In the other major professional sports leagues of North America it is virtually impossible that a team could lose all its games, for the simple reason that there are many more games in the regular season than in football or lacrosse.
Major League Soccer The Major League Soccer schedule has consisted of between 26 and 34 games. No team in Major League Soccer has ever come close to losing all its games: the most losses in a MLS season is 24 from 32 games by the Kansas City Wizards, now known as
Sporting Kansas City, in
1999, the year when the league used shootouts to decide all tied games. Shootouts were abandoned the following season. In
2013,
D.C. United set new MLS records in futility.
United won a league-low 3 games, and lost a record 24 games, tying the aforementioned Wizards.
National Basketball Association Since the
1967–68 season, the National Basketball Association's standard regular season schedule has been 82 games long (except the
1998–99,
2011–12,
2019–20, and
2020–21 seasons were shortened, though all were at least 50 games). The
2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats hold the record for the lowest winning percentage of any team in an NBA season, winning only 7 out of 66 games in a lockout-shortened season, for a winning percentage of 0.106. This broke the record held by the
1972–73 Philadelphia 76ers, who had a winning percentage of .110 in a full 82-game season. The
1947–48 Providence Steamrollers won an all-time NBA low of six games out of 48 (.125 winning percentage). The
1953–54 Baltimore Bullets went 0–20 on the road. More recently, the
1990–91 Sacramento Kings managed a near-imperfect road season, winning only one of 41 away games. Overall, the Kings lost 43 consecutive road games before beating the
Orlando Magic 95–93 on November 23, 1991.
Women's National Basketball Association Since its formation in 1997, the WNBA regular season has been gradually increased from 30 to the current 40-game schedule to be used starting in 2023. No team has gone through a WNBA season without winning a game; the fewest wins in a WNBA season has been 2 by the
2020 New York Liberty during the
WNBA bubble season. The record was previously tied at 3 wins by the
1998 Washington Mystics in their first season, and the
2011 Tulsa Shock. Two other expansion WNBA teams, the
2008 Atlanta Dream at 4–30 and the
2006 Chicago Sky at 5–29, have come close to this record.
United States Basketball League The
Atlantic City Seagulls of the (now defunct) summertime, minor league
USBL finished the 2001 season with an 0–28 record. It was quite a turnaround for the franchise, as they were dominant in the USBL just a few years earlier; the Seagulls were USBL runners-up in 1996, then swept to three straight titles in 1997–99. In 2000, the Seagulls slipped to 12–18, fourth place, and were beaten in the first round of the playoffs; after their winless 2001 campaign, the Seagulls folded.
National Hockey League The National Hockey League's schedule, like that of the NBA, consists of 82 games. Since the
2004–05 lockout, teams receive two points for a win, one point for a loss in overtime or a
shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation time. From 1997 until 2004, teams received two points for a win, one point for a tie or overtime loss, and zero points for a regulation loss. Prior to 1997, teams received two points for a win, one point for a tie, and no points for a loss. No team has ever come close to losing every game in an NHL season; the worst record is by the
1974–75 Washington Capitals who went 8–67–5 (8 wins, 67 losses, 5 ties). The 1974–75 Capitals and
1992–93 Ottawa Senators hold the record for fewest wins on the road with one. The NHL played an 80-game season in 1974–75, whereas in 1992–93 the schedule consisted of 84 games, thus giving the Senators the percentage record for worst road record. The Senators also set a record by losing their first 38 consecutive road games (the Senators' road statistics include a neutral site game played in
Hamilton, Ontario, in which the Senators were considered the road team).
Major League Baseball Since the early 1960s, the schedule of both leagues of
Major League Baseball has been 162 games long, and before that it was 154 games long. With such a huge schedule, it is practically impossible for a team to finish with a winless season. The
sabermetric baseball statistic
Wins Above Replacement is calculated on the premise that even a team consisting entirely of
replacement-level players, (i.e., a player that could be "replaced" by a call-up from the minor leagues without any significant statistical difference) is expected to win a baseline minimum number of games (typically 40–50, depending primarily on the caliber of the team's division) per 162-game season. The closest to a perfectly winless season in the
National League was the infamous
1899 Cleveland Spiders season, who finished with a record of 20-134 after its roster was looted by the owners of the team, who then stacked the best players onto the
St. Louis Perfectos. With a win percentage of .130, the Spiders are (as of 2020) the last of three major league teams to have finished a season below the
Mendoza Line (.200) in win percentage for a minimum of 120 games; the others were the
1889 Louisville Colonels (.196), and the
1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys (.169), whose best players had jumped to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the newly formed Player's League. Since the establishment of the
American League in 1901, the teams to have come closest to a perfectly winless season are the
Philadelphia Athletics in 1916 (36–117), the
Boston Braves in 1935 (38–115), the
New York Mets in their 1962 inaugural season (40–120), the
Detroit Tigers in 2003 (43–119), the
Baltimore Orioles in 2018 (47–115), the
Detroit Tigers in 2019 (47–114), the
Oakland Athletics in 2023 (50–112), the
Chicago White Sox in 2024 (41–121) and the
Colorado Rockies in 2025 (43-119).
College basketball Compared to the NBA, the college basketball season is shorter, with teams playing up to 40 games, divided into non-conference play, conference play (both regular season), conference tournaments, and postseason tournaments. Starting in 2020, Division I teams can either play 29 or 31 regular season games, with conference play ranging from 14 to 20 games. Better performing teams play more games by qualifying to conference and postseason tournaments.
Women's NCAA Division I • Prairie View A&M 1991–92 (0–26) • Centenary 1999–00 (0–28) • Centenary 2000–01 (0–27) • Chicago State 2016–17 (0–29) • Delaware State 2021–22 (0–24) • Saint Peter's 2022–23 (0–30) • Valparaiso 2025–26 (0–32)
Women's NCAA Division III • Centenary 2013–14 (0–24) • Centenary 2014–15 (0–24)
Men's NCAA Division I • Prairie View A&M University 1991-92 0-28 • Savannah St. 2004–05 0–29 • NJIT 2007–08 0–29 • Grambling 2012–13 0–28 ==Association football==