Why Curt Cignetti is the Big Ten's Most Important Coach Since Urban Meyer

Every once in a while someone will come around the rises the tide of everything around them.

This can happen in a family, a business, school, or anything in between.

In the case of Curt Cignetti and the Indiana University football program, it has happened with a football coach and is impacting the entire Big Ten conference.

In an overly positive way.

Curt Cignetti is Lifting Not Just Indiana, But Entire Big Ten

Let's face it - there are very few head coaches in college football that really matter nationally when they speak.

Sure, anyone can produce a sound byte, but how many are taken seriously with pretty much everything they say?

The answer is clearly not many, but Curt Cignetti is undeniably one of those.

Despite being the laughing stock of the sport when he famously said "Google me" during his introductory press conference, he has backed up his words and become arguably the greatest soundbyte in the sport.

And what he's doing with that is trying to lift the rest of the Big Ten up with him.

Cignetti made national headlines yet again at Big Ten Media Days in late July, when I asked him about how the Big Ten schedule prepared teams for the postseason.

I think my first interaction with Curt Cignetti went OK https://t.co/U251aJOWyE
— Nick_Shepkowski (@nick_shepkowski) July 30, 2026

Cignetti on the Big Ten:

"The Big Ten is the best league in football and has a lot of really good football teams. It's hard to win on the road. Very physical football teams, very well coached. It definitely prepares you for the playoffs. There's no doubt about it. The numbers speak for themselves."

Cignetti Rips the SEC:

"We don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. We believe everything's earned, not given. And when we fall short, we say we fell short. We don't cry a river, whine, and complain. All right, and that's why we're the best."

Cignetti on Notre Dame in Non-Conference:

Now, Cignetti has made headlines for saying he wants to play Notre Dame, but that the Fighting Irish should have to come to Bloomington twice in exchange for one game in South Bend, because Indiana is in a conference and Notre Dame obviously is not.

"I’d like to play Notre Dame. They ought to come to our place twice, and we’ll go there once, since they’re not in a conference."

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Takeaway:

Cignetti is using Indiana's success to help try and raise the level, if even only preceived, of the entire conference.

He did it with his bashing of the SEC in late July and again referenced the conference, not Indiana's own success as the reason Notre Dame should have to travel twice to Bloomington.

Now, that thought is absurd and Cignetti knows full well that it will never happen, but he uses the Big Ten as a whole to reference Notre Dame, something the conference has mostly hated for the last 100-plus years.

If PJ Fleck or Pat Fitzgerald, both guys who have coached more than 100 games each as Big Ten head coaches, were to say such a thing, they'd be given the "oh they're just trying to get attention".

With Cignetti, it's still a ploy for attention, but it carries infinitely more weight when you're coming of a national championship and 16-0 season in just your second year in charge.

Cignetti has repeatedly reached out his arm to try and lift the rest of the conference, seemingly trying to create further separation between it and the SEC.

Not since Urban Meyer came to Ohio State in 2012 and turned the entire conference upside down by how he operated differently, have we seen a coach do as much for the conference.

Winning allows a coach to do that, and whether people want to or not, they listen to a proven winner.

And something tells me Cignetti is only just getting started with that in Bloomington, and the Big Ten will continue to reap the rewards for it moving forward.

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