Blueblood Head Coach Eyes Indiana Football’s Scheduling Blueprint

Never in 1,000 years did anyone think Indiana University would become the standard for anything related to college football, except losing.

Yet, here we are getting set to enter the summer of 2026, and Bloomington, Indiana is the epicenter of the sport.

Curt Cignetti is on the cover of the EA Sports College Football '27 video game, and a head coach from a blueblood program is trying to mirror what he sees as a big part of Cignetti's team success two years in.

Steve Sarkisian Praises Curt Cignetti's Turnaround of Indiana Hoosiers

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was on the Always College Football podcast with Greg McElroy this week, and threw high praise at Cignetti and Indiana.

"There's a lot of ways to find the path to make it, right? And you know, Curt Cignetti, an amazing job at Indiana," Sarkisian said. "What he's done the last two years, there is not a guy in our profession that can't say, 'what an unbelievable job.'"

"The way that he did it has been somewhat unconventional with the six-year seniors, the transfers, the veteran group, the way that they practice, those things" Sarkisian continued.

The Texas head coach then dropped a not-so-subtle hint that the Longhorns non-conference schedule could soon look more like Indiana's does.

Sarkisian Loves Indiana's Non-Conference Scheduling Plan

"But one thing in there, he adjusted their schedule, too, so they've got a fresh team, and they're playing a lot of players early in the year and they're a happy team."

Indiana plays North Texas, Howard, and Western Kentucky in non-conference play this season while Texas has a massive date with Ohio State out-of-conference in Week 2.

Did Curt Cignetti Ruin College Football's Non-Conference Scheduling Forever?

Cignetti had the famous quote before the 2025 season about "scheduling like an SEC team" after being questioned about who Indiana plays in the non-conference.

Curt Cignetti during a 2026 spring practice for Indian — Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti during spring football practice at Memorial Stadium on Thursday, April 2, 2026. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Now, it seems pretty clear that Texas is interested in following suit as it had already hinted at dropping an upcoming series with Notre Dame, previous to these comments by Sarkisian.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Thought:

As long as college football has been played, athletic directors and head coaches alike have tried to manuever things to make them most advantageous for their respective programs.

That's not the fault of Curt Cignetti by any means, as there is an issue across college football that is only continuing to grow as a problem.

Forever, the number of losses a team has in the sport has carried more weight than anything else. It doesn't matter how many hard games a team plays, just how many of those games a team lost.

For a second, take the Indiana blinders off and think about this:

Did an Indiana team that lost to the only ranked team it played in 2024 deserve a playoff spot over a South Carolina team that played seven ranked teams that regular season, and won four of them?

We all pretty much knew at the time that there was no way South Carolina was getting in over Indiana, because that's how college football has worked forever, and an expanded playoff that season didn't bring any change to that.

If you're like me, a college football traditionalist, that thinks the regular season is what differentiates this sport from all the others, and makes it so great, then we as a collective have to look beyond just loss totals and instead what makes them up.

However, as long as its done the way its always been done, then there is no reason for Curt Cignetti, Steve Sarkisian, or any head coach to go out of their way to schedule overly difficult out-of-conference games.

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