Bigger Cinderella Story?
- Thread starter cedricmelons
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By the classic definition of underdog triumphing against all odds, Coach Barnett's NU team was the bigger Cinderella story.
However, if you overanalyze the actual Cinderella tale like you would do in a NU freshman year seminar class, the 2025 Indiana season is more akin to the the story. Historically under-resourced girl (Indiana) with the help of a fairy godmother (NIL) obtains magical items ($$$$$) to triumph over her opponents (OSU, SEC) and get the ultimate prize (prince/CFP victories).
However, if you overanalyze the actual Cinderella tale like you would do in a NU freshman year seminar class, the 2025 Indiana season is more akin to the the story. Historically under-resourced girl (Indiana) with the help of a fairy godmother (NIL) obtains magical items ($$$$$) to triumph over her opponents (OSU, SEC) and get the ultimate prize (prince/CFP victories).
I have stated my reasons for the 1995 NU revival. Indiana had some decent facilities and some respectable teams under Tom Allen. Barnett came to a place with almost no football infrastructure, with 20 straight losing seasons. Cignetti has taken advantage of the new era in a brilliant way and has taken it farther than Gary did nationally but he didn't have anywhere near the hole to dig out of that Barnett did. In fact, I doubt Cignetti would have come to Evanston in 1992 facing the challenges that Barnett did. Cignetti is the newest thing and Barnett was 30 years ago now so national media is calling this the greatest turnaround ever.
If cignetti follows Mendoza to coach him in pros where he gets drafted/open pro hc job…Indiana will regress back to average big team quickly
With the ability to buy players it is ann apples and oranges comparison. The IU story is great and I hope they win the natty, but it hard to compare to what Barnett did with limited resources and academic restrictions. NU had some historically bad years in the 80s. You hear stories of students never witnessing a home victory during their 4 years. Also, there will be a lot of players from this IU team playing on Sunday, other than Bates and a few guys having a cup of coffee in the NFL no one had long term careers. Makes NU story more impressive
We are all biased here. But 1995 Northwestern will always be a bigger Cinderella story. Certainly 2025-26 Indiana was not a 1 year turnaround. So you have to look at 2024 Indiana. By W-L certainly a massive turnaround. But 1995 NU opened with a top 10 road win at ND, that is a critical part of the narrative that launched NU into the national spotlight on opening day. 2024 Indiana didn’t beat any ranked team, didn’t have a statement win really perhaps until waxing Nebraska or beating a down Michigan team later in the season. 1995 NU beat 2 top 10 teams on the road and 2 top 25 teams at home, and in the Rose Bowl were leading USC in the 4th quarter as opposed to 2024 Indiana getting dominated by ND. Also take INT account the fact that NU hadn’t had a winning season in decades and IU had actually been to bowls in some recent years before Cignetti.
If you take a 2 year stretch then 1995-96 NU still holds up decently well until we compare to the last few games for IU beating 3 top 10 teams in a row, the last 2 absolute thrashings.
Of course when judging a one year Cinderella story you have to consider the upbringing of the team. Barnett did this with no transfer starters.
If you take a 2 year stretch then 1995-96 NU still holds up decently well until we compare to the last few games for IU beating 3 top 10 teams in a row, the last 2 absolute thrashings.
Of course when judging a one year Cinderella story you have to consider the upbringing of the team. Barnett did this with no transfer starters.
I don't consider the Indiana thing a Cinderella story AT ALL. If they had done it with the same players/same coaches as the year before within the normal player turnover, then yes, by all means. NU 1995 didn't suddenly have a new coach and a mostly new set of players. We got our Rose Bowl the old fashioned way, we earned it.
Indiana…..hands down. National title. I don’t buy the argument about paying for players. A lot of teams buy players. To put it all together when you have zero history of winning is incomparable. My opinion. No disrespect to our Cats. Frankly, the 1995/1996 Cats changed my life for the better in ways that are too many to write.
Can’t compare the two different era back then today’s college games is more like a pro game
I’m in between. It’s still an incredible coaching and development story since a lot of these guys came from JMU, other FCS and G5 teams and Cig has done better with his guys than some blue blood teams that paid $20 mil NIL. But Indiana is still a little more like Prince Charming held a Top Model or The Bachelorette TV competition to find his Cinderella.
The national consensus is definitely Indiana, nobody cares about us.
I voted for NU on a technicality: you wrote “Indiana this season” when I’d say it’s “Indiana the last two seasons.”
Really, it’s an era discussion. What Cig has done is greater in magnitude (going to and likely winning the natty) than NU, but he did it at the same time his school got handed tens of millions a year annually for NIL and used that to go out and flop the entire roster in the portal with elite players. NU had to do it with the same **** resources they always had and the old fashioned way: recruiting overlooked two stars out of high school and developing them into a championship team with a portal to fill holes and cover up misses. From a resource standpoint, Indiana IS a blue blood now, they aren’t at all what they were two years ago (or every year ever before that). With the right investment, resources can change overnight.
So it’s just different.
I voted for NU on a technicality: you wrote “Indiana this season” when I’d say it’s “Indiana the last two seasons.”
Really, it’s an era discussion. What Cig has done is greater in magnitude (going to and likely winning the natty) than NU, but he did it at the same time his school got handed tens of millions a year annually for NIL and used that to go out and flop the entire roster in the portal with elite players. NU had to do it with the same **** resources they always had and the old fashioned way: recruiting overlooked two stars out of high school and developing them into a championship team with a portal to fill holes and cover up misses. From a resource standpoint, Indiana IS a blue blood now, they aren’t at all what they were two years ago (or every year ever before that). With the right investment, resources can change overnight.
So it’s just different.
Indiana had recent success during the Penix years, so they haven't been much of a doormat recently.
Both have merit but the turnaround at NU was in one yr vs two (Barnett had been in place for a couple years) NU was basically playing for the NC int the game against USC, It we had won it would have been some interesting conversations. NU turnaround was all home grown where as Cignetti was able to use the portal
We were on the verge of potentially winning the NATTY. If we had beaten USC, we were definitely in the mix
I keep hearing Indiana bought top of the line players with huge piles of cash. I give you that Mendoza is extraordinary but there has been much more than player evaluation and cash working here. Number one is health. I heard last night that Indiana plays defense with just 13 players and that their starters are used on special teams. How does any team get away with that unless the gods are smiling? Heck, NU rotates 8-10 players on the D-line alone and special teams at NU have had their share of carnage.
Frankly, I think Indiana's story is a miracle and I consider what they have done to be way beyond anything Cinderella accomplished.
Frankly, I think Indiana's story is a miracle and I consider what they have done to be way beyond anything Cinderella accomplished.
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Nobody here is emphasizing the $ amount, it’s the fact that he had unlimited transfers with immediate eligibility. That dramatically affects the magnitude and quickness of a turnaround. Barnett had to convince these kids to come in as freshmen and stay despite no evidence of winning, zero money and the worst facilities in the power conferences.
I am definitely emphasizing both the unlimited transfers and the money. Indiana went from being a poor school to a blue blooded resource school overnight. It’s fu dame tally different than building the program’s prestige and resources over decades like the past,
I believe there was serious $$$ involved to load this team with fully developed veterans.
It’s obviously us. We had awful facilities, actual academic standards, no portal or NIL nonsense. And that’s no knock on Indiana. They seem like they have high character guys and they absolutely play the game the right way. So fundamentally sound.
It was much harder to retool a team before NIL and the portal. Add on top of that the horrendous legacy of the dark ages and institutional neglect that Gary Burnett had to face. He went out and recruited a great bunch of prospects, and developed them into great college players. It took three years of commitment. It was an amazing accomplishment.
None of this is a knock on CIG. He’s done an amazing thing at Indiana. He clearly can identify talent. He is exceptional in that regard.
None of this is a knock on CIG. He’s done an amazing thing at Indiana. He clearly can identify talent. He is exceptional in that regard.
These are two amazing stories but with NIL, transfer portal and the large number of grad transfers that still have eligibilty the game is obviously much different. IU team from different sources stated an average age of 23... Not sure if that is just the starters which are mostly transfers. Pay your transfer starters with college experience and tape big $ rather than gambling on teenagers seems to be a winning model. IU got there first with that although Texas Tech bought a good team.
Both Indiana and Northwestern's losingest in college football history labels are partly a function of their long history compared to many other schools. While Indiana has been a regular bottom dweller in the Big Ten, but they never sunk as deep as Northwestern for a longer period. Northwestern hit the depths of despair in college football in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the point that people thought they should drop down a subdivision to try to get into the Ivy League or even consider following Chicago to Division III. It had 23 losing seasons in a row when they shocked the country with the undefeated Big Ten run to the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, Indiana at least has been somewhat competitive in recent years. The were ranked #12 after the 2020 season, had 3 down years, and then they had the breakout season last year where they made the playoff and finished ranked #10. So, they are both great stories, but I think 1995 Northwestern came really out of nowhere to become outright champions of the Big Ten after over 2 decades of futility was a bigger Cinderella story.
My only hesitation is that if Indiana wins the National Championship with a dominating performance, they may be considered one of the best teams in the CFP era. Almost every non-blue blood team is saying, “if Indiana, why not us?” and everyone is now trying to copy their portal strategy. I also believe that the way they were able to rise to the top of the Big Ten had a lot to do with our administration and athletic department finally loosening the purse strings and deciding to actually try and produce a CFP team. NU may be the best Cinderella story for the way we shocked everyone but the rise of Indiana to win the National Championship may be the best story in the modern era.
We were not on the verge of winning the national title, not even close. Nebraska would have won it unanimously no matter what we did against USC.
With regard to the thread topic, 1995 NU was a bigger Cinderella story than 2025 Indiana, but that's in large part because 2025 Indiana isn't really a Cinderella in the first place.
Indiana is a bigger story because they have a team that can win it all.
As far as being a Cinderella in the sense of that word, NU '95 was the Cinderella of Cinderellas. In some ways that's still the most improbable single season perhaps ever because Barnett did it without resources. We didn't have any resources back when he was building the team, there was no NIL budget, the Big Ten TV contract was like $1 million per team probably back then. Our athletic budget was miniscule. We had the worst facilities in the Big Ten and "power football" by a mile back then; little to no investment had been made in NU football back then. Indiana is not in that kind of shape right now.
But Cignetti/Indiana is the biggest turnaround in CFB history and I don't think we can really compare NU '95 or Snyder's Kansas State teams because Cignetti created an absolute monster and I think they'll still be good after this year.
As far as being a Cinderella in the sense of that word, NU '95 was the Cinderella of Cinderellas. In some ways that's still the most improbable single season perhaps ever because Barnett did it without resources. We didn't have any resources back when he was building the team, there was no NIL budget, the Big Ten TV contract was like $1 million per team probably back then. Our athletic budget was miniscule. We had the worst facilities in the Big Ten and "power football" by a mile back then; little to no investment had been made in NU football back then. Indiana is not in that kind of shape right now.
But Cignetti/Indiana is the biggest turnaround in CFB history and I don't think we can really compare NU '95 or Snyder's Kansas State teams because Cignetti created an absolute monster and I think they'll still be good after this year.
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Nebraska was undefeated. I think we would have had to have beaten USC, like 51 to 0, to have passed Nebraska. It's not like USC was in the top 2 or three.
Also on the "Cinderella" meaning, the Rose Bowl team didn't have any high NFL draft picks on it or future pro stars. Indiana has a Heisman and many other players who are going to have NFL careers. So we had the magic dust - Indiana found a lot of great players via portal.
Yeah, Florida and Nebraska were playing for the national championship that year. There was no realistic possibility for NU to sneak ahead of both. It wasn't part of the conversation.
Nebraska beat #2 Florida 62-24 in the championship game. A win over USC could have put us #2 in the final poll, but there was no #1 scenario. 1995 Nebraska is on the short list of greatest college football teams of all time. They scored 35+ in every single game and their closest win was by 14.
Jeff Genyk used to joke - often - that NU’s long snapper cost him a chance at a national title (referring to the 1995 Miami Ohio loss).
As a result… We had two scholarship long snappers on the roster in the 2000s.
But, yes, the loss to Randy Walker’s Redhawks would have kept NU from the title in 1995 even if they beat U$C.
Nah, if we’d beat Miami OH and gone 12-0 we’d have gotten a reasonable number of #1 votes for sure based on our story, our dominant defense and multiple top 10 wins.
We didn’t beat Miami OH, was the point.
Why not revise history further to say there was a Big Ten championship game versus O$U? And a playoff in place?
Even if we had beaten U$C, #3 was likely the ceiling given the MAC loss.