties matter in college football?
A: Penalties can change the outcome of games. They can stall offensive drives, extend opponents' possessions and swing momentum. Teams that consistently rank among the most penalized often struggle in close games, while disciplined teams are more likely to avoid costly mistakes in high-pressure situations.
