When Indiana won a national championship, fans of lovable losers everywhere could cross the Rubicon from hope to belief.
Why not Kentucky? Seriously, we can ask that question now.
Money matters, but Curt Cignetti proved teams don’t need to outspend Texas.
A dividing line separates hope from belief.
Long before Indiana rewired our thinking for what a longtime doormat could achieve, hope could be found in college football’s bleakest, meekest pockets.
Fans never needed permission to hope. They’d find hope in seemingly ordinary developments, too. When woebegone State U. hired a new weight room coach, that’d ignite hope for a fiercer, tougher, more determined brand of ball!
Cross the Rubicon from hope to belief, though, and you could be accused of losing the plot.
Buy IU championship books, prints
It’s part of fandom to hope the cellar dweller you rooted for would claw its way to 9-4. It’s quite another thing to believe it would happen or, my goodness, to believe the longtime loser you support would be playing on the final day of the season.
Then along came a coach called Cig, a quarterback named Mendoza and a chant that goes like “Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!” and every fan base from Kentucky to Illinois to Missouri gained permission to not just hope but believe their never-won-much program could not only make the playoff, but even dream of the grand prize.
“We’re 16-0, national champions at Indiana University, which I know a lot of people thought was never possible,” Curt Cignetti said after his Hoosiers did the unthinkable.
Those words will go from Cignetti’s lips and straight into the veins of fans of other lovable losers. Even if Indiana’s outhouse-to-penthouse success is likely to remain more the exception than the rule, that the Hoosiers did it at all allows for hope to morph into belief.
Take it from Curt Cignetti: Spend NIL war chest smartly
You might be wondering, how can a school like Kentucky or Illinois be expected to outspend a football megabrand like Texas or Ohio State?
Answer: It doesn’t have to. Spend smarter, not more.
Take it from Cignetti.
“Our NIL is nowhere near what people think it is,” Cignetti said after Indiana beat Miami, 27-21, to win the national championship, “so you can throw that (narrative) out.”
Roster payrolls are not a matter of public record, but Cignetti’s assessment tracks with the industry view that, while Indiana is no pauper in the spending wars, it’s not putting the Texas oil tycoons to shame.
Think about it, Cignetti built the spine of this roster by bringing along his best players from James Madison. Packing up Sun Belt wares didn’t break the bank. Indiana won by mining underappreciated talent, making smart buys, then developing those guys into stars, while amassing a mature and physical roster. Sharp selection of Fernando Mendoza in the quarterback portal wars went a long way, too, toward building a champion.
None of that is easy, but Indiana provided inspiration it’s not impossible — if you have the right CEO. Indiana got this thing started when athletic director Scott Dolson nailed his coaching hire. Cignetti wins. He warned his adversaries of that from the jump. Clearly, he knows how to spot fellow winners, too.
‘You have to know what kind of players to go after,’ Cuban said. ‘… Like coach says: ‘I want production, not potential.’ And understanding that is big.”
Kentucky, dare to believe in football success
Look, let’s not kid ourselves. Teams won’t position themselves for greatness by being cheap, and Indiana counts Cuban, a billionaire, among its donors. Having a billionaire or two among your donor base is part of the playbook. But, it’s not just about spending. It’s about knowing where and on whom to spend.
Texas spent a war chest on a roster that lost three more times than Indiana lost this season.
All the money in a billionaire booster’s portfolio won’t eradicate the need for discipline, physicality and composure. Indiana had that, in spades, plus a polished and clutch veteran quarterback.
“We sent a message, first of all, to society that if you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and you’ve got the right people, anything’s possible,” Cignetti said. “Are there eight first-round draft choices on this team? Probably not. No, there aren’t.”
Indiana has several future NFL players on its team, but Mendoza might be the only one selected in the draft’s first round next spring. Contrast that with Alabama and producing six first-round draft picks in 2021. Such stockpiles are more difficult in this NIL and transfer landscape, where talent spreads out more.
It spreads to places like Kentucky.
Big Blue Nation, located right across the Ohio River from Hoosier Land, had a front-row view to Indiana’s success. They must be wondering, why not us?
On cue, Kentucky is assembling what 247Sports pegs as the nation’s No. 9-ranked transfer class. New coach Will Stein, a 36-year-old Louisville native who played for U of L but grew up a Wildcats fan, lacks Cignetti’s pedigree or his track record, but he’s just the type of hire who could galvanize the booster class.
Yes, Kentucky is foremost a basketball school and one of college football’s losingest programs. Sounds like Indiana as of two years ago.
“It can be done,” Stein said recently. “That’s the exciting part about college football now.”
Indiana shattered college football’s permission structure. Hope existed since time immemorial. Now, thanks to the Hoosiers, Kentucky and their kind gained permission to believe.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
