The first Much Too Early College Football Top 25 preseason poll was released approximately 30 seconds after Curt Cignetti was handed the Championship Trophy, and then finished his acceptance speech, noting that the Big Ten, except for Purdue, of course, doesn’t suck. Patience is a virtue, but is rarely observed in today’s wired, peripatetic world. And the folks casting for ...

Is the Big-10 Hosed, (Hoosiered) or Not?

Thanks, Charles, for the terrific editing job.

Cig is losing many of the players he brought with him from JMU. Will this make a difference in 2026?

One prediction of which I am certain, Indiana vs. Ohio State and Indiana at Michigan will draw a huge number of eyeballs. For viewer numbers compared to the SEC, I hope at least one of these games will kick off at 7:30 PM Eastern.

And many folks will be watching the battle of the Os, Oregon at Ohio State.

Thanks for this article Jon. The past two years have been a Cinderella story for Indiana and now with the #1 Portal class, it looks like they are not going away soon. Cignetti delivers and has a great eye for talent. We all know about Mark Cuban helping out but I also read an article that said John Cougar Mellancamp was a big contributor. Did not attend Indiana but lived close by.

2 hours ago, Jon Joseph said:

Cig is losing many of the players he brought with him from JMU. Will this make a difference in 2026?

I think it will. He had a ton of 4th, 5th, 6th year veterans that have been in his program (both JMU and Indiana) for years. That much experience in the same offensive/defensive schemes means they knew their roles inside and out, allowing them to execute their responsibilities and easily adjust within their respective boundaries when necessary (and without a lot of prompting).

Cig will certainly transfer in additional experienced help through the portal and that does make an impact. But a 5th year player with experience in other programs isn't as ideal as a 5th year guy that's been in his program from the start.

This Indiana season has a lot in common with the Ducks 2010 season under Chip Kelly. The Ducks in 2009 were good, but not good enough. 2010 brought the Ducks undefeated to the championship, but they could not close it out vs Auburn.

This championship, Indiana got the game winning INT to close the deal. Compare that to the Ducks not being able to stop Dyer at the end of the game. What if 'Dyer was DOWN' and on the next play, the Ducks forced a fumble for a big return and the Ducks sealed the game?

Both had a RED HOT new head coach who had a little different formula on how to win. I compare those Indiana back shoulder catches that were timed to perfection to Chip's zone read that nobody could stop.

But college football caught up with Chip and then the Ducks HAD to grow in recruiting to keep up with the success. I suspect the same will happen for Cig. Indiana had a roster full of over achievers that got so much better than they were in high school.

In fact, I see a similar season in 2026 for Indiana that Penn St had this year. Lose a few star players and it is not the same team anymore. Ohio St is losing some players as well. Michigan lost a few after their natty. Same with Georgia after their second championship. But I don't think Indiana will implode like Penn St did.

Quite a few teams have had 'Cinderella' seasons: TCU, Hawaii, Boise St, and most recently Texas Tech. But Indiana was the only one to carry the juice all the way to the end. You could count SMU in the early 80s, but they cheated more than everybody else at the time AND they had players who were super stars in high school.

If Cig can keep it going in 2026 and beyond, then there really is some kind of magic. But I look at this last season like drawing an inside strait in Las Vegas and cleaning out the casino - a one time thing with a lot of luck.

I predict an (8-4) or at best (9-3) season for Indiana and missing the playoffs.

But even so, Indiana should get all the credit in the world for being the one (and only?) team to go from the bottom to the top is such a short time frame with players who were not rated super highly in high school.

Pretty soon, 'Google Me' is going to be like Prime Time's 'Do you Believe?'. I can't wait until the Ducks play them again.

Great article Jon, and as long as 'Cig is there--they will be tough.

The price of Poker in the B1G has elevated; We now have quite a bunch of talented teams in the conference between the usual heavyweights in Ohio State and Michigan, (especially now with Whittingham) with newbies Indiana and Oregon, and can't forget Penn State as I believe they will be the biggest surprise in 2026. (Great new coach)

But we have a cluster of good nine win teams who will muck things up for conference powers in Illinois, Washington, USC, Iowa, etc. Half of the conference is nine wins or better? Step aside SEC?

Good gosh we have some blockbuster games on our schedules now!

One of the storylines, I believe was on WSJ, was that Cig's team didn't practice too hard. That made sense considering the experience of his players this year. They really just need to be taugh to play smart and mistake-free. Will that work with younger players?

CFB is exciting because the team changes so much from year to year, unlike the NFL. If Cig can win another Natty, or even make it to Semi-Final, this year, that will be quite a legend by itself.

Let's change the focus back to OBD, Coach Lanning!

3 hours ago, Jon Joseph said:

Thanks, Charles, for the terrific editing job.

Cig is losing many of the players he brought with him from JMU. Will this make a difference in 2026?

One prediction of which I am certain, Indiana vs. Ohio State and Indiana at Michigan will draw a huge number of eyeballs. For viewer numbers compared to the SEC, I hope at least one of these games will kick off at 7:30 PM Eastern.

And many folks will be watching the battle of the Os, Oregon at Ohio State.

There were five JMU player that started this year. It will make a difference in their leadership and their 2025 performance. Yet IU returns 12 of 22 starting players. Only their center on the OL is gone. Those other 4 OLs were recruited by IU. They have a strong RB room coming back along with 1 portal transfer built the same as the two RBs you saw this year. You might think they lose a lot at WR but Charlie Becker was only a true Sophomore. A portal transfer from Michigan, their #2 WR in 2024, tore his ACL and did not play this year. He is at full strength and practicing during the playoff weeks. They also will have an All-B10 WR from Michigan State from the portal, Nick Marsh. More speed coming off the bench that were true freshmen this year.

As far as tv goes ... I think tv stations should adjust their schedules during the year based on what teams are doing. Granted the logistics might be a problem but they own their stations and can fill time slots when needed. I want to see more of the top of the B10 matchups in prime time ET. A Wisconsin vs Northwestern on a Saturday prime time does nothing for this football addict.

One big difference for IU in 2026, but I am not sure it will matter Cignetti's process ... they will now be the hunted and not the hunter. They along with Oregon, Michigan, Ohio State will be their opponents Super Bowl.

2 hours ago, Santa Rosa Duck said:

Thanks for this article Jon. The past two years have been a Cinderella story for Indiana and now with the #1 Portal class, it looks like they are not going away soon. Cignetti delivers and has a great eye for talent. We all know about Mark Cuban helping out but I also read an article that said John Cougar Mellancamp was a big contributor. Did not attend Indiana but lived close by.

I can give you some insight on this. Mellancamp never attended college but was an IU fan growing up. In 1995 IU's fund raising was so poor for football they did not have enough funds to build an indoor practice facility like all the other B10 teams were doing. John came to the rescue and paid every dollar for it.

As far as Mark Cuban, he did not donate any football money until this summer. By that time, the 2024 and 2025 teams were already paid for. Mark is an IU grad but was a HUGE Bob Knight fan. When IU fired Knight in 2000 he swore he would never give a dime to IU whenever approached. He only gave money to "the club sport of Rugby", a team on which he played on in college. This summer he met Cignetti for the first time ever. Not only did they find out they were both from Western PA but they were also born in the same hospital.

So really Mark did not get involved financially with football until right before this last season after all the 2025 NIL deals had been signed and delivered.

1 hour ago, oregon123 said:

In fact, I see a similar season in 2026 for Indiana that Penn St had this year. Lose a few star players and it is not the same team anymore. Ohio St is losing some players as well. Michigan lost a few after their natty. Same with Georgia after their second championship. But I don't think Indiana will implode like Penn St did.

If Cig can keep it going in 2026 and beyond, then there really is some kind of magic. But I look at this last season like drawing an inside strait in Las Vegas and cleaning out the casino - a one time thing with a lot of luck.

I predict an (8-4) or at best (9-3) season for Indiana and missing the playoffs.

But even so, Indiana should get all the credit in the world for being the one (and only?) team to go from the bottom to the top is such a short time frame with players who were not rated super highly in high school.

Pretty soon, 'Google Me' is going to be like Prime Time's 'Do you Believe?'. I can't wait until the Ducks play them again.

Yes IU is losing a few star players but Cignetti has reloaded. On3 ranks their portal class #1, not as good as Oregon's recruiting classes but he has had better classes each year, the three best in the history of IU. There were many true freshman got experience in blow out games, some actually started. For example that #28 that had two long runs at the end of the Oregon game is a true freshman and has not transferred. Interesting story about Hoover the QB coming from TCU. He was a verbal commit for Tom Allen in 2022. He backed out before the National Signing Day in 2021 and decided to play back home where Sonny Dykes had been hired at TCU.

IU was predicted to be 6-6 for the year and 3-6 in the B10 this year. Their players were ranked last in the B10. I will say though looking at their 2026 schedule, like all other top B10 teams, it's tough and each of those teams have 2-4 games they could lose. So your prediction COULD be right. Based on the improvement I have seen for two years from week to week and their coaching philosophy's I don't see them losing 4 games or even 3 ... yet I could see them lose 2 games like they almost did this year.

Ohio State at home will still be brutal, a battle. At Michigan will be interesting just because one of my favorite coaches is there, Whittingham. USC at home I still lean toward an IU win. At Washington ... hard game to figure out with the chaos in Seattle this off season.

I would like Oregon to become like a rivalry game with IU. I'd like to see them play each other every year but the B10 scheduling computers don't see it that way. Purdue will always be our hated in-state rival but an Oregon-IU rivalry would be good for the B10.