By now, we have all learned there
is a “new sheriff” in the world of college football. No, not my beloved alma mater, Michigan. Not other “blue bloods” like Alabama,
Georgia, Texas or Ohio State. It is the
team that up until two years ago had more losses than any other program in
history: the Indiana Hoosiers. In just
two years since the hiring of their head coach, Curt Cignetti, they sit alone
atop college football as the 16-0 national champion this year, including three
wins over teams ranked in the top five (tripling such top-five ranked wins in
their entire 138-year history). How was
this even possible? This worst-to-first
story will go down as one of the greatest stories in college football history. Let’s
dissect this further, as there are a lot of valuable business lessons to be
gleaned here for your businesses.
To summarize how this amazing
turnaround happened for Indiana, it came down to the following things: (i)
market conditions changed to their benefit; (ii) ownership embraced the desire
to win at football; (iii) they hired a smart leader; (iv) the leader had a
clear vision of the type of team he wanted to recruit; and (v) they all bought into
the vision, believing the impossible was actually possible, and put in the hard
work to make it happen. Let’s dig into
each of these points.
Market Conditions Changed in
College Football
Two things happened in college
football in the last couple years that forever changed the sport: (i) the NCAA
allowed players to get paid, through name-image-and-likeness deals; and (ii) the
NCAA allowed players to freely transfer between teams through the transfer
portal. Paying the players meant that
the schools with large alumni bases (Indiana is the largest) and wealthy alumni
(like Mark Cuban at Indiana) could amass large sums of money, to put them on a
more even footing with the historical “blue blood” programs. And the transfer portal enabled players to move
between teams if they didn’t feel they were getting enough playing time or
didn’t like their coaches, which meant the historically second and third string
players at the “blue blood” programs were now starting at the other schools
that were willing to pay for their services.
These changes became the big equalizer in college football.
I don’t like a lot of these
changes, as it feels like the Wild West right now with limited guard rails
being imposed by the NCAA. But these
changes were earth shattering for the sport.
Instead of a season ending with 4-to-5 teams that were capable of
winning a playoff and the championship, now there were 15-20 teams that were
good enough to go on a run and win a championship. This created more parity than ever before.
As we apply this to our businesses,
think of what artificial intelligence is doing in the workplace; it is the
great equalizer putting both big companies and small startups on a more equal
footing. Your startup’s market
conditions have materially changed in the last couple years; how are you going
to capitalize on that?
Ownership Embraced The Desire
to Win
Indiana never really was
considered a “football school”. On the
other hand, with their success under coaches like Bobby Knight and players like
Isiah Thomas and Steve Alford, they were always considered a “basketball
school”. But basketball isn’t where the
lion’s share of athletic revenues are generated—they come from football. And Indiana was never going to truly maximize
their athletic revenues until they set a clear goal of being successful in
football. University President, Pamela
Whitten, and Athletic Director, Scott Dolson, made that a priority, and began
to invest accordingly.
What is the “North Star” vision
for your business, and are you making the appropriate investments to enable you
to hit that target? If not, you will
never get there.
They Hired a Smart Leader
Not many college football fans had
heard of Curt Cignetti prior to his time at Indiana. His name was never mentioned in the list of
college football’s great coaches, like Kirby Smart at Georgia, Ryan Day at Ohio
State or Dabo Sweeney at Clemson. But
when Indiana’s leadership started to research him, it was clear he was a winner
wherever he went.
In 2009, he was on Nick Saban’s coaching
staff at Alabama that won a national championship (and who better to learn from
than college football’s greatest coach of all time). Between 2011-16, he turned around a
struggling IUP program into a perennial conference champion. In 2019, he lead James Madison to the FCS
(Division II) national championship.
When Curt Cignetti famously told the media, “I win. Google me!”, he wasn’t kidding.
The business lesson here is to
hire smartly. It isn’t always the person
with the biggest brand logos on their resume, or the most attention, that will
be the best hires. Do your homework,
peel back the layers of the onion, and you may find your own “diamond in the
rough”.
They Recruited The Right Type
of Players
Most college football recruiting
classes are ranked in order of how many “5-Star” high school recruits a team
has. Indiana didn’t have a single 5-Star
recruit on their roster that won the national championship. Cignetti did three smart things in this
regard: (i) he brought around 15 players with him when he moved from James
Madison to Indiana (experienced players that had won a national championship
and who could lay a good foundation for instilling that same mindset with his
new team at Indiana); (ii) he biased the transfer portal over high school
recruiting (take a proven winner at the college level than an unproven recruit
from high school); and (iii) he looked for players that had the same “chip on
their shoulders” that he did (the under-loved, under-recruited,
under-appreciated players that wanted to prove themselves, like quarterback
Fernando Mendoza that went on to win the Heisman Trophy and beat the team in
his home town (Miami) that didn’t think he was good enough to even walk-on to
their team). What a recipe for success
this turned out to be!
The same holds true for your
business—people really matter. Find the
experienced staff member, perhaps from your competitors, wanting to prove they
can succeed at the next level.
They All Bought Into the Vision
and Put In The Work
Bo Schembechler, the famous
Michigan football coach once said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, the
mind can achieve. And those who stay, will be champions.” Curt Cignetti must have said the same thing
to his team. If you think of Indiana as
all-time biggest losers, that is where we will stay. But if you actually believe you are on an
equal footing with the greats like Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon and Miami, you
can actually beat them (which they did in four consecutive games). But more than believing, they had to put in
the work, winning in the weight room, practices, coaching sessions, film
watching and game planning, as well. That “chip on their shoulder” was
particularly helpful here to get them to put in that needed work. Big picture: winning is a mindset and to get
there, it requires discipline, which Indiana had in spades.
Are you clearly communicating your
vision to your staff? Have they bought
into that vision? Are they putting in
the hard work which will be required to win (e.g., gain market share and
exceed your goals)? If not, back to the drawing board, as without
that vision, a clear strategy and communication, religious management and hard
work, you will never get there.
Closing Thoughts
When Indiana went 11-2 in 2024,
Cignetti’s first year, I thought it was a fluke, catching better teams by
surprise. But when Indiana was the first
team ever to go 16-0 to win the national championship in 2025, beating
top-ranked teams by large margins of victory, I knew Indiana was no longer a
“basketball school” and their football success was here to stay. Which is bad news for my Michigan Wolverines
and everyone else in the Big Ten.
In the last two years,
Northwestern has now passed Indiana as the team with the most all-time losses
in college football. Maybe Dave Braun
and his coaching staff will be the next team to achieve the “impossible”,
winning a national championship in the coming years. Indiana has certainly given them and ever
other team in football that winning playbook, which everyone is trying to copy
in hopes of “catching lightning in the bottle” for their programs. Expect to see more “historical underdogs”
hoisting the championship trophy in years to come, thanks to Indiana and Curt
Cignetti paving the way, proving what is actually possible with a
well-conceived vision, strategy, team and execution. Which “blue blood” will your business beat
for your “national championship”?
For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.
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