Curt Cignetti May Hate Notre Dame, but Clearly Respects Irish

It was made public earlier this month that Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti has never seen the movie Rudy.

The now national championship winning head coach was talking to movie screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, who directed legendary sports flicks Rudy and Hoosiers.

That wasn't it from Cignetti though, as he went on to tell the famous movie director that he'll never see Rudy because he "hates Notre Dame".

Meh, whatever. If Notre Dame was in the middle of the Tyrone Willingham era and struggling to become bowl eligible I'm guessing his thoughts, along with many others, would be different.

The main point is though, that no matter how much Cignetti might dislike Notre Dame, his final ballot in the 2025 Coaches Poll shows how much he respects it.

Curt Cignetti's Final Coaches Poll Top 25

All the coaches final top 25 ballots were released on Wednesday, and Curt Cignetti's drew a lot of attention. It was Big Ten heavy, but he also showed mad respect to Marcus Freeman's Fighting Irish, as he ranked Notre Dame seventh in his final ballot.

Here is how his entire top 25 went:

1. Indiana
2. Miami
3. Oregon
4. Ole Miss
5. Ohio State
6. Georgia
7. Notre Dame
8. Texas
9. Texas A&M
10. Texas Tech
11. Iowa
12. Alabama
13. Oklahoma
14. BYU
15. Utah
16. Illinois
17. Michigan
18. Washington
19. Vanderbilt
20. TCU
21. USC
22. SMU
23. Arizona
24. Houston
25. James Madison

For comparison, Marcus Freeman only had the Fighting Irish rated ninth in his final poll. Cignetti ranked Notre Dame the highest of any coach to participate in the poll.

Indiana Being Great is Great for Notre Dame

Curt Cignetti during a game between Notre Dame and Indian — Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti walks the field before a game between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in first round of the College Football Playoff on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in South Bend. | Christine Tannous/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

I've seen and heard from plenty of Notre Dame fans that are ticked off about Indiana winning a national championship in football. Perhaps because of how much Cignetti ran his mouth before last season's matchup between the two schools, but Indiana being great is a good thing for Notre Dame.

Should or does it really matter what location a team is from in comparison to you, when they win a national championship?

Bloomington, Indiana is located just almost exactly 200 miles south of South Bend, or a stones throw by how spread out the Big Ten now is.

When Indiana wins it all and does so after being the laughing stock of college football for decades, all that does is put more pressure on Notre Dame to end their streak of not bringing home a national championship.

"Hey, if Ohio State can do it" is one thing, but it hits entirely different when you hear "Indiana".

And Notre Dame fans should be excited about that because if Indiana can do it, there is no reason Notre Dame can't, and you can bet the decision makers in the athletic and football offices will only work harder and smarter to accomplish just that.

While we're at it - you can now get your friend or loved on a commemorative print of Fernando Mendoza and Indiana gracing the Sports Illustrated cover after winning the national championship here. Hopefully a year from now we'll be looking at CJ Carr or Marcus Freeman on that very same cover.