The Indiana Hoosiers rose to the top of the College Football world with a 16-0 run to the national championship, the first such record in FBS history. It was the kind of run no observer of the sport would predict to happen in Bloomington.
Maybe Columbus, or Ann Arbor, or Tuscaloosa, or Athens. Or, if it had to be in Indiana, South Bend.
Now, writers are racking their brains trying to come up with the next out-of-nowhere school to rise from the ashes and win it all in the NIL/rev-share era. USA Today's Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams offered three potential options on the latest edition of SEC Football Unfiltered: the Kentucky Wildcats, UCLA Bruins, and Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Regarding the latter two schools, Toppmeyer and Adams focused on the increased spending from donors. UCLA also happens to have now-legendary Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti's James Madison Dukes replacement, Bob Chesney, running the show. Texas Tech has Cody Campbell's big oil money as the Red Raiders' reason for inspiring confidence. Texas Tech has already followed IU's breakout season-followed-by-a-disastrous-first-CFP-game blueprint. Now, the Red Raiders simply need to win their next 16 games and not lose until, at the earliest, 2027, to complete the prophecy.
Good luck with that, Lubbock.
As for Kentucky, Adams believes what new Wildcats head coach Will Stein has done could make them an intriguing option, especially given the money being poured into the program.
"Kentucky has a doormat’s history, so that makes it eligible to be the next Indiana," Toppmeyer prefaced before saying, "If you check out UK's offseason, the Wildcats appear interested in changing their course. They showed a commitment to change when they fired Mark Stoops and pulled the plug on his downward spiral. To replace him, they hired hot-shot coordinator Will Stein from Oregon, where he developed quarterbacks Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore. Pretty good, right?
"Stein is cooking in the transfer portal, building a class that’s ranked No. 9 in the 247Sports Composite. To have a chance, you must have a quarterback. Kentucky landed Kenny Minchey, the former Notre Dame backup. He’s unproven but seems talented.
"Stein’s hiring might have caused UK’s donors to perk up. You don’t build a top-10 transfer class without some cash."
Toppmeyer offered an interesting rebuttal: Stein didn't bring a stable of great players from the Oregon Ducks with him to Lexington as Cignetti did from the Dukes to the Hoosiers.
There's credence to that point. Cignetti had familiarity, veteran leadership, and character built from a collective struggle of rising from the unheralded Group of 5 ranks to the Big Ten.
Indiana's run makes you wonder: why not Alex Golesh and the Auburn Tigers?
Auburn can't be the next Indiana, just the only Auburn
Golesh is bringing quarterback Byrum Brown, who led all FBS players with 4,166 total offensive yards in 2025, and several of his top weapons from the USF Bulls with him from Tampa to the Plains. DJ Durkin will also be inheriting several USF defensive transfers. Oh, and three coaches and Golesh's GM will all be joining him, including offensive coordinator/QB coach Joel Gordon and OL coach/run game coordinator Tyler Hudanick.
Cignetti brought defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri with him to Indiana. Golesh clearly took notes, or simply knows how it's done.
How the Hoosiers built their program up is something that should resonate on the Plains after what Golesh did. Even if AU wins it all, though, they won't be the next IU.
After all, Auburn's story would be uniquely JABA, but in a good way: be a top SEC team for the better part of multiple decades, crash down during the COVID-19 season and the five Bryan Harsin/Hugh Freeze-afflicted years afterwards, and completely change how business is done in the NIL/rev-share era to return to glory.
The Tigers are underdogs by trade. How Golesh is building this program speaks to the spirit of Auburn.
If they win it all anytime soon, it will be a unique story that can only be told in the Loveliest Village.