Sellout crowds rock Memorial Stadium on 17th Street. (Photo credit IU Athletic Department)

America’s greatest sports turnaround

Like any college alum, I am capable of displaying unvarnished bias for my school. But todays opine is not hyperbole nor is it untrue. It is based on facts and passes the eye test. There has never been a sports turnaround quite like what has taken place the last two years in Bloomington, Indiana.

Indiana University is home to the college football team with the 2nd most losses all-time. (Entering the season IU had the all-time lead with 715 losses but was passed by Northwestern.) After yet another losing season in 2023, featuring just 3 wins and 9 losses, IU dramatically flipped the switch. In 2024, IU shocked the college football world, winning 11 and losing just twice while making the College Football Playoffs. IU was ranked 10th in the nation.

Many experts opined last season was a fluke (easy schedule, down year in the Big Ten, yada, yada) that amounted to nothing more than a tantalizing mirage.

Undaunted, IU delivered a miraculous encore. The Hoosiers ran the table, going undefeated in the regular season. Last Saturday, IU took down mighty Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game. Riding a wave of momentum, the Hoosiers enter the College Football Playoff as the No. 1 ranked team and only undefeated team in the nation. The leading candidate to win college football’s coveted Heisman Trophy is IU quarterback Fernando Mendoza, nicknamed “HeisMendoza” by IU fans.

Football is king at Indiana University. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

A football school

Former IU basketball coach Bob Knight, speaking at Senior Night decades ago, said he wanted to be buried upside down so his “critics can kiss my ass.” Knight, who died two years ago, must be facing right side up now, turning over in his grave as IU has become a… gulp, football school.

And why not? Football is America’s favorite sport. NFL ratings dwarf ratings of other sports. For example, when it was played as a normal football game (it’s a flag football contest now) the postseason NFL Pro Bowl all-star game regularly drew higher ratings than any NBA game except the NBA Finals.

College football is also hugely popular, drawing big ratings. Increasingly, broadcasters not usually associated with college football are choosing to carry even mediocre matchups, instead of original entertainment programming or reruns of popular shows.

A new sheriff comes to town

When he was introduced as IU’s new football coach in December 2023, Curt Cignetti wasted no time establishing things would be different, effective immediately.

Described by some as a “cocky nerd,” Cignetti flashed his trademark no nonsense confidence during an afternoon press conference that introduced him to Hoosier Nation. Cignetti invited any doubters to “Google me. I win.” Later, while addressing fans at an IU basketball game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Cignetti doubled down saying, “I’ve never taken a backseat to anybody and don’t plan on starting now!” Yowza!

Positive culture in the football program, barely detectable for decades in Bloomington, was resurrected. After watching Cignetti’s introductory press conference, I texted several friends with news that, in just 25 minutes of remarks and Q&A, Cignetti supercharged IU’s laissez-faire football culture.

Unlike the sheriff in “Blazing Saddles,” Coach Cignetti was welcomed with open arms. (Photo credit The Rolling Tape)

Almost instantaneously NIL money flowed into the athletic department. It’s worth noting IU has 800,000 alumni, the largest alumni base in America (including the likes of Mark Cuban, Joe Buck, and me).

Cignetti’s presence quickly overshadowed hapless hoops coach Mike Woodson. When Cignetti occasionally showed up at basketball games, he stole the spotlight at IU’s hoops shrine, a.k.a., Assembly Hall. Woodson, painfully in over his head, pretended to be a tough coach. When he fell out of favor with fans and local media last season, Woodson was run out of town on the proverbial rail.

A perfect storm

Like in the movie “The Perfect Storm,” conditions were ripe for a dramatic change regarding IU football fortunes. Boatloads of NIL money. The transfer portal buzzing with prospects. A new coach with a proven track record with a number of his high-quality players following him to Bloomington. Toss in an athletic director seemingly in need of reinforcing his stature as leader of IU athletics and the recipe was set for IU’s stunning football turnaround.

IU Athletic Director Scott Dolson deserves the credit for thoroughly evaluating the coaching landscape and discovering Cignetti. Dolson is an affable man with a charming dose of aw-shucks in his southern Indiana twang. Unfortunately, for several years prior to hiring Cignetti, the capable Dolson was saddled with an insufferable basketball coach, Mike Woodson.

Credible sources say former IU Board of Trustees Chairman Quinn Buckner either forced his friend Woodson on AD Dolson in 2021, and/or protected Woodson when it became apparent Woody was not a good coach. It’s been reported that, after another subpar season in 2023-2024, in a meeting that included Dolson and a popular IU sports podcaster, Woodson openly dissed Dolson. According to the podcaster who was present, Woodson told his boss that he would be the hoops coach at Indiana for as long as he wanted, and that only he (Woodson) would decide when to leave. Dolson said nothing as Woodson committed blatant insubordination.

A perfect storm hit Bloomington in December 2023. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine, The Weather Channel app radar)

With the success of Cignetti’s first season top-of-mind, and signaling that football was surpassing basketball in B-town, fans booed loudly and crowds dwindled at venerable Assembly Hall. The path was now clear for Dolson to shepherd Woodson out the door. With no foreseeable way to salvage hoops as long as Woodson was coach, IU positioned it as Woody having decided to retire rather than outright fire him.

Going forward with regards to football, IU should resist the temptation to build a mammoth football stadium. Instead, take a page from Duke basketball. Duke, a perennial Top Ten program, plays in smallish Cameron Indoor Stadium, seating capacity 9,314. Cameron Indoor is a loud, iconic stadium that gives the Blue Devils an immeasurable home court advantage.

Indiana’s Memorial Stadium has the same potential. With a capacity of just 52,692 Indiana’s stadium can become college football’s Cameron Indoor. The seats are right up against the field, with little room between team benches and grandstands. A true home field advantage.

The only downside to the wildly successful IU football team is it provides a measure of air cover (known as sports-washing) whereby sports are used to distract from unseemly policy.

Coinciding with the football team’s thrilling ascension – orchestrated by the athletic department, not by IU’s administration as some would like you to believe – IU administrators have gone all in implementing draconian measures across campus. At the behest of the state’s ultra-conservative governor and legislature, IU’s leadership proceeds tearing down what was once one of America’s premier, highly respected public universities. As the arrow points up for the football team, the university slides toward mediocrity.

On the field, despite vocal naysayers like ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, who is arguably the Southeastern Conference’s biggest cheerleader, Indiana has proven it is not a one-hit wonder. Hopefully, Finebaum, who is especially partial to Alabama, will get his wish: The Big Ten’s Indiana Hoosiers vs. the SEC’s Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. If I was a betting man my money would be on Indiana.

Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!

MIRACLE ON 17th STREET