LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The next stop on this most improbable Indiana University football season is official:
Coach Curt Cignetti’s first IU team will play at Notre Dame in the first round of the inaugural 12-team College Football playoffs at 8 p.m. Dec. 20. It is the Hoosiers’ reward for an 11-1 record and No. 8 ranking.
"We're excited about it," Cignetti said to CBS Sports after the announcement. "We're going to be playing a very good team, very well coached that's won 10 games in a row. We're a good football team, too ... I'm used to being in the playoffs and advancing in the playoffs."
IU and Notre Dame shared one opponent this season -- Purdue. The Irish beat the Boilermakers 66-7. IU won, 66-0.
Bob Knight needed two seasons to take the IU basketball team to the NCAA Tournament. So did Teri Moren with the women’s basketball team. Tracy Smith got the IU baseball team to the party in his fourth try.
Cignetti, 63, did not have the time or temperament to wait to chase greatness. He’s doing it in Year One -- as he promised that he would.
Now he gets his shot to take on Notre Dame, which is the No. 7 seed to Indiana's No. 10. According to Jeff Sagarin's computer power ratings, Notre Dame (11-1) should be favored over the Hoosiers by 9.34 points. Draft Kings sports book put the spread at 8.5 less than an hour after the announcement Sunday afternoon.
If Indiana delivers the upset, they would play No. 2 Georgia at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans Jan. 1.
The playoff bid is the latest greatest milestone in a season when IU was picked to finish as low as 17th in the 18-team Big Ten.
According to Vegas Insider, if you bet $100 on Indiana to win the national title before the season kicked off, you’re holding a ticket worth $150,000 if the Hoosiers win four more games.
The odds on IU were greater than the odds on Louisville ($10,000 on a $100 bet), Kentucky ($25,000), Western Kentucky ($100,000) and 80 other programs.
Not surprising, considering the Hoosiers never made the four-team college playoff or the Bowl Championship Series and had not played in a prime bowl game since the 1967 Rose Bowl.
The Hoosiers won a combined nine games the previous three season, including just three a year ago, with one of them a four-overtime slog against Akron.
IU athletic director Scott Dolson negotiated a $15 million buyout with former coach Tom Allen. Within a week, he recruited Cignetti, who put together 11 winning seasons and no losing seasons in head coaching journey at Indiana University-Pennsylvania, Elon College and James Madison University.
Cignetti came in hot. On the day of his introductory press conference in Bloomington, he asked to be driven to Indianapolis for an appearance on the Big Ten Network, the day before the conference championship football game.
He made certain to inform the hosts that he expected to return to Lucas Oil Stadium to play in the title game in 2024.
People chuckled. Only friends and family took him seriously.
Cignetti took it up a notch the first time he was given a microphone on the floor at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at an IU basketball game, igniting the crowd with this message:
“Hey look, I’m super fired up about this opportunity. I’ve never taken a backseat to anybody and don’t plan on starting now. Purdue (stinks). But so does Michigan and Ohio State!”
Who is this guy?
He might consider himself the irresistible force but Indiana football had been immovable object for decades. Five of the six previous IU coaches were fired for winning 40% or fewer of their games and the sixth (Terry Hoeppner died because of brain cancer after two seasons).
The Hoosiers last bowl victory was after the 1991 season. Their last Big Ten title was 1967. The program had never won 10 games — and lost more games than any power conference program.
Cignetti was not interested in Googling that. After a signing day press conference, he was asked to explain his recruiting strategy.
“What do you mean?” Cignetti said. "I don’t get the question.”
When you recruit guys, how do you sign your vision of your culture?
“Who are you talking about, the high school guys, the transfers?” Cignetti asked. “Who?”
All of the above?
“It’s pretty simple,” Cignetti said. “I win. (3-second pause.) Google me.”
All the talk was about Cignetti's words. It should have been on his actions. He and his staff reworked the roster, adding 46 players, 30 from the transfer portal as well as 16 high school players.
Veteran guys like quarterback Kurtis Rourke (Ohio University), linebacker Aiden Fisher (James Madison), cornerback D'Angelo Ponds (JMU), halfback Justice Ellison (Wake Forest), defensive end Mikail Kamara (JMU) and others changed the IU culture.
Google this: The Hoosiers won their first 10 games, taking out UCLA in the Rose Bowll, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Michigan State as well as Michigan and Washington, the programs that played in the national championship game last season.
After losing at then second-ranked Ohio State, 38-15, on Nov. 23, IU roared back to defeat Purdue, 66-0, in the Old Oaken Bucket game Nov. 30, securing the programs’ first 11-win season.
Now they have their chance to chance to add one, two, three or four more wins over the next six weeks.
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