Indiana's Rise Shows Any College Team Can Win It All

Former Rutgers quarterback Johnny Langan jokes he's a national champion no matter who wins Monday's title game. He beat both Indiana and Miami during his playing days, which ended just two years ago.

The timing makes Indiana's transformation almost impossible to believe. In October 2023, Rutgers crushed the Hoosiers on their home field, celebrating like they'd finally turned a corner after nine years of losing seasons.

Indiana looked like they were light years from relevancy that day. The program owns the most losses in college football history, and nothing suggested that was about to change.

Then coach Curt Cignetti arrived and everything flipped. Indiana crashed the 12-team playoff in his first season, then went undefeated this year and became favorites to win the national championship.

The Hoosiers didn't just improve. They beat Ohio State, Alabama, and Oregon twice along the way to Monday's title game.

Why This Inspires

Indiana's success proves that college football's hierarchy can change overnight in ways that were never possible before. The sport's new era of revenue sharing and name, image, and likeness payments means tradition matters less than smart spending.

When reporters asked Cignetti about facing mighty Alabama in the playoffs, he had a simple response. "Our guys just know what they see on tape," he said, and his team proved they were better regardless of Alabama's five-star recruits and fancy facilities.

Other programs are catching on. Vanderbilt just had its best season in decades, and Texas Tech made a former Indiana backup quarterback the sport's first $5 million player.

That same quarterback, Brendan Sorsby, threw for just 126 yards in that 2023 loss to Rutgers. Now he's college football's highest-paid player at a program willing to invest in winning.

Illinois coach Bret Bielema summed up the new reality perfectly. "Now, you just come to work every day knowing that blue blood, red blood, orange blood, whatever, everybody's got a chance, man," he told ESPN.

The change requires serious money, no question. NBA billionaire Mark Cuban has openly talked about funding Indiana's success, and Texas Tech benefits from an oil tycoon's deep pockets.

But all major programs have resources now. Indiana's rise happened because they used those resources better than anyone else to build a championship team in record time.

For struggling programs like Rutgers, Indiana's story offers genuine hope. If the team you demolished less than three years ago can win a national title, anything feels possible.