{"id":868094,"date":"2026-04-17T01:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/868094\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T01:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:51:17","slug":"curt-cignetti-shoots-down-idea-indiana-spent-40-million-on-championship-roster-not-even-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/868094\/","title":{"rendered":"Curt Cignetti shoots down idea Indiana spent $40 million on championship roster: ‘Not even close’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Indiana<\/a> won its first-ever national championship this past season, the Hoosiers did it without any five-star recruits. In the NIL<\/a> era, Curt Cignetti<\/a> and Co. also weren\u2019t one of the biggest spenders, even as roster costs rise.<\/p>\n

The idea of a $40 million roster seemed like a \u201cmyth<\/a>\u201d in 2025, as On3\u2019s Pete Nakos<\/a> reported. But that number has been discussed ahead of the 2026 campaign and one general manager told On3 there could be \u201cmultiple\u201d teams hitting the threshold<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact, during an interview with Front Office Sports<\/a>, Alabama<\/a> general manager Courtney Morgan<\/a> predicted championship rosters could top $40 million in the current landscape. But after an Indiana fan page reposted the interview, Cignetti confirmed the Hoosiers did not spend that much or get close to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrect,\u201d Cignetti wrote Thursday on X<\/a>, \u201cnot even close.\u201d<\/p>\n

On3 previously reported<\/a> Indiana spent just under $20 million on the roster that took down Miami<\/a> to win the first national title in program history. But the Hoosiers have a notable alum in their corner in entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who had a strong presence around the program throughout the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n

In previous years, Cuban didn\u2019t contribute much to the Indiana football program. But he built an immediate connection with Cignetti after he arrived from James Madison<\/a> in 2024. The Indiana headman had a plan\u00a0\u2013 and it didn\u2019t necessarily involve going big-game hunting.<\/p>\n

Instead, Curt Cignetti wanted to build a culture of winning at Indiana. That resonated with Cuban<\/a>, who later made multiple donations to the program, including one ahead of this past transfer portal window<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I really jumped in because of how [Cignetti] approaches building a program,\u201d\u00a0Cuban told CBS Sports ahead of the national title game<\/a>. \u201cThey weren\u2019t about, \u2018Okay, give me enough money to go win the portal, to win this bidding war.\u2019 He had a very specific approach to his culture. \u2026 He understood roles and how to get guys. It\u2019s not even like the NBA where you might keep a guy like\u00a0Dirk [Nowitzki]\u00a0for 21 years or [Dwyane Wade]. Here, it\u2019s like, you might have him for one year. That takes a very special way of putting together a program.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need the right players who know their roles, the right coaches. Once I understood that, it was pretty straightforward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Indiana won its first-ever national championship this past season, the Hoosiers did it without any five-star recruits.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16784,7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-868094","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-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116417546488806521","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868094","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=868094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}