Indiana football is everything right now, representing at once the enhancement of the college football product on the field and the unsustainable reality off it.

No, Indiana didn’t do anything wrong — that we know of, anyway, though I’m sure other coaches would like to investigate Curt Cignetti and his players for spyware or cyborg blood or something. But as we wrap up a week that had the absolute best and worst of the sport clawing at each other for top billing, the Hoosiers should know they’ve made it so much harder for so many people.

Not that they should care. Go destroy Miami after people spend the week talking themselves back into why you can’t really be this good, then celebrate a national championship that would represent one of the most unforeseen, inexplicable, glorious stories in American sports history.

Indiana, even while making Friday night more boring than we wanted with a 56-22 semifinal thrashing of Oregon, is the prevailing example of why college football is in a great place as a product.

Transfer portal. Contracts. No loyalty. Whatever. Inject this stuff into MY VEINS!!!!!

— Dari Nowkhah (@ESPNDari) January 9, 2026

Never has there been more hope for so many. Membership in the exclusive club of heritage and built-in advantages is no longer required. A tallying of the recruiting stars next to names on a roster no longer produces a long and accurate list of programs with no shot of winning it all.

The landscape is always changing, never boring. Vanderbilt, Texas Tech, Ole Miss and Arizona State are among Indiana’s party-crashing undercards. The College Football Playoff is compelling. The games aren’t all thrillers, but enough of them are.

I would, though, like us to get through one of those good games without half of college sports media crowing on some app: “OH THAT’S WEIRD, I THOUGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL WAS BROKEN.”

Because we all know darn well that, in ways, it is. Or maybe fractured sounds less dramatic. Chaotic. Problematic? Whatever makes you feel less bad. In the same week we’re enjoying the CFP semifinals, including an Ole Miss-Miami classic, we’ve got the former coach of Ole Miss keeping assistant coaches from attending the ball like he’s Cinderella’s stepmother.

We’ve got that same coach, LSU’s Lane Kiffin, courting one quarterback (Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt) at a basketball game while another (Washington’s Demond Williams Jr.) announces he’s in the portal, apparently with the idea of joining Kiffin, except he had already signed to stay on with Washington. Except we have contracts in college sports that seek to sort of bind, while being careful not to make the person being paid sound as if he or she is being paid to play. Even though that’s exactly what’s happening.

So it’s the latest but far from the last “contract dispute,” this one finishing with Williams deciding to return to Washington. And hey, look, here comes the College Sports Commission promising to start cracking down on these predictable workarounds to pay enough to land top players in a market that is rising.

Which, at best, means an example made of a program or two, and in no way means any chance for the CSC to get its arms around things. Men and women with gavels and long, black robes will continue seeing to that. Lawmakers aren’t changing it.

Collective bargaining, in some form, is the only answer, and more and more people in the industry are coming around on that. The painful, inevitable journey continues. Hopefully, the past week serves as a bit of a jolt. I talked to an administrator who has been in that camp for a while and believes the athletic director and president levels are getting there.

But that will have unintended consequences, too. Go back and read what a lot of us were writing about name, image and likeness rights 10 or 15 years ago. I don’t recall anyone coming close to predicting all that has come with it.

And I must wonder how, with a cap of some sort in place while athletes get a bigger chunk of the revenue overall, the boosters at Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia are going to feel about officially being like everyone else, about parity as league design — about the caddies getting full-time access to the pool and golf course.

Which brings us to the thing I hear the most from folks in college sports in terms of long-term concerns. And this is where Indiana re-enters the discussion, in three words: return on investment. Indiana AD Scott Dolson has made what must be considered, two years later, one of the great hires in modern college football history. As hyperbolic as that may sound.

And for as much as this should be seen as an outlier that will spawn books and documentaries, it only serves to intensify the pressure elsewhere. All your resources, all that time, and you couldn’t figure this out, Penn State? Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning can’t match this James Madison dude and Fernando Mendoza? Wasn’t USC the program with the great quarterback developer and offensive designer?

Those programs are at least having some success. All of them are begging the millionaires and billionaires who have helped build a facility or throw some nice cars at recruits of the past to sustain competitive payrolls. The TV money is good, but check the expenses. Colleague Seth Emerson wrote about “donor fatigue” in 2024 and, spoiler alert: No one has gotten any rest.

The wealthy folks who pay NFL players are called owners, and their investments are being multiplied many times over. The wealthy folks who pay college players get names on buildings, seats on the team plane and games of catch between the star quarterback and their grandkids. NFL owners lose, fire people, draft high and continue to profit; college boosters increasingly feel like they’re setting large piles of money on fire.

Which is why private equity looks as inevitable as collective bargaining. This is more than just a slight hairline fracture that will heal on its own.

I hope you can enjoy the college football right now. The product is soaring. Also, I hope anyone who cares about it understands that it can plummet without improved leadership that values common sense, the greater good of the industry and all of its employees.

If you’re an Indiana fan, soak in these experiences that are Cignetti-driven but still possible only because of NIL and the transfer portal. And plan to stay for a while. Cignetti never looks like he’s satisfied, and Mark Cuban is looking awfully happy right now.

I for sure have been concerned about all the players abandoning the ship, but what if they were talked to about not doing their jobs. What if they were given the option of either putting in the work or finding a new home. Could we have been wrong in some cases thinking the player was looking for more $ rather than putting the work in. Some players, as you know, don’t live up to their billing. OSU is one of the premier colleges for education and sports. I think when the players were recruited out of HS, they jumped at the chance to be a Buckeye. Now, the players see how difficult it is to live up to the expectations that is required to be a Buckeye. This is just a different take on what we have witnessed so far with the transfer portal. I what to find out how 11W members feel about this.

OK, time’s up. After 30 or so years, it’s time to end the Idiots’ Picnic, time to go home, time to remove the rehearsed-then-parroted nonsense from sports telecasts. 

First one that must go is transfer portal. That’s a crock. Those are, in fact, mostly NIL price-tagged signings of college athletes without academic credentials. They are free agents, too many without the ability to read or write functional English. 

In 2012, Ohio State QB Cardale Jones presaged the NIL scene when he tweeted, “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.” 

That sad, shameful and nationally ridiculed message is now the daily reality! 

And then there were two. The 2026 college football season has led to this: No. 1 Indiana and No. 10 Miami will meet in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game to decide the best team in the country. 

In most years, the Hurricanes would be seen as an overwhelming favorite against Indiana. But Miami has gone on an underdog run of its own after making the playoff as the last at-large team. 

Indiana, meanwhile, has bowled over opposing teams en route to a 15-0 record. The Hoosiers are 2025’s hegemon and it appears as if they aren’t going away anytime soon. 

They handled their semifinal game against Oregon with ease, downing the Ducks 56-22. Miami, meanwhile, triumphed over Ole Miss in a 31-27 thriller that ranks as one of the best postseason games of the CFP era. 

Those semifinal games, of course, provided plenty of material to overreact to as the 2025 season nears its conclusion. 

Indiana is the best team of the CFP era 

Yes, better than 2019 LSU. The Hoosiers may not have as much elite NFL talent — though quarterback Fernando Mendoza is a shoe-in to go first overall in the 2026 draft — and the offense isn’t quite as explosive, but they are a more complete team. 

Indiana’s +473 point differential ranks first among schools in the playoff era (hat tip to my CBS Sports colleague Tom Fornelli). The Hoosiers have bludgeoned opposing teams by an average of 31.5 points per contest. Their last three wins against blue bloods Ohio State and Alabama and new blood Oregon have come by a combined score of 107-35. 

Curt Cignetti’s squad has won all but one of its games against ranked opponents by at least 10 points. And Indiana is doing this in the Big Ten, one of the nation’s premier conferences.  

The Hoosiers are also on the precipice of becoming the first college football program to ever go 16-0. Of course, they have the benefit of playing in the expanded playoff years, but an undefeated season in the modern era of college football, when parity is at an all-time high thanks to NIL, seems like an accomplishment that won’t be easily repeated. 

After all, only four NFL teams have ever completed undefeated seasons and it only happened once after the league went to a 16-game schedule. 

Indiana vs. Miami: Early preview, odds, picks as Hoosiers will meet Hurricanes in CFP National Championship

Chip Patterson

Miami’s discipline issues will doom it against Indiana

Miami was, somehow, able to overcome itself in the Fiesta Bowl against Ole Miss. The Hurricanes committed 10 penalties for a total of 74 yards, including a targeting foul that resulted in the ejection of cornerback Xavier Lucas. They dropped four potential interceptions. 

Those fouls allowed Ole Miss to hang around and even take the lead at certain points. Ultimately, the Rebels made a few crucial mistakes of their own — and were pitiful on third down — which allowed the Hurricanes to outlast Ole Miss. 

That won’t do against the well-oiled Indiana machine. The Hoosiers rank third nationally with just 3.57 penalties per game. They’re smart, they’re disciplined and — as was seen with D’Angelo Ponds’ pick six to open Indiana’s semifinal win over Oregon — they will pounce all over any mistakes the opponent makes. 

Ultimately, discipline will make the difference in a battle between two teams that stack up fairly well otherwise. 

Oregon is in trouble 

You’ve certainly heard of a clutch gene if you’re a fan of sports. Oregon coach Dan Lanning has the opposite. 

In their last three playoff games against Power Four opponents, the Ducks have been outscored 97-66. That includes a 23-0 romp against Big 12 champion Texas Tech this season. 

Talent isn’t the issue with Oregon. The Phil Knight money certainly helps, but the Ducks have always recruited at a high clip. Coach Dan Lanning has done a good job at the high school level and in the portal. 

But there’s plenty of reason to be concerned about the path that Oregon is walking with Lanning, especially given the recent postseason results. This will be a big offseason for him. 

The Ducks are set to lose both of their bright young coordinators. Will Stein is headed to coach Kentucky while Tosh Lupoi will lead former Pac-12 foe California. 

It is a good sign for a program’s health when assistants get head coaching jobs, and it’s a testament to what Lanning has built at the young age of 39. The next few months will be a huge test of his ability to keep the ship steady. 

Ole Miss is bigger than Lane Kiffin

It was time to stop talking about Kiffin’s move to LSU once the playoff began, but the two will always be intrinsically linked given the time that Kiffin had in Oxford and the messy nature in which he departed. While Kiffin deserves his flowers for elevating the standard at Ole Miss, it’s clear that the Rebels have outgrown the need for him. 

His departure didn’t do the program any favors or anything like that. Pete Golding has shown, in short order, that he can at least maintain the level of success that Kiffin established — if not exceed it. Golding, after all, has more playoff wins than Kiffin at this point, and he’s only been a head coach for three games. 

Kiffin was certainly hoping that he’d be able to drag some of Ole Miss’ top stars with him, but his decision instead galvanized the Rebels. Top running back Kewan Lacy, top linebacker Suntarine Perkins and edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen, along with a bevy of other key players, have already committed to returning. 

On top of that, Ole Miss is off to an incredible start in the transfer portal. The Rebels currently sit seventh in 247Sports’ Team Transfer Rankings. They’re one of just two schools in the top 10 with less than 10 commits thus far and their average prospect grade of 89.22 is first among top-15 transfer classes. 

Four of Ole Miss’ nine transfer additions hold at least a four-star ranking. That includes LSU transfer Carius Curne, the No. 1 offensive tackle in the transfer portal, who spurned Kiffin for the Rebels. 

The National Championship Game is set! Andy Staples, Ross Dellenger and Steven Godfrey look ahead to the final matchup of the season by reacting to both semifinal matchups. They first talk about Indiana’s dominating performance over Oregon. Will the Hoosiers’ execution and talent win them a national title? How does Indiana stack up with the historically dominant national champions of the past? Then, they discuss the much more exciting semifinal matchup that saw Miami come out on top. How can Miami upset Indiana? What kind of advantage will playing in their home stadium create for the Hurricanes? Plus, will Oregon ever win a national championship?

Advertisement

Then, the guys look at some things happening off of the field in the college football world. After their loss to Miami, Ole Miss found out that Trinidad Chambliss’ request for another year of eligibility has been denied by the NCAA. However, this is not the end of the story as Chambliss will now sue the NCAA for damages spawning from the money he would make in NIL with that additional season. The guys discuss if Chambliss’ has a chance in this case, or if there is another motive behind the lawsuit.

Finally, the guys look at the madness of the transfer portal. First, they discuss the Demond Williams drama. After trying to enter the transfer portal, and Washington refusing to enter his name due his signed contract, Williams has now returned to the Huskies. Andy, Ross and Godfrey discuss what all happened in Seattle. Then, they look at the College Sports Commission’s investigation into how schools are writing NIL contracts. How will these contracts continue to evolve over time?

Get ready for the Natty with College Football Enquirer.

0:00:00 – Indiana dominates Oregon

Advertisement

14:37 – Miami advances over Ole Miss

24:51 – Will Oregon ever win a Natty?

29:46 – Trinidad Chambliss’ fight for a 6th year

40:49 – Demond Williams drama

52:12 – College Sports Commission investigation

Check out all the episodes of the College Football Enquirer and the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv