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5 Major Droughts Indiana Football Can End in 2026

Even after winning a national championship with a perfect season, IU has boxes left to check this year. Here are the biggest droughts the football program could end.
Connor O'Gara|
Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti during spring football practice at Memorial Stadium on Thursday, April 2, 2026.
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

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It's a comically long Reddit post that always comes to mind when I attempt to describe how historic the 2025 season was for Indiana.

At some point, an Ohio State fan (go figure) decided that the only way to illustrate all the feats was to keep a somewhat chronological list and just continue adding to it.

The Hoosiers finished with 25 bullet points and an additional paragraph with some more context about the feat(s) that IU pulled off with its magical season.

Big Milestones Curt Cignetti and Indiana Football Can Break This Year

But dare I say, even with so many questions about Indiana coming into the season, more feats await.

IU can still check off even more historic boxes this season, and with a regular-season win total of 10.5 wins (via FanDuel), it's not crazy to think that those bullet points will grow in Year 3 of the Curt Cignetti era.

So here are 5 historical droughts that IU can end in 2025:

First preseason top-10 ranking in the AP Top 25 in program history

I know, I know. You don't care about preseason rankings. You want to tell me that they're meaningless, especially after a year in which IU started at No 20 in the AP Poll, and delivered the first 16-0 season since 12 years before the first forward pass.

But hear me out.

In a sport with an 8-month offseason — or 7-month offseason if you make a deep playoff run like IU — there's true value in being considered a preseason contender. It sells tickets, it helps with recruiting, and it turns an afterthought brand into one worthy of being involved in national conversations.

Does that guarantee wins? With all of the trap games, of course not. Cignetti is the last person on the planet who would consider this a true feat. He cares far more about finishing as a top-10 team than starting as one.

Having said that, the best way to change perception and prove that 2025 wasn't just a flash in the pan is to be respected before the season and at the end of the season.

There's a strong possibility that come August, IU will one-up its previous best preseason ranking in the AP Poll when it came in at No. 13 in 1968.

That's not nothing.

Earn first home win vs. Ohio State since 1988

Last year, IU's Big Ten Championship win against the Buckeyes marked the program's first win in the matchup since 1988. Even amid the historic feat of IU's first outright conference title since the Harry Truman administration, that note was well-documented.



So this year, IU has an opportunity to do something a touch less noteworthy, but still greatly significant. That is, treat the Memorial Stadium crowd to its first home win vs. the Buckeyes since that aforementioned 1988 game.

This might feel like a bit of an afterthought nationally, but the context matters. In 2024, Ohio State's lopsided win against IU in Columbus prompted plenty to call the Hoosiers "frauds" and not even a worthy speed bump on the Buckeyes' path to a national title.

The thought of following that by winning consecutive games vs. Ohio State — something else that hasn't happened since 1987-88 — would be quite the feather in Cignetti's ever-growing cap.

There's another piece of this that's significant in IU's quest to distance itself from its horrendous pre-Cignetti history.

Once upon a time, IU's promotional content around the facility and in media guides would use the images captured from hosting Ohio State. Why? Because the Buckeye fans would travel for the cheap ticket and pack Memorial Stadium in red.

Yeah, something tells me that Oct. 17 ticket will be a bit tougher to come by for the visiting Buckeye fans.

Finish with 3 consecutive winning seasons in Big Ten play for the first time since 1946

Again, all roads lead back to the Truman administration.

You already know that if IU reaches the Playoff or even finishes as a ranked team, it'll mark the first time in program history that either feat was accomplished in three consecutive years. That's obvious.

But consider how routine of a feat it is to have a winning record in conference play in three consecutive seasons.

For all the talk about Nebraska's struggles since joining the Big Ten, what did it do in its first four seasons in the conference? Finish with a winning record in Big Ten play.

In fact, among the 12 teams who have been in the Big Ten since 2011, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota and Purdue are the lone teams who haven't accomplished that feat in the last 15 years. Purdue is the only team in that group who can't end that drought in 2026.

IU potentially ending this drought amidst the Big Ten's best stretch of football since, um, the Truman administration, only adds to how absurd that feat would be.

Beat Michigan and Ohio State in the same season for the first time since 1987

Honestly, it's somewhat amazing that this drought isn't even longer when you consider that IU is a combined 24-143-5 historically in those matchups.

When else did IU beat Michigan and Ohio State in the same season? Never. The 1987 season with an emerging Anthony Thompson was the only time in IU's existence that it beat both Michigan and Ohio State in the same season.

Even as the powers and dynamics shift in college football, Michigan and Ohio State have earned the right to be considered the gold standard in the Big Ten. Michigan has 45 conference titles, Ohio State has 40 (including the vacated 2010 title) and nobody else in the conference has half as many.

Beating those teams in the same season still matters, and doing so in consecutive weeks would make another loud statement to the college football world. It matters for the coach who famously called them out during his introduction to the IU faithful.



Something tells me that would get revisited once or twice if Cignetti bested both squads in 2026.

Win a postseason game in consecutive seasons for the first time ever

Last year, I referenced IU's bowl victory drought ad nauseam because I felt like the casual college football fan didn't comprehend how insane the 2025 season was.

Going 33 consecutive seasons without winning a bowl game in college football is like running a marathon and not stepping on a single crack in the ground.

IU's beatdown of Alabama in the Rose Bowl was the loudest way possible that it could have earned its first bowl victory since the 1991 season. In 2026, IU is attempting to do something that's also among the more absurd droughts in college football.

That is, earn a postseason victory in consecutive seasons.

Mind you, IU could've checked that box by winning the Pinstripe Bowl and the Little Caesar's Bowl. To think that it could do that for the first time ever by starting with a national championship defies logic.

The irony is that technically, IU can end this drought in 2026 by winning ... the Pinstripe Bowl. If that happens to close a 7-6 season, it would be considered a massive disappointment.

Ending this drought by winning a first round or quarterfinal game in the College Football Playoff would be a much more satisfying way to check that box.

Whatever the case, one thing is clear. More history feels inevitable for IU in 2026.

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Connor O'Gara
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