There is No Debate, Indiana Delivers Greatest CFB Season Ever with National Championship

MIAMI GARDENS — Back on November 25th of 2023, back when Indiana football was a Big Ten doormat, back when dreams were impossible and basketball season was always right around the corner, the Hoosiers lost another football game.

To truly process Monday night's win over Miami in the national championship, Indiana's sixteenth win in sixteen tries, one must first process a 35-31 loss over lowly Purdue, the team's seventh loss in eight games, a ninth loss that told the story of that season.  

This was Indiana. For more than 100 years, this is what this program was. A team that came into 2025 with a grand total of three bowl wins, the most recent coming in 1991, 12 years before quarterback Fernando Mendoza was born.

On Monday night, 786 days later, on a confetti-drenched field, Indiana conquered the football universe. And with every Indiana fan still in attendance, head coach Curt Cignetti said it best while looking across Hard Rock Stadium.

"Did you ever think this was possible?"

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While many will rush to declare exactly where this unblemished season stacks up compared to some of the best we've ever seen—LSU in 2019, Miami in 2001 and other great teams spanning decades, the conversation—and the comparisons—fails to capture what we just witnessed.

This is the greatest college football season ever, and there isn't much debate. In fact, this team deserves something more—something greater, in many respects, to showcase just how implausible of a rise this program has taken under Curt Cignetti's guidance in only two seasons.

Indiana—yes, Indiana—just won a national championship in the sport of football, besting one of the game's most storied football programs 27-21 in their home stadium.

Indiana, a school with 715 losses on its football resume, more than all but one program across 138 mostly painful years, just finished a season 16-0, becoming the first FBS team to accomplish that feat since Yale did so in 1894.

Indiana, which hadn't won a Big Ten Championship since 1967 before doing so this year, cruised through the sport's most unforgiving conference. It then validated its unblemished regular season by destroying mighty Alabama and Oregon in the playoff.

Indiana, winners of 27 of its last 29 football games, just delivered its first-ever football title, as if that part was ever in question.

"It's incredible," Cignetti said following the game. "But when you have the right people in your organization, anything is possible."

It wasn't always dominant; at least not like we've grown accustomed to in recent weeks. But the victory featured meaningful contributions across all three phases, including the first blocked punt that resulted for a touchdown in College Football Playoff history.

Fernando Mendoza never looked quite comfortable. In fact, blood was pouring out of his lip before the first quarter ended, a product of Miami's relentless, overwhelming pass rush.

On 4th and five with less than 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, however, Mendoza pinballed his way for a 12-yard touchdown, putting the final remarkable touches on one of the greatest individual seasons in recent memory.

"He wasn't going to be denied," Cignetti said.

Somewhat fittingly, the Hoosiers ended Miami's final drive to win the game with an interception. Moments later, there was hysteria and disbelief, a combination of the many emotions that have followed these last few seasons.

As is the case with every championship, we'll spend the coming days and weeks trying to compartmentalize where Indiana sits among the all-time greats. But attempting to do so, in many respects, is a fruitless exercise.

LSU's 2019 brilliance didn't come full circle until Joe Burrow and Ja'marr Chase and Justin Jefferson became superstars at the next level. The same could be said about Miami's 2001 team, a roster that was littered with future All-Pros.

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On the surface, outside of its Heisman-winning quarterback, Indiana doesn't possess the same overwhelming superstar potential as these teams did, although wideouts Charlie Becker, Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr. along with others might have something to say about that.

This is where Indiana stands alone. This is where the story takes on a form that no football team—not LSU or Miami or Alabama—has taken on before. This is where a college football story stretches beyond its typical reach, blossoming into something the sporting world will try (and fail) to duplicate for decades to come.

This is a different genre of history entirely, one that has no comparison or precedent.  

Comparing this team to others that came before it fails to take into account how we arrived here after a century of lost football seasons. Whether Indiana is the best football team of all-time seems almost inconsequential at the moment.

LSU? Miami? Alabama? Take your pick.

What we just witnessed, a moment almost too surreal to process even with months of warning, just became a reality. This season will stand alone.

Indiana, yes, Indiana, just won a national championship.