The 5 biggest reasons why Indiana can absolutely repeat in 2026

Indiana won the night and the narrative all at once on Monday in Miami, making program history by lifting college football’s national championship trophy and telling the sport once and for all that the Hoosiers have arrived.

Now, can they stay? 

This will be the burning question going forward in the months and even years ahead. Did Indiana, forever labeled as a basketball blue blood, truly birth a new football reality with Curt Cignetti as the architect with that thrilling 27-21 victory over Miami? Will we look back a few decades from now and realize just how much the 2025 Hoosiers changed the course of college football history?

Or will this Fernando Mendoza-led dream season we just witnessed in astonishment be just that — a cute Indiana dream that failed to stand the test of time? Yes, Hollywood can absolutely make a movie out of the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers, as Cignetti even suggested before they won it all, but what about the 2026 Indiana Hoosiers and beyond?

Can there be a sequel next January? As Bloomington blasts the volume on its new champions for a good while, the work is well under way toward next fall and trying to remain elite. That’s Cignetti’s next enormous challenge, and here are the 5 biggest reasons why Indiana can absolutely repeat in 2026: 

1. The schedule seems favorable, at least on paper

The last 2 words of that headline are the ones we will again stress: “on paper.” We’re more than 7 months from the next Indiana football game, a countdown that suddenly carries supreme interest in Bloomington and beyond. The Hoosiers are officially a national flavor, because that’s what happens when you’re the defending national champions and went 16-0 in winning it. That also means the schedule for the following season for Indiana football will be eyeballed like never before.

And the eye test for the 2026 Indiana Hoosiers schedule reveals a favorable path toward getting back to the Big Ten title game and, ultimately, back to the College Football Playoff for the 3rd straight season. Speaking of that Big Ten Championship Game, the conversation about the schedule has to start with Ohio State, the 2024 national champ who Indiana knocked off in the conference title game before its Playoff blitz through the bracket. The Big Ten didn’t miss a chance to announce after IU’s victory over Miami on Monday night that the Hoosiers and Buckeyes would collide on Oct. 17, so circle that date, and also know that the showdown is in Bloomington.

Getting Ohio State at home next fall is naturally a huge deal. And while the Big Ten plans on announcing the rest of the 2026 conference schedule in the coming weeks, it couldn’t even wait until the day after the national title game to announce the date when the league’s 2 behemoths will clash. So, it’ll be smack in the middle of October, in the heart of the season, which also means Curt Cignetti will have seen his team play games that count for about a month and a half before the Buckeyes arrive in Bloomington. He’ll have had time to make both major adjustments and minor tweaks (as will Ryan Day, of course), and then he’ll have the advantage of playing that game at home.

Another advantage — on paper? The Hoosiers’ Big Ten home slate also includes USC, which is likely to be one of the tougher games on IU’s entire schedule. So, there’ll be no long treks to Los Angeles to face the Trojans or UCLA for that matter, because the Bruins aren’t on Indiana’s schedule. Oregon, with Dante Moore back at the helm, will be as dangerous as ever but the Ducks aren’t on IU’s schedule either, so that’s yet another advantage — on paper. The only trip to the West Coast for the Hoosiers next fall will be a likely tough matchup at Washington, but travel-wise Indiana made out pretty good in 2026.

The biggest road conference challenge for the Hoosiers, on paper, looks like Michigan, with Kyle Whittingham taking over in Ann Arbor. Nebraska and Rutgers are the other 2 road Big Ten matchups, as Indiana will only play 4 league road games compared to 5 conference home games, another obvious plus. The home league schedule also includes Northwestern, as well as Minnesota and Purdue, and that along with a nonconference slate to open the season that includes North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky (in that order, all at home) looks rather promising for the defending national champions — on paper.

2. Josh Hoover is poised to continue IU’s transfer QB magic

In 2024, it was Kurtis Rourke who transferred in from Ohio and helped lead the Hoosiers to relevancy. In 2025, that quarterback transfer wheel worked even better wonders, with Fernando Mendoza arriving from California and taking Indiana to the mountaintop, with a Heisman Trophy to go with it. And now, in 2026, it appears Curt Cignetti will spin that transfer wheel once more, with Hoover arriving from TCU to try to make it 3 QB gems in 3 years in Bloomington.

Anything can happen between now and early September, but all indications are that the 6-foot-2 Hoover will hold the keys as the Hoosiers set out to repeat. Hoover was a junior last season and will have just 1 season of eligibility left, but that’s all Cignetti really needs, as the past couple years have shown. According to 247Sports, Hoover was the 10th-rated quarterback and No. 43 player overall in the transfer portal, which isn’t too shabby. And after the past couple of seasons with Rourke and Mendoza, it would be really hard not to trust Cignetti at this point.

Hoover started at TCU the past 3 seasons, so he’ll bring a wealth of game experience to Bloomington and the Big Ten. He won’t be scared of the stage, and he’ll have Cignetti and talented offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan engraining the new Indiana Way into his heart and mind all offseason. That’ll serve as a pretty good foundation before even playing a game at IU, as Hoover will try to build on a junior season in Fort Worth that saw him throw for 3,472 yards with 29 touchdown and 13 interceptions.

The Texas native, who’s leaving his home state for a chance to play for Cignetti, ranked 4th among FBS quarterbacks in 2025 in passing yards per game with 289.3, and he tied for 8th in touchdown passes. This is already a prolific passer with 9,629 career yards passing and 71 TD passes who logic says should only get better, or a lot better, once Cignetti and Shanahan get a hold of him this offseason. 

Ironically, Hoover originally committed to Indiana during his recruitment in the 2022 cycle, with IU being one of his few major college offers. Now, after following a Heisman runner-up in Max Duggan and watching Duggan lead the Horned Frogs to the 2022 national title game, he’ll get his shot at Indiana all these years later, following a Heisman winner and a national champion this time. The motivation and attributes are already there, and after a full offseason Hoover should be raring to go by Labor Day.

3. Talent is leaving but plenty is arriving via the portal

Fernando Mendoza is slated to be the top pick in this spring’s NFL Draft, and his departure will naturally be just the tip of the iceberg because that’s how college football works in 2026 — even if you’re the defending national champions. The Hoosiers will be losing plenty more talent to the draft and to the transfer portal, because that’s what happens when you’re the defending national champions. But Curt Cignetti has proven that he knows how to play the game and is already reloading for next fall from the portal. 

While Cignetti and the 2025 Hoosiers were lifting the national championship trophy on Monday night in Miami, the stacked 2026 roster was already being constructed. And as of Monday night, Indiana’s transfer class was ranked 7th in the country, according to 247Sports, which isn’t bad considering Indiana’s staff has kind of been multi-tasking the past several weeks. That transfer class includes Mendoza’s likely replacement, TCU’s Josh Hoover, who has started the past 3 seasons and is destined to flourish under Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan. 

The transfer class also includes key additions on the edge and in the defensive backfield, so suddenly spoiled IU fans should fear not — more like, the rest of the Big Ten and the country should be on notice because now that Cignetti has the championship codes, he’s not exactly the type to relinquish them. The roster turnover will be dealt with through the long offseason, but early signs are there’s just as much talent arriving through the portal, if not more, than there is leaving through the portal, so watch out.

4. DC Bryant Haines is back with a 3-year extension

Indiana’s offense stole a lot of the headlines during the Hoosiers’ magical championship run, and for good reason. But at about the same time as Fernando Mendoza was preparing to hoist the Heisman last month, IU was making sure its defensive coordinator was taken care of and locked in for a good while. That’s when the school reached an agreement on a 3-year extension with Haines, whose deal was reportedly worth nearly $3 million per season.

Remember, it was Haines’ defense that held Ohio State to 10 points in the Big Ten title game, and it was Haines’ defense that gave up 3 points to Alabama in the Playoff quarterfinal. Oregon only managed 22 points in the semifinals against that same unit, and Miami was shut out on its home field in the first half of the national title game before mustering 21 points for the night. 

Haines is a finalist for the prestigious Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant, because his work this past season mattered a whole lot, and the fact that he’s going nowhere automatically gives IU a great shot again in 2026 — and beyond. He’s been Curt Cignetti’s right-hand man for over a decade now, and their special partnership should continue to mean more winning of the highest order. 

5. Indiana has Curt Cignetti and nobody else does

We close with the most important ingredient Indiana has going for it. Cignetti learned how to win under Nick Saban at the beginning of the Saban dynasty at Alabama, and he hasn’t forgotten one bit. Fittingly, that was Cignetti’s last assistant job before he became a head coach in 2011 and started cranking out the victories himself.

They haven’t stopped since, and now Cignetti is a national championship head coach with the killer confidence and determination to start building his own dynasty. Heck, he won a national title at Indiana, of all places, in his 2nd season. Just imagine what he can do in his 3rd season and for however long IU is fortunate enough to have him. 

Cignetti once told everyone to Google him, because he wins. Well, he won it all in 2025. You think Cignetti isn’t already plotting a repeat in 2026?