Curt Cignetti predicted to receive largest coaching contract in college football history

The 2025 college football season wrapped up on Jan. 19 when Indiana triumphed over Miami (27-21) in the College Football Playoff National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida.

The Hoosiers were led by second-year head coach Curt Cignetti, who had done nothing but win across his head coaching stops prior to 2024. Between a trio of tenures at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Elon and James Madison, Cignetti amassed a 119-35 overall record.

It took Cignetti one attempt to lead the Hoosiers to their first-ever double-digit win season. In 2025, Cignetti not only led Indiana to its first-ever unbeaten season but also orchestrated the first-ever 16-win season in college football history.

Cignetti has rightfully received attention as one of the best active coaches across college football. Although it is unlikely, the attention given to Cignetti may be enough for other programs to try to lure him away from Indiana in the future.

28 writers at The Athletic compiled a list of way-too-early predictions for the 2026 season. Cameron Teague Robinson predicted that Notre Dame would win a national championship but lose Marcus Freeman to the NFL in the 2027 offseason. He then predicted that the Fighting Irish would hire Cignetti as their next head coach, luring him away from Indiana with a record-breaking contract.

Freeman's name was up for discussion in both the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers' head coaching searches in the 2026 offseason. His 43-12 overall record with the Fighting Irish has caught the attention of numerous NFL organizations.

Curt Cignetti prior to Indiana's 2025 football game against Purdue. — Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti looks on before the game against the Purdue Boilermakers | Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

The 2027 NFL head coaching carousel figures to be lighter after 10 different organizations made changes in 2026. However, a national championship would certainly catapult Freeman into those conversations again.

As for Cignetti departing Indiana for Notre Dame, no coach has willingly left a school where he won a national championship for another school in the 30-year history of national championship games. Several national champion head coaches have been fired after unsuccessful ends to their tenures, while others have resigned, retired, or, as Freeman would be doing in 2027, tried their hand at the NFL.

In the midst of all this, Indiana would have impossibly difficult shoes to fill heading into the 2027 season. Not only is Cignetti the only coach to have won 10 or more games in a season at Indiana, but he would be the first coach to finish his Indiana tenure with a winning record since Bo McMillin's tenure came to an end in 1947.