Curt Cignetti considers Indiana a basketball and football powerhouse.
After winning a national championship his sophomore year, Curt Cinetti considers Indiana to be a basketball and football school.
- Indiana’s win marked a significant turnaround for a program once considered the losingest in college football history.
- Coach Curt Cignetti and a roster of overlooked players are credited with winning the unlikely championship.
- This victory challenges the idea that success in the NIL era depends solely on large amounts of financial support.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It almost had to happen. A course correction can be so pronounced that it can change an entire sport and flip its axis.
The Lovable Loser is officially the Bully of the Block.
You can thank Indiana later for saving college football from itself. Anyway, anyway.
“It’s not bad for a lot of anybody,” Indiana running back Roman Hemby said.
The unloved and unwanted players from Indiana, which until recently was the biggest losing program in college football history, are the change-makers the sport desperately needs. There was no doubt in the thrilling 27-21 victory over Miami in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Despite the greenery and greed of the NIL era, despite the prevalence of free player movements, despite decadent discussions involving head coaches leaving championship-level teams for other jobs mid-battle, it always comes back to what’s happening on the turf.
The game itself, the product on the field, is bulletproof. And now it’s with the story of a lifetime.
INDIANA — Thank you, God in heaven. Not funny Anna — somehow brought us all back to square one.
“We sent a message to society,” said Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, the inventor of the perversion. “If you put your mind to the grindstone and have the right people, anything is possible.”
Programs like Indiana typically find themselves in the midst of the greatest storms of change in the sports world. Not this time, not this team either.
Folks, purism has been replaced by realism.
Celebrate Indiana’s state title with books, page prints, and more
Forget about blue bloods and their vices with the sport. Forget about building your roster with elite high school players or filling in with impact players from the transfer portal.
Forget everything you know or believe to be true about program building. It’s all blown away now.
If you’re still a little ambivalent about the tectonic shift Indiana has brought, consider this. Cornerback Jamari Sharp, who ended the remarkable run with the game-clinching interception on the final drive of the game, grew up about 20 minutes from Hard Rock Stadium.
As a kid, I sat in the stands, bleeding orange and green, dreaming of playing for the Canes. He played high school ball at Northwestern University, a legendary prep program that won eight state titles.
And when Miami coach Mario Cristobal takes over in 2022, Miami doesn’t want him in the mix. Four years later, when the Hurricanes drove for a potential game-winning touchdown and the Hoosiers played cover-to-defense, Sharpe had the help of a safety at the top and didn’t have to worry about being hit deep.
So Miami quarterback Carson Beck threw a deep ball down the left sideline, and Sharpe, who was exposed under cover, jumped and intercepted the throw. game over.
“I think I showed them what they were missing,” Sharp said. “Miami is my city, but Indiana is my university.”
And there it is. My Billionaire Booster is bigger than you, but the overvalued NIL contracts and four-year giveaway of free player movement are being exposed to harsh realities.
It’s easy to accept Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and his return to Miami (the Canes also took him on) as the story of this team. He won the Heisman Trophy and scored the game-clinching touchdown. It’s the face of the program.
But this is much better than a former three-star quarterback scouted through the transfer portal on a one-year contract with the NIL. This is a radical championship of perfection, a story built around the most unlikely players no one wanted — play after play, game after game.
The star-less squad faced off against four- and five-star players from the Miami defense in the second quarter, pushing tight end Riley Nowakowski into the end zone on a 2-yard touchdown run to give the Hoosiers a 10-0 lead. Nowakowski also did not receive a college offer and continued his education at Wisconsin before transferring to Indiana.
Midway through the third quarter, Miami got within 10-7 before Michail Kamara blocked a punt recovered by Isiah Jones in the end zone to take a 17-7 lead. Kamara wasn’t even evaluated by recruiting services during high school.
Zero stars.
“I played almost every level of soccer: FCS, Group of Five, and now the Big Ten,” said Kamara, who followed Cignetti from James Madison to Indiana. “Just to make this journey, I never thought it was possible. It’s surreal to be here today.”
Well, this is where this extraordinary story begins. The ridiculous path from college football’s last dead man to the sport’s champion almost never happened. As a matter of fact, Mr. Sininetti still doesn’t understand how it happened.
It was an unseasonably cold late November night in Indiana in 2023, and Cignetti was flying home to Virginia after an interview. Lying in bed with his wife, Manette, he finally admitted that he intended to stay at James Madison.
He loved the school and what was being built and enjoyed living in Harrisonburg. Why leave?
Then he got a call from Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson, and before Cignetti could say a word, he yelled into the phone, “Congratulations, you’re Indiana’s new coach. We’re going to give it our all!”
Cininetti was unashamed to speak his mind and was almost speechless.
“I said five or six things that I can’t say here, and I hung up, and that was it,” Cininetti said. “He didn’t give me a chance to say no. My wife said, ‘I should have looked you in the eye. What did I just do?’
Simply, he changed college football forever.
This is something that everyone involved urgently needed in order to temporarily get the listing back on track in a sports world reeling from the environment and greed. After four years of competing to recover through a financial and player movement model, the result has been a nightmare beyond management’s control.
In a strange upside-down world, just four years of NIL gluttony has somehow given way to over 150 years of history and tradition. Or, as the great David Gilmour once sang about money and its evils:
New cars, caviar, and four-star daydreams
I’m thinking of buying a football team.
So SMU did so and reached CFP in 2024. Texas Tech achieved it in 2025. Miami spent more money than anyone else in a season, including $4 million for Beck, which is a bargain at current rates a year from now.
The Canes could pay $6 million to $7 million for Duke transfer quarterback Darian Mensah, the last impact player available at the position in 2026. The key is to maintain momentum, and the answer is always money.
“I don’t think there should be a (salary) cap,” Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich said over the weekend. “We have not been able to establish competitive equity.”
In other words, Indiana just ran everyone over with a competitive spirit you don’t see in sports. Until now.
While Hoosier fans made confetti angels on the field and panicked to stuff crimson, cream and gold paper memorabilia into their pockets before the field cleaners arrived, Cininetti talked about winning 27 games in 29 games over two years.
Indiana won one Big Ten game the season before his arrival, but it didn’t have a booster willing to throw money at it in the process. It was hard work, good work, and ultimately rewarding work.
The answer isn’t necessarily money.
“I would like to say that our NIL is far from what people think,” Cininetti said.
It didn’t have to be a lifelong story.
Not bad for a lot of people.
Matt Hayes is a senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X @MattHayesCFB.
