2000 Purdue Boilermakers football team

The 2000 Purdue Boilermakers football team represented Purdue University as a member of the Big Ten Conference during the 2000 NCAA Division I-A football season. In their fourth year under head coach Joe Tiller, the Boilermakers compiled an overall record of 8–4 with a mark of 6–2 in conference play, sharing the Big Ten title with Michigan and Northwestern. Purdue earned a berth in the Rose Bowl, where the Boilermakers lost to Washington. The team played home games at Ross–Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana .

Purdue's offense was led by quarterback and Heisman Trophy-finalist Drew Brees. Brees led the Big Ten in completions, attempts, passing yards and passing touchdowns, setting the Big Ten career record for career passing yards with 11,517 passing former Purdue player, Mark Herrmann who had set the mark with 9,946 in 1980. The team had neither a 1,000-yard rusher nor a 1,000-yard receiver. Vinny Sutherland was the leading receiver with 926 receiving yards, and Montrell Lowe led the team in rushing with 919 rushing yards. Brees and offensive tackle Matt Light were the only players on the offensive unit selected as an All-American by Pro Football Weekly.

On defense, the 2000 Purdue team had true freshman safety Stuart Schweigert, who intercepted five passes and also led the team in tackles with 85. Other standouts on defense included defensive end Akin Ayodele with 9.0 quarterback sacks, and linebacker Landon Johnson with 71 tackles and two sacks, and safety Ralph Turner with 65 tackles, four sacks and an interception.

Ten members of the team were honored as All-Big Ten Conference selections, Brees was named the Big Ten Offensive of the Year and the Chicago Tribune Silver Football, while Schweigert was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Nineteen members of the 2000 Boilermakers football team went on to play in the National Football League (NFL). Prior to 2000, the Boilermakers had compiled three consecutive winning seasons and but had not won a Big Ten championship since the 1967 Purdue team did so.

The 2000 team, which boasted two future Super Bowl winners, was featured in the 2013 Big Ten Network documentary series Big Ten Elite and is still widely regarded by Purdue fans as one of the greatest Boilermakers football teams of all time. The Boilermakers have yet to win the Big Ten championship or reach the Rose Bowl since then.

The season was Brees's final year with the Boilermakers. He left Purdue with Big Ten Conference records in passing yards (11,792), touchdown passes (90), total offensive yards (12,693), completions (1,026), and attempts (1,678). Brees won the Maxwell Award as the nation's outstanding player of 2000 and won the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Today's Top VIII Award as a member of the class of 2001. Brees was third in balloting for the Heisman Trophy in 2000. The Boilermakers won all eight of their games when they scored 30 points or more in 2000.