{"id":238731,"date":"2025-07-26T22:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T22:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/238731\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T22:38:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T22:38:14","slug":"curt-cignetti-indiana-football-are-center-of-attention-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/238731\/","title":{"rendered":"Curt Cignetti, Indiana football are center of attention again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana<\/a> is the center of attention in the college football world. Again. And it\u2019s only July.<\/p>\n

A single game hasn\u2019t been played, but Curt Cignetti<\/a> and the Hoosiers are ruffling feathers once more, becoming quite possibly the hottest topic in college football.<\/p>\n

This comes days after Indiana\u2019s appearance at Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas, where Cignetti was his usual brash self during his media sessions. Cignetti knows how to stir up a crowd, and he\u2019s done it once more, this time over a month before the 2025 season begins.<\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s presence at Media Days began with Cignetti giving an opening statement at the main podium. Most of his monologue included his expectations for his team\u2019s season, but it also included what could be considered a follow-up to his most notable comment from last year\u2019s Media Days.<\/p>\n

\u201cYear one is in the books. One hundred twenty-six years of Indiana football. Best season in Indiana history. No. 1 out of 126,\u201d Cignetti said in his opening statement.<\/p>\n

Cignetti may seem like he\u2019s simply complimenting his coaching staff and players, but he may have been backing up what he said during Media Days in 2024.<\/p>\n

Last year in Indianapolis, Cignetti said: \u201cNow, I can tell you, normally at these things I stand up here and we\u2019re picked to win the league. It\u2019s just usually how it\u2019s been. I have been picked next to last twice, which\u2014we were picked 17th out of an 18-team league, and I get it. The two times we were picked next to last, in 2022, we won the conference championship, and in 2017 we inherited an 8-45 team and won eight in a row and played the last game of the year for the conference championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

He followed that up with: \u201cNow, I\u2019m not into making predictions, that\u2019s just a historical fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cignetti\u2019s bold statement ended up being true. The Hoosiers were in contention for the Big Ten championship during the final week of the season and certainly didn\u2019t finish 17th in the league.<\/p>\n

Even though his comments held true throughout the season, the talking heads of college football don\u2019t seem to be giving Cignetti the benefit of the doubt for some of his statements during this year\u2019s Media Days.<\/p>\n

ON3+: Takeaways from Curt Cignetti\u2019s Big Ten Football Media Days podium appearance<\/a><\/p>\n

After his podium appearance, Cignetti went on Big Ten Network to do a segment with their panelists, something that every coach participated in throughout the week.<\/p>\n

What every other coach didn\u2019t do is mention that what gives them the most satisfaction as a coach is \u201cbeating somebody\u2019s ass,\u201d and that shifted the attention right to Cignetti.<\/p>\n

Many were put off by the comment because Cignetti doesn\u2019t hesitate to say something brash instead of remaining clich\u00e9. While it\u2019s certainly unconventional, it fires up Hoosier fans, and that\u2019s exactly what he sets out to do every time he gets handed a microphone.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jul 22, 2025; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti speaks to the media during the Big Ten NCAA college football media days at Mandalay Bay Resort. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

His comment on BTN also draws comparisons to another one of Cignetti\u2019s one-liners from a year ago.<\/p>\n

He said that \u201cWe\u2019re just going into an old stadium to kick somebody\u2019s ass\u201d when talking about playing at the Rose Bowl, which again angered a contingent of fans and media alike.<\/p>\n

Of course, Cignetti and IU beat UCLA<\/a> handily, as they did with almost every one of the 11 opponents they defeated.<\/p>\n

While the Hoosiers backed up every bit of Cignetti\u2019s words throughout the 2024 season, people throughout the country still couldn\u2019t handle what Cignetti had to say this time around. But that obviously didn\u2019t stop him from joining in on the most heated debate in all of college football: the Big Ten vs. the SEC.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what most of this discourse is about, as SEC fans and media can\u2019t handle\u2014or, I suppose, can\u2019t conceptualize\u2014that there\u2019s a historically awful program rising to prominence due to the new playoff model.<\/p>\n

In response to this, the SEC somehow believes that teams like Indiana need to play a gauntlet of a schedule to earn a playoff spot, as there were some clamoring for 9-3 South Carolina or 9-3 Alabama to be put in over 11-1 Indiana.<\/p>\n

Cignetti got a chance to comment on this, and he didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwelve of the 16 SEC teams play three G5 or an FCS game. Twelve of those teams play 36 games, 29 G5 games and seven FCS games, and one less conference game,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

ON3 NATIONAL: Indiana\u2019s schedule sparked a playoff debate, now Curt Cignetti is fanning the flames<\/a><\/p>\n

Because of these numbers, Cignetti said that his team \u201cwould just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy,\u201d and that was evident by his canceling of a home-and-home series with Virginia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people don\u2019t like it. I\u2019m more focused on those nine conference games. Not only do we want to play nine conference games, okay, and have the four-four championship\u2014the playoff format, we want to have play-in games to decide who plays in those playoffs,\u201d Cignetti explained.<\/p>\n

Not only did Cignetti attack the SEC\u2019s scheduling argument, but he also took a shot at how his conference counterpart wants to sort out the playoff. Cignetti prefers a model where the top two finishers in conference standings automatically get in, while the No. 3 finisher plays the No. 6 and so does the No. 4 and No. 5.<\/p>\n

Both the Big Ten and SEC would be set up this way, but the folks down South prefer a model where the selection committee gets to decide the playoff participants aside from the five conference champions.<\/p>\n

What people seem to forget is that what makes college football great is competition, not debating over whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is better. Cignetti and Indiana understand that, as they\u2019re not there to debate, but rather compete at the highest level.<\/p>\n

Cignetti may seem like he\u2019s trying to ruffle feathers for the sake of it, but that couldn\u2019t be further from the case. He\u2019s trying to fire up his players and his fans while bringing his program to the forefront of the college football world.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s certainly done that, as you can\u2019t go one scroll on social media without seeing someone post about Indiana football.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t used to be that way, but Curt Cignetti has made it happen.<\/p>\n

Not yet a member of TheHoosier? Take advantage of our launch with On3 and\u00a0join our community<\/a>! Just $1 for your first week and then 50% off the rest of your FIRST YEAR! Join\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana is the center of attention in the college football world. Again. And it\u2019s only July. A single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16784,7,723,26781,20593,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-238731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-curt-cignetti","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-in","11":"tag-indiana-football","12":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-bloomington","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114921937576223018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}