This is an opinion column.
They asked Curt Cignetti what he was going to do after coaching Indiana to its first national championship in football.
“Drink a beer,” Cignetti said.
So, no, it turns out that college football’s latest Mr. Big Shot is not the next Nick Saban, after all. As every Alabama fan knows, Saban would have been on the phone with the next two recruiting classes before the celebratory confetti finished dropping from the sky.
At least that’s how they wrote the legend.
The truth is that Cignetti just accomplished something that no coach in the history of the sport ever even thought possible. Indiana is a champion in football. That’s … weird. What’s next, the long-awaited rise of Rutgers (featuring former Alabama quarterback Dylan Lonergan)? The return of UCLA (led by Bob Chesney, the next hot coach from James Madison)?
Three different teams from the Big Ten have now won back-to-back-to-back national championships. Which Big Ten school will answer the bell and say, “Hold my beer, Cignetti.”
And you can’t spell “second to the Big Ten” without the SEC.
Miami was built like an old SEC team. It wasn’t enough. The Canes even had home-field advantage for the title game. The Hoosiers’ 27-21 victory was storybook stuff. Indiana went for it twice on fourth and 5 on the game-winning drive.
Cignetti is a certified wild man after that.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Boom.
The second fourth-down conversion was that all-time touchdown run by Heisman-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza. What a call. Mendoza broke down and cried after the game was over. We haven’t seen anything like it since Cam Newton did it for Auburn in his senior season.
“All for the glory of God,” Mendoza said, but I’m pretty sure not even God thought Indiana could ever win a championship in football.
No, college football is not broken. Perhaps it has never been better.
Expand the playoffs tomorrow. Make it a 24-team field. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is scared, but the Big Ten makes the rules now.
My first two questions going into the offseason: One, how does the SEC respond, and, second, what’s it going to take to get Cignetti to Alabama?
That’s probably a pipe dream at the moment, but the Crimson Tide should probably start thinking about contingency plans beyond coach Kalen DeBoer. I’m not saying fire the guy tomorrow, but we are now two full seasons removed from the Saban era of college football and Alabama is suddenly an afterthought.
It’s the Big Ten’s world, and Alabama is just another team supplying the players.
Good coaches these days can flip a roster with one transfer window. That’s why Auburn might now be ahead of Alabama. Who needs five-star recruits? Five-star freshmen are the biggest wastes of money in college football. Just restock with hungry juniors and seniors every season. That’s the new model.
If we learned anything from Cignetti, then it’s bet on high-character upperclassmen with something to prove.
If DeBoer doesn’t make the semifinals next year, then Alabama should take its five-star bankroll and give it all to Cignetti after the 2026 regular season.
Notre Dame looks like the early favorite to win the next national championship, and LSU is my pick in the SEC. Both of those teams dominated the transfer window. (I know, I know. Lane Kiffin will figure out a way to screw it up.)
Texas will be another favorite and if you want an SEC dark horse then keep an eye on Vanderbilt. Alabama? They’re betting on an unproven quarterback and a five-star recruit to revive the running game. It’s a huge gamble.
With DeBoer, Alabama fell apart when it mattered for the second year in a row. Was it depth? Was it strength and conditioning? Was it coaching? Miami and Indiana had one important thing in common that Alabama lacked in 2025. Both the Canes and Hoosiers had strong running games. If DeBoer can’t figure it out in 2026, then he’s done.
Start saving your pennies for Cignetti. Ask Saban to deliver the bag.
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