How Indiana won college football's national championship

How Indiana won college football's national championship

Indiana announced its college football arrival a year ago, but even then, it felt hard to believe the losingest program in FBS history would have much staying power. Critics ripped their schedule, called them a fluke, debated whether they even deserved to make the College Football Playoff and dismissed them following an opening-round loss to Notre Dame.

Cute story, those Hoosiers. But see! They should leave the real football to the real blue bloods.

Cue the Curt Cignetti staredown.

Google him again, just for reference. The man simply does not lose.

Indiana may have been pooh-poohed as a one-year wonder, opening 2025 ranked No. 20 and picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten preseason media poll.

Fueled by the perceived disrespect, desperate to prove it would not become a bottom dweller again, Indiana produced the football version of "Hoosiers," completing one of the most improbable turnarounds in sports history -- winning its first national championship while becoming the first major college team since Yale in 1894 to go 16-0.

Indiana may not have won by 30, the way they did in previous playoff victories. But they played with the same confident flair, punctuated by the call of the game: On fourth-and-4 from the Miami 12 and the Hoosiers up 3, coach Curt Cignetti called a quarterback run for quarterback Fernando Mendoza. He pushed up the middle, and bullied his way through the Miami defense, busting multiple tackles to stretch over the goal line.

That play summed up the season in a nutshell: Cignetti banking on himself and his players and Mendoza delivering in the clutch.

Asked before the game whether Indiana qualifies as a "Cinderella story," given its success last year, Cignetti answered in the most Cignetti way, wryly saying in return, "Define 'Cinderella story' in the context of Indiana. I'm not quite sure what you mean by that."

Since Cignetti is a Google fan, go ahead and Google "Cinderella story." This is what comes up:

Noun. Used in reference to a situation in which a person, team, etc., of low status or importance unexpectedly achieves great success or public recognition.

In 2022, Indiana became the first Division I college football team to lose 700 games. Indiana is now a national champion after defeating Miami in its home stadium, 27-21.

Provided the definition, Cignetti finally answers.

"I think that's a fact. If you look at the record since Indiana started playing football and relative to the success we've had the last two years, we've broken a lot of records here in terms of wins, championships, postseason games, top-10 wins," Cignetti said.

"It's been kind of surreal."

While there may still be a "pinch me, I'm dreaming" vibe to this title run, Cignetti told the world when he was hired to coach the Hoosiers in 2023, they would win, then trash-talked the best teams in the Big Ten when he took the mic at a basketball game the day after he was hired.

Hey, look, I'm super fired up about this opportunity. I've never taken a back seat to anybody and don't plan on starting now. Purdue sucks! But so does Michigan and Ohio State! Go IU!

While others may have rolled their eyes, the people inside the football program, athletic department and Bloomington, Indiana, charged ahead.

Cignetti made sure of that.