{"id":681891,"date":"2026-01-16T14:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/681891\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:02:14","slug":"indiana-footballs-rise-is-a-living-nightmare-for-some-fans-of-archrival-purdue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/681891\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana football\u2019s rise is a \u2018living nightmare\u2019 for some fans of archrival Purdue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tommy Barrett never thought he\u2019d have found himself in this particular hell: sandwiched between two raucous Indiana fans amid a mass of them at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, mouth agape, watching the school he\u2019s rooted against for over 15 years reach the doorstep of college football immortality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to describe it,\u201d Barrett said, \u201cis it\u2019s a living nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid Indiana\u2019s improbable climb from the college football cellar to Monday\u2019s national championship game against No. 10 Miami, thousands of die-hard Purdue fans like Barrett \u2014 an Indianapolis native who graduated from the school in 2017 \u2014 have had to face the same reality.<\/p>\n

Indiana already has five national titles in men\u2019s basketball to Purdue\u2019s none, a fact IU fans are quick to rub in their rivals\u2019 faces. Now the Hoosiers are on the precipice of another trump card in the storied in-state rivalry \u2014 in football, of all things.<\/p>\n

It matters not that the Boilermakers have dominated, comparatively speaking, on the hardwood for the past two decades in this historically hoops-first state, nor that Indiana\u2019s last basketball title came way back in 1987.<\/p>\n

Although Matt Painter has turned Purdue into one of the nation\u2019s best and most consistent men\u2019s basketball programs, currently ranked fifth, it still lost when it finally reached the national title game two seasons ago. And here Indiana fans are, a game away from having the ultimate one-word rebuttal.<\/p>\n

Banners.<\/p>\n

All this, while Purdue football went 2-10 in 2025, including 0-9 in Big Ten play. So, yes, Boilermakers fans are going through it.<\/p>\n

Barrett\u2019s situation is even more unique (and painful): His wife, Courtney, is a proud IU grad, one absolutely reveling in her alma mater\u2019s newfound success. The couple had friends over to their home in Indianapolis on New Year\u2019s Day to watch the Rose Bowl, where Indiana routed Alabama 38-3. Watching in horror, that was the day Barrett recognized where this cream-and-crimson train was probably headed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is potentially the worst thing that\u2019s ever happened to me in my life,\u201d Barrett said of IU\u2019s rise. \u201cI know in my heart they\u2019re a good football team. I just can\u2019t fathom what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrett\u2019s sister-in-law, Kaitlyn, like his wife, is also an IU grad who lives in Atlanta. And with a built-in place to stay, Barrett couldn\u2019t push back when Courtney wanted to attend the Peach Bowl national semifinal earlier this month, despite it going against every fiber of his being.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love my wife,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cThat\u2019s the most important piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while Courtney and Kaitlyn succeeded in dragging Barrett to Indiana\u2019s eventual 55-26 rout of Oregon, the sisters couldn\u2019t get him to don any IU gear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never,\u201d Barrett added, \u201cwear that damn color.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrett\u2019s fandom is just one example, but it\u2019s emblematic of a portion of the Purdue faithful: die-hard fans, from Indiana or elsewhere, whose disdain for their rival usurps any other emotions.<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t wait for this once in a lifetime FLUKE season to be over and for them to return to reality next season in the gutter<\/p>\n

\u2014 BoilerMuse (@BoilerMuse) January 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, some Purdue fans, especially those who grew up in the state, are more torn. Not because they like Indiana, but because the state is being represented on one of college sports\u2019 defining stages.<\/p>\n

Kylee Kleven, the sports editor of Purdue\u2019s student newspaper, The Exponent, said she\u2019s had that exact conversation with colleagues on her staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndiana representation \u2026 you should root for Indiana because obviously the idea of an Indiana school making it as far as they have (is rare), but at the same time it\u2019s like, should we?\u201d said Kleven, a third-generation Purdue student. \u201cThis is the team that I haven\u2019t rooted for my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Connolly \u2014 whose mother grew up about a mile from Mackey Arena and whose grandparents, aunts and uncles all attended the school in West Lafayette \u2014 understands rivalry dynamics better than most.<\/p>\n

Connolly covered Clemson as a media member in the 2010s, during its heyday under Dabo Swinney, when the Tigers won two national championships. Just as importantly to people in South Carolina, the Tigers won seven consecutive games against the rival Gamecocks.<\/p>\n

That rivalry, like Purdue-Indiana, Connolly said, has historically been more consequential in one major sport than the other. Which is to say, if this were Indiana basketball on the brink of another banner, Purdue fans would be even more in shambles than they are now.<\/p>\n

But considering it\u2019s football?<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth programs were so bad (historically) that I don\u2019t think people really cared,\u201d Connolly said. \u201cNow in basketball, it\u2019s one of the best rivalries that there is. I would put it right up there with Duke-North Carolina. I just think it\u2019s that intense, that heated, that hated. \u2026 It\u2019s a basketball state.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not up for debate for the coaches who have lived it. (First-year Indiana coach Darian DeVries gets his indoctrination on Jan. 27, when the Boilermakers come to Assembly Hall.) Tom Crean, IU\u2019s basketball coach from 2009-17, went 5-10 against Purdue in his nine seasons in Bloomington \u2014 including losing his first five games straight against the Hoosiers\u2019 bitter rival.<\/p>\n

However, that sixth game, in February 2012 at Mackey Arena? Crean still remembers every detail, down to the snow on the ground. But nothing stands out, over a decade later, more than IU\u2019s bus pulling up to the loading dock pregame \u2014 and students surrounding it while hurling insults and boos at his Hoosiers hours before tipoff.<\/p>\n

Crean intentionally got off the bus first, then stood by the door high-fiving all his players as they disembarked, soaking in the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou definitely felt like you were walking in, in the old days, to the Roman Colosseum,\u201d Crean said. \u201cWatching them walk in, nobody was nervous. Nobody was giddy. Nobody was overwhelmed. \u2026 There\u2019s really no feeling like going into the visitors\u2019 locker room, and you feel like your team is absolutely ready to win this huge game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crean also has a one-of-one view of what\u2019s transpiring with Indiana football. Because long before he coached against Painter, back in 1994-95, Crean spent one season as an assistant at Pittsburgh, where he regularly interacted with Pitt assistant coaches in other sports.<\/p>\n

That includes the then-tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator: a smart, focused, uber-detailed up-and-comer \u2026 named Curt Cignetti.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirty-one years ago, Curt Cignetti was a straight business assassin. Even as a recruiting coordinator, he was not getting off his game,\u201d Crean said of the current Indiana head football coach. \u201cWhen you look at what he did, and you look at the way he evaluated prospects, and you look at the fact that he\u2019s got top to bottom organization of his program (now) \u2014 I mean, I think of Matt Painter like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most significant similarities Crean, who now works as a college basketball commentator, sees between Cignetti and Painter is their track record of development.<\/p>\n

Painter\u2019s best example is Zach Edey, a former sub-400-ranked recruit whom he helped turn into the first two-time Wooden Award winner since Ralph Sampson in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cignetti has turned the losingest football program of all time into a total wagon without any glitzy five-star recruits, instead leaning on productive players from lower-level schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody that was going against (Cignetti at James Madison) knew what he was about; the nation didn\u2019t know what he was about. Now the nation knows what he\u2019s about,\u201d Crean said. \u201cI doubt you\u2019d find anybody in those leagues that didn\u2019t have respect or jealousy or animosity or reverence for him the way he was winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thing is, the line between respect and hate is incredibly thin, especially with rivals in such close geographic quarters.<\/p>\n

All of Barrett, Kleven and Connolly said they\u2019ll be watching Monday\u2019s national championship game, albeit with differing sentiments. Kleven said she\u2019ll be tuning in with pained respect, appreciating Indiana\u2019s caliber of play while also lamenting her friends in Bloomington who \u201cnever watched football until Fernando Mendoza wins the Heisman and IU goes undefeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Barrett will be watching with his wife (through gritted teeth), while already thinking ahead, he acknowledged, to a few months down the line: When the Final Four is in Indianapolis, and where Painter could finally deliver Purdue the men\u2019s basketball championship it has chased its entire history.<\/p>\n

As for Connolly? He\u2019s fully expecting Indiana to finish the job. But that doesn\u2019t mean he isn\u2019t also trying to talk himself into some tremendous cosmic trade-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you told me if Indiana wins a football championship, it guarantees Purdue a national championship in basketball, I would 100 percent sign up with that,\u201d Connolly said. \u201cBut otherwise? Go Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n