The context here: Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza extended an invitation to Lil Uzi — his favorite rapper — to attend the national title game if the Hoosiers made it. And so, Lil Uzi arrived at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami dressed head-to-toe in Indiana apparel, with a Mendoza jersey, fervently supporting the No. 1 team in the country.

If you told any Indiana fan just a part of that scenario even just two years ago, they would have kindly said you were off your rocker. Even now, it feels surreal. But two years ago, Indiana fans just wanted to finish the year with a winning record and maybe, maybe make a bowl game.

Indiana fans didn’t dream of a national championship because they didn’t know they could.

But a no-nonsense coach, an endearing nerd of a quarterback and a group under-recruited and overlooked players made the impossible not just possible, but achievable. They made history with their perfect 16-0 season and first-ever national championship, and they made people believe.

The Hoosiers made people believe in the value of loyalty — just ask the JMU coaches and players who followed Cignetti to Indiana, and the Indiana players who stuck around through the changes. They made people believe in the importance of hard work and selflessness — just ask Aiden Fisher and Elijah Sarratt how many hours of film they watched every week.

They made people believe that Indiana football, who had been discounted, overlooked and forgotten about for decades, could become one of the most successful college football programs in the history of the sport. They made Indiana fans care more about football than basketball. And if that’s possible, well, isn’t anything?

When Edgerrin James arrived in Indianapolis in 1999, fresh off being selected No. 1 overall by the Colts in the 1999 NFL Draft, the Florida native just saw basketball hoops. They hung on barns, they stood in driveways, they were worn down and well-loved. They represented everything the state of Indiana was about. Whether it in was taking place in a small-town gym in the middle of nowhere or in Assembly Hall, basketball was king.

It always had been, and it seemed like it probably always would be.

“When you first get to Indiana, the one thing I noticed when I got there was every house had a basketball court outside their house,” James recalled. “It was strictly basketball.”

James’ arrival ignited a period of success for the Colts that began with a 13-3 season in 1999 and culminated in a Super Bowl victory in 2006; even though James was not part of that Super Bowl team, Colts Owner Jim Irsay still sent him a championship ring. And with that early 2000s team of James, Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeney and Reggie Wayne (just to name a few) the tides began to turn.

“It instantly turned into a football state,” James said. “We did some great things. The whole state gravitated toward the football aspect and they added to their repertoire, so to speak. Indiana does basketball and football now.”

20 years later, those words once again ring true — arguably, even more so. With that Super Bowl, sports fans around Indiana got a taste of what a good football team could do for a city and a state, and they wanted that again. Now, they got it, even if it wasn’t quite in the way they envisioned.

But to be fair, no one could have ever envisioned this.

James and Wayne were among the Miami alumni at Monday’s championship game, and while their alma mater didn’t come out on top, even they couldn’t deny just how special the 2025-26 Indiana Hoosiers were.