Curt Cignetti made sure Big Ten media day ended with a bang.
The Indiana coach, fresh off a national championship in January, used his closing remarks Thursday to throw his support behind the Big Ten while delivering what sounded like a clear dig at the SEC.
“We don’t run a hype machine up here in the Midwest,” Cignetti said. “We believe everything’s earned, not given.
And when we fall short, we say, ‘We fell short.’ We don’t cry a river and whine and complain.
And that’s why we’re the best.”
He doubled down with a blunt endorsement of his league: “The Big Ten is the best league in football… We don’t run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. We believe everything’s earned, not given.
And when we fall short, we say, ‘We fell short.’ We don’t cry a river and whine and complain.
And that’s why we’re the best.”
The comments landed in the middle of a familiar college football argument, with some SEC voices already pushing back on the conference’s new nine-game league schedule. Lane Kiffin has complained that the change could leave more SEC teams out of the playoff, while ESPN’s Laura Rutledge has said SEC teams could be “gassed” by season’s end.
Cignetti’s remarks also came as other SEC defenders have been making their case in different ways. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has even threatened to cancel the Longhorns’ home-and-home series with Notre Dame over concerns about how the selection committee weighs strength of schedule.
At Big Ten media day, though, the spotlight was on Cignetti for a different reason: Indiana’s title run has turned his press conference into must-see material.
And he made it clear he’s not interested in letting the program coast.
“It’s time to turn the page, which I don’t have a problem doing,” Cignetti told ESPN on Thursday. “Our coaches don’t have a problem doing that, and the core group that was with us last year in the locker room do that well too.”
Cignetti said he and his staff will be “stalking complacency” in the locker room, though he also pointed out that Indiana’s roster has changed a lot since January.
“Our guys know the blueprint, the plan, the process, the standard, and they help the new ones assimilate,” Cignetti said. “And so far I like what I see.”
Indiana’s schedule should offer a calm opening stretch. The Hoosiers begin at home against North Texas, Howard, Western Kentucky and Northwestern before heading on the road to Rutgers. The real test arrives in October, when Indiana faces Ohio State and Michigan in back-to-back weeks.
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