'This Hoosiers are flippin' champs': Indiana knocks off Ohio State to win Big Ten title

When Curt Cignetti was hired on Nov. 30, 2023, as the 30th head coach in Indiana football history, he inherited a program burdened by a record admired by none. The Hoosiers, long the punchline of the college football world, carried 713 all-time losses at the time of Cignetti’s arrival, the most of any team in the sport.

Exactly one month before Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game, Indiana still bore that ignominious distinction. One month later, that label now belongs to Northwestern, and the Hoosiers, in its place, stand as Big Ten champions.

“Whoever thought the Hoosiers would be here now?” quarterback Fernando Mendoza said to FOX’s Jenny Taft after the game. “The Hoosiers are flippin’ champs. Let’s go.”

Saturday night in Indianapolis, a city steeped in basketball lore and sports tradition, the Hoosiers completed a journey almost unimaginable: a 13-10 triumph over Ohio State that secured their first outright Big Ten title since 1945. The moment wasn’t too big for Indiana, and it wasn’t a fluke. The Hoosiers did not stumble into victory. They outplayed a program synonymous with dominance.

Coach Q&A: Curt Cignetti, players react to Indiana’s Big Ten title win over Ohio State

The defensive performance was suffocating: five sacks, nine tackles for loss, a first-quarter interception and holding Ohio State’s ground game under 100 total rushing yards. The offense did just enough to complement the defensive mastery, propelling Indiana to a victory that resonated around the college football world.

“This is the best coaching job I have seen certainly in my life, I think in the history of this sport,” former Ohio State head coach and three-time national champion Urban Meyer said postgame.

For Cignetti, the journey has been a breathtaking turnaround. Upon his arrival, he boldly set the tone for what would follow, dismissing historical hierarchies and making audacious proclamations about Indiana’s future.

“Purdue sucks … so does Michigan and Ohio State,” he said shortly after being hired.

The day after he was hired, visiting Lucas Oil Stadium, he pronounced, “I figured I had to make this trip up here since we’ll be playing in this game next year.”

Nearly two years later, the Hoosiers were playing in that game. Not just playing — winning. And with that victory, they solidified their position as the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, a meteoric rise from the depths of collegiate futility to the pinnacle of the sport.

The celebration inside Lucas Oil Stadium was a spectacle of jubilation and reverence. Cream and crimson confetti unfurled as the Indiana fight song echoed through the cavernous space.

Linebacker Aiden Fisher, the heartbeat of the team, took the microphone during the on-field celebration after the game and began, “A-one, a-two, a-you know what to do,” before the crowd of tens of thousands took over, singing in unison:

Indiana, our Indiana, Indiana, we’re all for you.
We will fight for the Cream and Crimson, for the glory of Old IU.
Never daunted, we cannot falter. In the battle, we’re tried and true.
Indiana, our Indiana, Indiana, we’re all for you.

For fans, players and staff, it was a moment to be carried forward — a night that will not fade with the seasons, but live as a permanent fixture of Indiana lore.

Linebacker Isaiah Jones, an Ohio native, captured the essence of the win.

“For any of the doubters out there, I think this kind of was the final nail in the coffin for any of the Indiana doubters, Curt Cignetti doubters, the Hoosier doubters,” Jones said postgame. “I think this was the last thing that needed to be proved. And I think we did it.”

How it Happened: Indiana wins Big Ten Championship over Ohio State in defensive battle

Cignetti’s Hoosiers are no longer a cautionary tale. They’re no longer defined by generations of loss and heartache.

“We’ve accomplished a lot,” Cignetti said.

And yet, what they have accomplished cannot truly be diminished because it is unprecedented. From the losingest program in college football history to Big Ten champions and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, Indiana has rewritten the narrative of what is possible.

Indiana football, once always last, the afterthought, the bottom feeder perpetually dismissed, now carries a mantle of permanence: Big Ten champions.

The story of the 2025 Hoosiers is a definitive statement: this is Indiana football, reimagined, triumphant and forever etched into the annals of college football history.

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