It doesn’t get much more surprising than the Hoosiers’ national championship title.
Indiana is not only one of the biggest college football long shots to win it all, but one of the biggest championship long shots in sports history. Period.
Coming into the season, the Hoosiers were 100/1 at BetMGM Sportsbook to be the last team standing.
After pulling off the unthinkable, Indiana is joining some of the most out-of-nowhere title teams there have ever been.
According to Sports Odds History, Indiana’s preseason odds were the longest for a national championship winner since at least 2001, breaking the mark set by the Auburn Tigers, who were 50/1, in 2010.
But it goes much deeper than that.
Across the six major sports leagues, Indiana had the second-longest preseason odds to win the championship since tracking began, according to the Action Network, trailing only the 1999 Rams, who were 150/1.
🏆 Indiana opened the season 100-1 to win the national title and gets it done
They become the second-longest preseason odds champion across the six major sports leagues since tracking began, only behind the 1999 Rams (150-1), per @EvanHAbrams pic.twitter.com/bRliVDkNqv
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) January 20, 2026
Oddsmakers barely even gave the Hoosiers a shot at the College Football Playoff before the season, placing them around +600 to be one of the final 12 teams alive.
In the Big Ten, they were +3500, which was tied with Nebraska for the sixth-best odds to win the conference during the preseason.
Their over/under for wins in the regular season was just 8.5, which they blew out of the water, going 13-0 before completing a perfect 16-0 season during the CFP.
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Fernando Mendoza’s Heisman Trophy run was an unlikely one as well, coming into the year as a +5000 long shot to win the award.
The quarterback is a heavy favorite to go No. 1 overall in April’s NFL Draft.
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Dylan Svoboda is a versatile writer and analyst across many sports. He’s particularly knowledgeable about the big three — MLB, the NFL and the NBA.
