Indiana's national championship should give Wisconsin Badgers hope for building a contender

The Wisconsin Badgers can't just copy what the Indiana Hoosiers did to win the national championship.

It was a historic turnaround and playoff run by Curt Cignetti that won't be easily replicated.

But the Hoosiers' success proved that teams like the Badgers are just as capable as anyone of building a contender in modern college football.

Low barrier to entry

In the old days, schools like Wisconsin and Indiana never had a shot at a national title. The only schools who were real contenders were the ones with the big-name coaches who could land all of the five-star recruits coming out of high school.

That's not a requirement anymore.

Cignetti came in as a coach who was far from a big name at James Madison, a school that had just jumped up to the FBS level.

Thanks to the transfer portal, he brought with him 13 players from the Dukes. It wasn't like other teams were banging down the door to steal James Madison players in the transfer portal.

His Hoosiers national championship roster has only seven recruits who were rated four or five stars, the fewest of any Power Four school in the CFP this year.

Blue-chip ratio. Busted. @247Sports' Team Talent Composite. Busted.

Indiana has only 7 four-star HS recruits on its roster and just won a national championship. It's an improbable feat for what was recently CFB's losingest program.

It's truly a new era of CFB. pic.twitter.com/mHPy5LVJTE
— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) January 20, 2026

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The Badgers don't need the most expensive coaches or the highest-rated players. They just need to find the right ones.

Easier said than done, but the new era of NIL and the transfer portal makes it a realistic strategy for success.

Evaluating and developing talent

The name of the game is evaluating and developing talent.

When Luke Fickell scoured the portal this winter and brought in over 30 new players, he didn't land a ton of the top-ranked transfers.

Indiana showed that those rankings don't matter as much if you have a better eye for talent than the recruiting website and coaches that can squeeze the most out of those players.

Curt Cignetti: "Are there eight draft picks on this team? Probably not. But the whole was better than the sum of its parts."

... Something no coach in my professional career could say while sitting at the podium victorious after winning the national title.

Indiana changed the…
— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) January 20, 2026

Related: Former Wisconsin Badgers coach was secret weapon for Indiana Hoosiers championship run

Most of their starters were transfers, and their lineup had more experience in terms of career snaps than another team in the CFP this year, according to The Athletic.

Whether Wisconsin currently has that staff in place is a separate argument, but the barrier to entry into the postseason has never been lower.

The Hoosiers started their turnaround in a worse spot than where the Badgers are now. This team has just as much opportunity as they did. It's up to Wisconsin to take advantage.

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