Why Stephen A. is ‘scared’ for Miami against Indiana (1:50)
Stephen A. Smith details why he believes it’s going to take Miami playing a near-perfect game to overcome Indiana in the College Football Playoff. (1:50)
MIAMI BEACH Fla. — Though some college football fans might consider No. 1 Indiana‘s historic run to the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Monday night a Cinderella story, university president Pamela Whitten told ESPN on Sunday that this was exactly what coach Curt Cignetti was hired to do.
“It was just an assumption that we were going to go to the national championship,” Whitten said on the eve of the CFP title game against No. 10 Miami at Hard Rock Stadium. “That was the goal. And so it’s funny now when people say, ‘Oh, aren’t you so surprised and shocked that Indiana’s in the national championship?’ I don’t want to be rude, but no. This was the goal.”
Cignetti took over a school with the most losses in major college football history and will play for the program’s first national title after leading the Hoosiers to their first two 10-win seasons ever. Indiana has produced an FBS-best 26-2 record over the past two seasons after going 9-27 in the three seasons before Whitten and athletic director Scott Dolson hired Cignetti in 2023.
“We’re here because we prepared the right way and we have the right people in the staff and in the locker room, and we have tremendous support from our president and athletic director, and we have a great fan base,” Cignetti said at the CFP media day Saturday. “We have a plan and a process, and we have great leadership and good players, and we’ve been very consistent in terms of our play in all three phases, so we’ve met every challenge. So the novelty of being here, to us, isn’t there. We’re here.”
Whitten, who was hired to lead Indiana in 2021, said that with football generating 75-80% of the revenue in college sports, the Hoosiers couldn’t treat it “like an intramural sport anymore, so we’re going to prioritize it, and we’re going to win, and we’re going to go to a national championship.” Dolson, she said, was so happy it was as if he were “unleashed.” With help from the transfer portal and NIL, Indiana skyrocketed to the No. 1 team in the country.
That it took only two years, though, has been one of the most remarkable stories in the sport.
“Obviously, the last two years, it’s been a great story,” Cignetti said. “It’s been fast progress, kind of surreal to some degree. It’s a big story nationally. I get that. But that’s separate, sort of, from our team mindset right now in terms of us physically being here and what our intentions are today, what we’ve got to get done today.”
Indiana’s win over Oregon in the semifinals was its third of the season against an AP top-five opponent, a stark reversal of history, as the Hoosiers were 1-72 against top-five teams before 2025. With a win against Miami, Cignetti would become the first FBS head coach to win a national title within his first two seasons at a school since Gene Chizik, who led Auburn to a national title in 2010, his second season with the Tigers.
“We really know we can win,” Whitten said. “All three of us walk into this, we’re going to win. We can win. There’s never been any doubt in any of our minds, that’s the goal. I’m confused by people who don’t assume that.”
