Indiana’s football program has gone from college football’s basement to Monday’s national championship game against Miami, and billionaire alumnus Mark Cuban has helped bankroll the stunning transformation.
At a Glance
- Mark Cuban, Indiana business-school grad, has poured millions into the football program
- Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers are 26-2 since he arrived and 15-0 this season
- Indiana is the No. 1 team in the country with its first Big Ten title since 1967
- Why it matters: The rise shows how deep-pocketed alumni plus smart coaching can flip even the sport’s losingest programs
Cuban, a 1981 business-school graduate and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, began donating long before the current surge. In 2015 he gave $5 million for a sports-media center and recently increased football-specific gifts to support the transfer portal.
“I’ve literally had Centenarians tell me how unimaginable this has been,” Cuban wrote in an email to Emily Carter Reynolds. “Players on the ’68 Rose Bowl team tell me the same thing. It’s just all unreal.”
Cignetti, named back-to-back AP coach of the year, credits Cuban’s visibility and wallet for accelerating the rebuild.
“It takes a village. It takes money,” Cignetti said Saturday. “But it’s not all about money. We’ve got a lot of alums, a lot of rich alums. Mark Cuban is a very visible guy. … We kind of hit it off right off the bat. He’s got instant recognition, which only helps.”
The on-field results have been historic.
- Indiana beat Alabama 38-3 and Oregon 56-22 in the College Football Playoff
- Average margin of victory in the CFP: 34.5 points
- First No. 1 ranking in school history
- First Big Ten title since 1967
- Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza has thrown 41 touchdowns
Cuban, who watched the Peach Bowl demolition of Oregon in person, framed the stakes bluntly.
“An appearance is fun. It’s been an amazing run,” he said. “As someone who has lost (two) NBA Finals and won one, I can tell you losing hurts a lot more than winning is fun.”
The pair of Pennsylvania natives-Cuban and Cignetti were born three years apart in the same western Pennsylvania hospital-share a mutual admiration. Cignetti jokes about Cuban’s wealth.
“If Mark Cuban wanted to give $10 million, that would be like me donating $10,000,” Cignetti said. “But we’re glad that he’s involved. If he keeps doubling his donation, it’ll be big one day.”
Cuban calls the coach “CigGPT” and says the staff has “redefined how to build a winning team in the NIL era.”
Indiana’s defense ranks among the nation’s stingiest, and Mendoza has completed 31 of 36 passes in the playoff. Yet the roster overhaul was funded in part by Cuban’s donations earmarked for transfers, a key piece in the modern college landscape.
The transformation is complete when the Hoosiers face Miami for the national title, but Cuban cautions that reaching the game isn’t the end goal. Winning it is.
Key Takeaways
- Indiana’s 15-0 record and No. 1 ranking cap the fastest program turnaround in recent memory
- Cuban’s millions, plus Cignetti’s coaching, exploited the transfer portal and NIL rules to flip a loser into a champion
- The Hoosiers enter Monday as favorites, looking to finish the first perfect season in school history
