College Football Playoff Final: Indiana Wins a Historic First National Championship

Curt Cignetti lifts the national championship trophy (Image credit: AP/Lynne Sladky)

Not since Yale in 1894 has a college football team finished the season 16-0. Granted, the expansion of the College Football Playoff has given teams in recent years more opportunity to win games and we certainly shouldn't overlook the single-season greatness achieved by the 2023 Michigan, 2022 Georgia, 2019 LSU and 2018 Clemson teams, all of whom won national championships with unbeaten 15-0 records.

It's not necessarily the extra victory afforded by the expanded Playoff format that makes Indiana's extraordinary College Football Playoff Final win stand above these other great teams, it's the journey and speed of turnaround they went through to reach those heights.

Indiana began the 2025 season with more losses (715) in their history than any other college football team. That dubious honour now belongs to fellow Big Ten team Northwestern, who have lost 718 games in their 138-year history. The Hoosiers started the season with odds of 100-1 to win the national championship. This came off the back of an 11-win season that saw them make the College Football Playoff for the first time. Their odds, according to the Interior Journal, to win the championship in 2024 were 100,000-1.

Cue the arrival of head coach Curt Cignetti from James Madison University, an astute tactician with huge belief and a talented and loyal staff who followed him across to Bloomington with several JMU players. Indiana's roster was built modestly with two and three-star recruits, but a huge collegiate spirit and sheer will to win, embodied by the words of their leader:

"It's pretty simple. I win. Google me." - Indiana coach Curt Cignetti in his first press conference as Indiana football coach two years ago when asked how he would sell himself to future players.

After their thrilling back-and-forth College Football Playoff national championship win over Miami, completing an extraordinary turnaround in those two years, their odds to win next year will be somewhat shorter.

Indiana 27, Miami 21

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza dives for the game-winning touchdown (Image credit: ESPN)

The will of the Indiana team was evident in the way they and head coach Curt Cignetti formed a protective horseshoe around the national championship trophy after College Football Playoff Executive Director Rich Clark announced the Hoosiers as the winners.

They had a virtual grip of the trophy throughout a thrilling final. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza's winning touchdown run embodied this. On a 4th-and-4 play with 9:18 left in the fourth quarter, and the Hoosiers protecting a slender 17-14 lead, Indiana, having recalled the field goal unit, went for broke and called a quarterback draw. Mendoza wrestled, twisted and dived full stretch for the goal line on a 12-yard run that saw him take a ferocious blow as he was in mid-air, giving his team an invaluable ten-point cushion, throwing the gauntlet back to Miami. It was as iconic a play call, and play, as you'll see in a game at this level.

Miami ran Indiana closer than most teams in this historic season. Mark Fletcher ran in two touchdowns and racked up 112 yards, his third 100+yard game of four in the Playoff, and Malachi Toney, their exciting freshman receiver, added real spark with 122 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor were a constant pain in the Indiana offensive line's side, combining to sack Mendoza three times but couldn't stop the Heisman Trophy winner diving over the line for the critical score. Critically, Indiana had possession for 36 minutes, tiring the Miami defense and out-Miami-ing the Hurricanes after they had kept the Ole Miss defense on the field for 41 minutes in the semifinal.

Before the kick-off, Cignetti had talked about the need for balance in all elements of their game. Indiana's offense, defense and special teams all delivered in key moments on the biggest of stages.

Mendoza's gritty touchdown capped a turnaround of its own in the second half as the Hoosiers' potent offense had stalled after half time, punting on three successive drives in the third quarter.

Indiana's defense put Miami quarterback Carson Beck under constant pressure and restricted the Hurricanes' prolific rusher Mark Fletcher and Miami to 110 total rushing yards. As highlighted in Indiana's thrashing of Oregon last week when the Hoosiers' special teams blocked a punt at 42-15 up, lineman Mikail Kamara came up with a critical block that was recovered by Indiana's Isaiah Jones in the end zone.

This put the Hoosiers 17-7 up and opened up valuable breathing space against a tenacious Miami team that were in this game until the last 44 seconds, when Jamari Sharpe picked Beck off to seal the game, and a historic first national championship for Indiana.

There were storylines galore around this College Football Playoff Final. Mario Cristobal, former two-time national champion with Miami as a player, led the hometown Hurricanes to a postseason few believed they would be a part of, let alone competing for a national championship final. Fernando Mendoza and Jamari Sharpe, who made the two key plays to seal victory for the Hoosiers, both grew up in Miami, were denied the opportunity to play for their hometown Hurricanes and won a national championship in their home city.

Yet, for all the stories and sentiment surrouding Miami, as a surprise contender, and a host city with many connections, the headlines all belong to Indiana and their enigmatic head coach. Cignetti, drying out after the inevitable Gatorade bath, described his team's win as "probably one of the greatest sports stories of all time". Few would question him.

"We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done." - Indiana coach Curt Cignetti.