5 Reasons Why Indiana's National Championship is Truly Insane
The Indiana Hoosiers beat the Miami Hurricanes 27-21 Monday night to win the College Football Playoff National Championship.
The term Cinderella gets used a lot in sports, but this was a truly unique rags-to-riches story no one saw coming at the beginning of the season.
Here are just some of the reasons why.
Underdogs don’t win in today's college football
Big brands dominate college football. The two all-time winningest programs — Ohio State and Michigan — won the last two titles, and before that a school from the SEC, Clemson or Florida State won every title from 2006-22.
Even before that, Texas, Oklahoma and USC — also long-time blue bloods — were among the champions early in the 21st Century.
Now Indiana is the first team to go 16-0 in a season since Yale in 1894.
Indiana is the ultimate underdog
Or at least that was the case before Curt Cignetti arrived.
They ended a 57-year Big Ten title drought in December and had never won the national championship until Monday night, but that’s only half the story.
The Hoosiers are 27-2 in Cignetti’s two seasons at the helm, and they were the losingest program in the history of the sport before he arrived.
That’s not a figure of speech: Literally no program had lost more games in major college football, but Northwestern took that dubious distinction away this season by losing six games, as noted by The Sporting News.
The Hoosiers had to beat the Hurricanes on their home field
This was a fluke in the CFP Championship Game rotation determined prior to this season, but it provided on more unexpected challenge for Cignetti’s Hoosiers.
Miami had to make long trips to Texas (twice) and Arizona for the CFP before getting to play on their home field in Hard Rock Stadium.
That drove up the price of tickets, but it did not prevent the Crimson and Cream faithful from taking a majority of seats according to reporters who were there Monday night.
Mendoza’s story alone is tough to beat
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza has charmed college football with his affable manner and aw-shucks interviews, but his story really is nearly impossible to believe.
He grew up a fan of the Hurricanes but was just a two-star recruit in the class of 2022 according to 247Sports Compsite rankings.
He told ESPN after the game he turned down an offer to walk on at Miami, instead going across the country to play for the University of California. He was a two-year starter for the Golden Bears and threw for more than 8,000 yards before entering the transfer portal, but no one foresaw the impact he would have at Indiana.
Now he is the king of college football players and the potential No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in April.
Miami was due
The Hurricanes were one of college football’s dominant teams in the 1980s and ‘90s.
They won five national titles from 1983 to 2001 and were one of the sport’s biggest brands on and off the field thanks to outsized personalities like Michael Irvin and Warren Sapp.
They were going for back-to-back titles in 2002 when Ohio State upset them in the Fiesta Bowl in January 2003, setting off a couple of down decades, but the Hurricanes knocked off the Buckeyes this year in the Cotton Bowl to close that wound and announce they are contenders again under former UM offensive lineman Mario Cristobal.
They still couldn't derail Cignetti's Indiana Express.
What about next year?
Indiana (somewhat famously now) had one of the oldest lineups ever seen in college football, so they will have a lot of holes to fill for the 2026 season.
Never fear: Cignetti already has a big class of transfers on its way to Bloomington to reload for another title run according to ESPN.
Miami will have plenty of new faces, too, but the Canes have always been a strong high school recruiting presence and also are willing to play ball in the portal.