MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Moments before tipoff, Nick Saban took the podium during ESPN’s College GameDay broadcast and delivered his theory on the Big Ten’s recent dominance of the sport to millions of people watching at home.
In short, Saban attributes the Big Ten’s latest success to his schools’ use of lax athlete compensation rules to coax Southern athletes (who traditionally live near the SEC) to move north of the Mason-Dixon line.
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“Otherwise you’re never going to convince me,” Saban said, “because Southerners aren’t going to go North unless you pay.”
Saban twisted the knife and put his hat on the team he predicted would win it all: Miami.
Four hours later, as red and white confetti rained from the skies of Hard Rock Stadium, the Indiana Hoosiers, of all programs, perhaps the most unlikely champion in decades given their past doldrums, a basketball school in the Midwest, beat up on one of those Southern programs to win the national championship.
Indiana 27 points, Miami 21 points.
In the process, the Hoosiers completed a remarkable and unexpected three-peat two years after going 3-9 with a baffling 16-0 record for the Big Ten (Northerners!) for the first time in 73 years.
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“The guys down south… they hit some great ball and are very physical,” Indiana offensive lineman Carter Smith said afterward, “but, you know, some guys just need to open their eyes and see what’s going on here.”
Indiana head coach Kurt Cignetti turned a historic losing program into a national championship in just two years.
(Carmen Mandato via Getty Images)
Here? Land of cornfields and cattle. Motown and deep dish. The Great Lakes and the Granary. Motor City and Snow Plow.
It’s a place for hard-working, blue-collar people who say things like “You betcha” and “Uff da!” They sip cheese curds while swigging “soda” and, on many a weeknight, some of the best beer you’ll ever drink.
But on this Monday, on a perfect 60-degree day (and a cool summer night for Midwesterners) in one of the most geographically southern places in the country, Indiana, a land of farmland and fall foliage, completed one of the most dramatic transformations in the history of the industry.
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“College football has changed a lot and the balance of power has changed,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said at the postgame press conference.
Maybe a new villain is emerging in college football — a league so dominant that many across the country are shaking their fists in anger.
While the SEC failed to advance to the national championship game for the third straight year, the Big Ten made it three-peat — a stunning turnaround for college football’s rankings. A league that won the title three times in 25 years between 1997 and 2022 has achieved the treble.
“Maybe the other conference isn’t superior in all areas,” one Big Ten official joked in the SEC. “Just maybe!”
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Big Ten officials then poured onto the court to celebrate, raising their ring, middle and index fingers.
three.
Michigan. Ohio. Of these, the least likely is Indiana.
The last three football national champions came from neighboring states within a 300-mile radius, primarily including southern Indiana, central Ohio and southeastern Michigan.
“It’s unbelievable,” Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said. “It means a lot to Indiana and it means a lot to the entire league. What Indiana has done in two years is something I’ve never seen in all my years of being in sports.”
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“I feel like we’re just getting started,” Petitti said of the Big Ten’s three championships.
To put the Big Ten’s growth into perspective, consider this: The last time the league won three consecutive football championships, the Nazis were preparing to take over Germany, the Manhattan Project was beginning to develop the atomic bomb, and the iconic movie “Casablanca” was premiering.
In fact, long ago, Ohio State completed a three-year winning streak in 1942, defeating an independent football club called the Iowa Preflight, and the Buckeyes’ only loss that year was a massive outbreak of intestinal disease caused by players drinking unsanitary fountain water.
You bet the Big Ten is back!
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“This is Tony Petitti! He’s our guy!” Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson screamed with joy into a reporter’s tape recorder.
Dolson’s words were intentional, complimenting a man who has been criticized nationally for months for some often troubling ideas (not owned by him, but by the league as a whole): a 24-team playoff format and the pursuit of private equity, to name a few.
Some might say Petitti is the Bulls and college sports is the china shop. But behind him is a group of managers who support and encourage these decisions.
Now, in front of him, his other school has won it all.
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“The Indiana story. I don’t think there’s anything else like it,” Petitti said. “What this means to the state of Indiana and the fans … the transformation around this. Look at the turnout and the Rose Bowl, what happened in Atlanta and what we saw tonight.”
Despite playing on their opponent’s home court, Indiana fans – with their Redshirts – outnumbered Miami fans almost 2-to-1.
Then Dolson stood up in shock.
“I can’t believe it,” he managed to say.
Five years ago, Dolson and school president Pamela Whitten made a decision: Indiana had to excel in football. Wheaton said the staff “realigned the entire athletic department” and raised funds to transition to the NIL world, the transfer portal and revenue sharing.
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The last of that happened two years ago, when the school spent $15 million to fire Tom Allen and replace him with a 60-something coach from James Madison.
“We happen to hire the best coaches in the country,” said Whitten, herself a Southern lady who was raised in Tennessee and educated in southern Louisiana. “Indiana is the best university in the country, and now we have the best football team in the country.”
Best schools, best coaches, best universities.
It is also the largest alumni base in the country (more than 800,000).
Cignetti, his players and this group of front offices have managed to turn the worst program in college football into the winningest program over the past two seasons: 27-2.
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“It was because there was no emphasis on football,” Cignetti said later, explaining IU’s history. “Basketball school. Now you have to be good at football. We have a principal from the South who loves football and an associate director who is great at fundraising and has the largest alumni base in the country.”
Signetti also wanted to confide in something, he said.
In a comment that could have been directed at his former boss Saban or someone else who cites cash as a reason for success, the coach quipped, “Our NIL is not at all what people think it is, so you can throw it away.”
The top ten are back?
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You bet.