Indiana’s rise under Curt Cignetti has already turned the program into one of college football’s most unlikely success stories. Josh Pate thinks it could get even bigger.
On “Josh Pate’s College Football Show,” Pate said that if the Hoosiers were to repeat their 2025 run - another undefeated season, another national title, and another Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback - they would cross into a different level of historical significance.
“I’m already of the opinion that you could argue that last year's Indiana season was the greatest accomplishment in the history of college football,” Pate said.
“Even if you disagree, you would probably grant me that it belongs in the conversation. If they run that thing undefeated again and they win a national title again and Cignetti has another Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, then it's the greatest story in the history of college football.”
That’s a remarkable place for Indiana to even be mentioned. The Hoosiers have long been one of the sport’s struggling programs, carrying a 509-692-38 all-time record according to College Football Reference. But everything changed when the school hired Cignetti from James Madison before the 2024 season.
He wasted no time. In his first year, Indiana went 11-2, reached the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history, and posted the program’s first double-digit win season. Then came 2025, when the Hoosiers went 16-0, won the school’s first national championship and watched quarterback Fernando Mendoza become the first Indiana player to win the Heisman Trophy and the first to be taken No. 1 in the NFL draft since 1938.
Now the question is whether Indiana can keep this going or slide back toward the version of the program many fans grew up with. Pate’s point is that another season like 2025 would make that conversation irrelevant.
The schedule gives Indiana a real shot to stay in the hunt. The Hoosiers host Ohio State and USC, and they’ll travel to Washington and Michigan.
Those are the four toughest games on the slate, but all four are winnable. Even if Indiana stumbles once or twice, the path to the College Football Playoff is still there.
A second straight title would push the Hoosiers from a stunning underdog story into something even rarer: one of the most dominant and improbable runs the sport has ever seen. With a manageable schedule and another talented roster, Indiana has a chance to show that 2025 was the start of something bigger in Bloomington.
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IU Alumni Just Got A Major Update In The Fight For Control
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For IU alumni, the ruling keeps the focus on a board-control battle that has already reshaped how much influence they can expect to have in the schools future. The judges decision leaves the broader political fight intact, but it removes one of the legal challenges that had threatened the new arrangement and gives the governors position a significant boost as the issue moves forward. [Read more 🡒]
Former Hoosier Lands A Massive Topps Honor Fans Never Saw Coming
Fernando Mendozas rise from Indiana to the top of the football card world has taken another eye-catching turn. Topps announced the 2026 Flagship Football set will arrive Aug. 21, with pre-orders opening July 20, and the release matters well beyond the hobby because it marks Topps first Flagship Football product since getting back the NFL license in April. The set is built around the kind of chase collectors expect from a major launch, with one relic or autograph per box and a slate of short-print inserts designed to keep the buzz going.
For Hoosier fans, Mendoza has already become one of the more unusual former Indiana success stories to follow, especially after his draft-day card surge and the attention that has followed him into the league. Theres also a layer of intrigue here because Mendozas personal card collection has its own headline-grabbing connection to his college days, which only adds to the sense that his hobby profile is still climbing even as the bigger reveal around this Topps release remains the part everyone will be watching for next. [Read more 🡒]
Indianas Portal Haul Just Earned Serious National Respect
ESPNs latest transfer rankings offered another sign that Indianas portal work is being taken seriously well beyond Bloomington. The updated top-100 list for the 2026 season included five Hoosiers, with two players landing in the top 20 and three more inside the top 50, a strong reflection of how much talent the program has added as it reshapes its roster.
Nick Marsh and Josh Hoover are the headliners in that group, with Marsh viewed as one of the best wideouts in the portal and Hoover set to take over at quarterback after a winding recruiting path that brought him back to Indianas doorstep. Add Wisconsin lineman Joe Brunner at the top of his position group, and the Hoosiers have the kind of portal haul that can change the conversation around what this team might be able to become. [Read more 🡒]