The Indiana Hoosiers showed the power that's lying underneath the surface for many Big Ten programs as the power balance in College Football continues to shift away from the SEC in the rev-share/NIL era.
The Indianapolis Star's Zach Osterman believes what the Hoosiers just did, going 15-0 en route to the CFP title game, dominating the SEC's Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl and the B1G's Oregon Ducks in the Peach Bowl, is replicable across the Big Ten.
Osterman cited alumni bases from each school operating in big cities across America's biggest cities for why just about any Big Ten school could become the next Indiana at any point in the next few years.
"The Hoosiers’ rise under Curt Cignetti traces its origins to so many root causes it’s not worth rehashing them all here," Osterman prefaced before saying, "What’s not lost on the league office is the extent to which this can be replicable elsewhere. That with the right people in charge, adequate resources around them and a sustainable long-term strategy, this kind of success can be repeated across the Big Ten.
"In the NIL-plus-rev-share era, a conference composed of large state institutions with robust alumni bases grounded in lucrative industries across many if not most of America’s major cities has more than just one sleeping giant.
"The way IU fans took over the Rose and Peach bowls across the Hoosiers’ first two games in this year’s playoff should open the eyes of programs elsewhere in the league. This is what pure football activation can look like."
Indiana predicted to remain a College Football powerhouse
Early projections for the 2026 College Football season have the Hoosiers remaining one of the top teams, along with the Texas Longhorns, Ohio State Buckeyes, Georgia Bulldogs, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
Other schools in the B1G and the SEC could rise, but Curt Cignetti knows how to be resourceful and is likely to have even more money to come every year for the foreseeable future.
The shift from no money, to NIL, to NIL and rev-share created unnatural parity as coaches learned to adjust to it, but Cignetti could keep this going because of the open-mindedness of IU's alum to invest in programs they normally wouldn't, and do business in places they don't normally do business.
Schools across the Southeast could learn a thing or two from that.