Indiana Wins First National Title, Perfect 16-0 Season

A college football team that once stopped a game just to photograph a rare lead has hoisted the national championship trophy.

Indiana defeated Miami 27-21 Monday night to finish a perfect 16-0 season, claiming the program's first national title in over 130 years of football. The Hoosiers matched a win total not seen since Yale went undefeated in 1894.

Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza sealed the victory with a gutsy 12-yard touchdown run on fourth down with 9:18 remaining. The quarterback, bloodied and battered by Miami's defense, stretched the ball across the goal line while diving horizontally through the air.

"I would die for my team," said Mendoza, who grew up just miles from Miami's campus but chose to play for Indiana this season as a transfer from Cal.

The game-changing moment came after coach Curt Cignetti called timeout and huddled his team on the field. He drew up a quarterback draw play, gambling that Miami would use a defense Indiana had practiced against.

"We rolled the dice," Cignetti said. "We blocked it well, he broke a tackle or two and got in the end zone."

This program was so historically bad that a coach once photographed the scoreboard reading "Indiana 7, Ohio State 6" during a game the Hoosiers eventually lost 47-7. Just two years ago, Indiana had accumulated more losses than any college football program in America.

Then Cignetti arrived and sparked a revival that seemed impossible. His team earned the top playoff seed after beating Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game, then dominated their first two playoff opponents 94-25 combined.

The Ripple Effect

The championship comes exactly 50 years after Bob Knight's Indiana basketball team went 32-0 to win the 1976 title. That perfect season hasn't been repeated in basketball, and many wonder if college football's changing landscape will ever produce another undefeated champion.

The trophy now travels to Bloomington, a campus that believed championships belonged to other schools. Defensive back Jamari Sharpe, a Miami native, sealed the win with a late interception to ensure his hometown team wouldn't spoil Indiana's miracle season.

Students who watched their team lose week after week can now claim something no previous Indiana generation could: a perfect season and a national championship.

Sometimes keeping your nose down and working creates possibilities nobody saw coming.