How Indiana broke college football

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Across college football, Indiana’s two-year rise from Big Ten basement dweller to national championship participant is breaking people’s brains.

Head coach Curt Cignetti took over a program that went 3-24 in Big Ten play in the previous three years and is 26-2 overall, including College Football Playoff blowouts of familiar powerhouses Alabama and Oregon. The 180-degree turnaround of the program that entered 2025 with the most losses in college football history led fans across the country to ask the same question.

If Indiana can do that in two years, why can’t we?

“Fans just want you to win right now,” one Power 4 general manager told The Athletic, one of multiple college officials granted anonymity to speak candidly on the impact of Indiana’s quick success.

Is this as easy as Indiana has made it look? Of course not. But Cignetti himself acknowledged this week the pressure when asked about balancing transfers and high school players.

“In college football nowadays, you’ve got to win every year,” he said. “With social media the way it is, the pressure to be successful, you’ve got to put together a team that’s ready to compete for championships every single year.”

If the coach at Indiana is saying you have to compete for titles every year, how should coaches feel at Florida or LSU or some other program that has slipped from the top? In a sport that hands out tens of millions of dollars annually to replace coaches, Cignetti’s certainly not easing the pressure on everyone else.

The combination of a coach who has won everywhere he’s been, loosened rules speeding up roster turnover and a newfound commitment in Bloomington has changed the timeline, and not just for Indiana.

“He’s the exception, not the norm,” a coaching agent said. “Therein lies the issue.”

It’s true that programs can be fixed more quickly than in the past. Coaches used to be stuck with whatever players they inherited. Cignetti wouldn’t have brought cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, receiver Elijah Sarratt and defensive lineman Mikail Kamara with him from James Madison under the old system — or if he had, they would have had to sit out 2024.

Ole Miss’ success under previous coach Lane Kiffin was built on landing strong transfer portal classes while developing high school recruits. It’s clear that the free movement of players has spread talent across more teams; 11 schools have occupied 12 available spots in the College Football Playoff semifinals over the last three years.

“Not to say he’s not talented, but it’s easier for Cignetti to rebuild in this era,” said a second agent who has negotiated with Indiana. “You don’t have to wait the two or three recruiting classes anymore.”

That doesn’t make it easier for other fans to swallow. As one Power 4 athletic director put it, declining patience from fans is partly a result of Indiana’s success but also “believing you can buy a championship team in the portal overnight.”

Only one team can win a game, let alone a championship. If everyone thinks they should be winning, almost everyone will be disappointed. It’s hard to tell Alabama fans the Nick Saban glory days won’t return, or accept that the Crimson Tide’s Rose Bowl demolition at the hands of the Hoosiers may represent the new normal.

The Indiana discussion overlooks a key point, however. While it is true they have no five-star recruits and their player development is vital, the Hoosiers dramatically increased their football spending, even before Cignetti arrived.

The Hoosiers’ football budget has increased each year since 2021, according to the Knight-Newhouse database, more than doubling from under $24 million in 2021 to over $61 million last year. That’s a rise from well below the Big Ten median to well above it in 2025. The $15.5 million negotiated buyout to fire coach Tom Allen in 2023 was considered too steep for a place like Indiana at the time. The fact that it wasn’t was a sign of the school growing its football commitment.

Now, personnel staff outside the program believe Indiana likely spent more than $20 million on its roster, partly due to transfer additions like Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza. (Indiana officials have kept the numbers close to the vest.) Given the high-profile transfer class arriving next season, that doesn’t seem to be changing.

“Indiana has blown people out of the water because they’ve committed to this thing,” the second agent said. “People have to be cautious about what jobs they take, because Indiana was a non-starter a few years ago.”

In years and decades past, the factors coaches considered when evaluating a job included facilities, staff salary pools, local talent and past program success. Now, the No. 1 thing they want to know is how much money they’ll have — for players, recruiting and everything else.

What is considered a “great job” in college football has evolved. LSU hired Kiffin in this cycle, but Penn State’s search took 54 days before landing on Iowa State’s Matt Campbell. As Ole Miss went on its run to the CFP semifinals without Kiffin, some in the industry questioned whether Kiffin made the right choice. Why leave a program that is already winning and gives you everything you want?

Cignetti determined in October after Penn State opened that he had what he needed at IU, signing a new contract that will make him a top-three highest-paid coach in college football. Then he beat Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon.

Indiana became a good job, and other places that used to be above Indiana might no longer be. Should coaches be evaluated differently as a result?

“These organizations have to demonstrate who they want to be,” the second agent said. “If you’ve got money like Indiana and you don’t win, maybe you picked the wrong guy. But if you’ve got other obstacles, Cignetti got the obstacles removed from him. I don’t think everybody’s going to have that.”

It will be difficult for administrators to explain to fans that Indiana football has more resources and fewer obstacles than their given school. Big Ten peers Wisconsin and Maryland brought back their struggling head coaches for next season and announced they would need to increase roster spending. Those decisions were largely met with groans from fans.

“I think it’s independent to each situation,” a head coach said.

“We shall see, but my first reaction is absolutely (that patience is thinning),” a second Power 4 AD said.

Indiana’s is not exactly a Cinderella story — billionaire Mark Cuban is now donating to his alma mater’s football team for the first time. Texas Tech made a jump to the top of the Big 12 with its own infusion of money. The old rules and the old guard don’t apply anymore. The Hoosiers don’t appear to be going anywhere, and everyone else may just have to get used to that.

“You’ve got to adapt, improvise, be light on your feet,” Cignetti said this week, “if you’re going to survive.”

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