When someone is jealous of you, that’s usually a great sign. Thus, the recent tantrum that Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti has thrown over his program’s inability to keep pace with Texas Tech and other programs in the NIL game is certainly satisfying for folks in scarlet and black.

When the college football transfer portal opened up last month, Cignetti went on record to complain about the massive amount of money that is being spent in the college game. In fact, it sounds as if he’s already making excuses for his program’s inevitable return to irrelevance.

“This is an unprecedented couple days, weeks, where everybody’s waiting on this rev share, and the five or six out there that have unlimited NIL resources, it’s kind of scary for everybody else,” Cignetti told John Talty of CBS Sports. “I think our little pot of gold is pretty nice, but we’re not at $40 million. Or $30 million. Or even $25 million.”

Of course, last season, Cignetti took the college football world by storm. He guided the Hoosiers to an 11-2 record and an appearance in the College Football Playoff. By taking one of the worst programs in the nation to heights it has never experienced, he earned Associated Press Coach of the Year recognition.

Cignetti accomplished that in his first season in Bloomington after coming over from James Madison. Using a number of transfers himself, many of whom played at smaller schools, he performed a near miracle with the Hoosiers in 2024.

However, it appears that Cignetti isn’t confident in his ability to keep his program in the playoff picture. In fact, he’s already started to make excuses by pointing out how much money that other programs are spending on their rosters.

One of the schools in Cignetti’s crosshairs is Texas Tech. In fact, Cignetti went so far as to name all of the schools that he believes have an unfair financial advantage.

“I mean if you want to be the best, you got to be able to compete against the best,” Cignetti said. “Right now I understand that is Oregon, Ohio State, Texas. … Texas Tech because of their oil money. I think Notre Dame’s up there pretty good right now, too. Miami, of course.

“Those people are kind of playing their own game, but you’ve got to be in that next tier. There are enough good ones out there. You’ve got to be able to retain your good ones and then go get what you need.” 

You’ll have to excuse Texas Tech fans if we don’t feel sympathy for Cignetti and the Hoosiers, or any other program that doesn’t try to participate in the NIL game at the top levels.

It isn’t as if the only schools allowed to hand out big NIL deals are the richest schools in the country. Rather, every university is operating under the same constraints (or lack thereof).

Thus, the schools that have the most motivated and committed donors are the ones who have the best opportunity to succeed. If Cignetti can’t get his donor base as motivated as Joey McGuire has been able to get his, then that is Cignetti’s fault.

After all, it isn’t as if Indiana doesn’t have its own group of massively wealthy alums. In fact, IU grad Mark Cuban is worth an estimated $6 billion. We already know that he’s a massive sports fan, given that he has owned the Dallas Mavericks, so it shouldn’t be too hard for Cignetti to convince Cuban to help with his school’s NIL efforts.

If Cuban doesn’t want to support his school’s football program in the same way that Cody Campbell is supporting Texas Tech’s, then Cignetti should be angry with Cuban (or his other wealthy potential IU donors) rather than throwing shade at Texas Tech and other schools that are excelling in the NIL game.

The system isn’t rigged against Cignetti’s Indiana program or any other university that can’t afford to keep pace. What’s more, we’ve already seen Cignetti have success with a roster that wasn’t one of the most expensive in the nation.

So why is he throwing a fit? It seems that he is already laying the foundation of excuses in case his program takes a step backward in 2025.

That seems possible given that 2024’s success was due in large part to a favorable schedule that saw the Hoosiers play only two ranked teams. Of course, the Hoosiers lost both of those games by double figures, suggesting to many that they weren’t as good as their record indicated.

This fall, IU has to play a much more difficult schedule with games against Illinois, Iowa, Oregon, and Penn State in Big Ten play. Thus, Cignetti likely sees a regression on the horizon, and he’s scrambling to soften the fall. To do that, he’s trying to throw big-spending schools like Texas Tech under the bus.

They say if you can’t beat them, join them. Unfortunately, Cignetti can’t do that either, given that IU alums and fans aren’t supporting their program the way Texas Tech fans are.

Of course, Red Raiders won’t be losing any sleep over Cignetti’s complaints. That’s because they are too busy trying to keep up with all the blue-chip recruiting wins Tech has experienced in the portal this offseason. Obviously, that’s not something Cignetti has to worry about.