Grace VanderWaag ’26
Ryan Wen ’27
There are miracles, and then there’s the 2025-2026 season of Indiana football. For nearly the entirety of its history, the Indiana football program had been characterized by failure and incompetence, holding the title as the all-time leader for losses in FBS history prior to 2024. Jay Jennings, Upper School math teacher whose son is currently a junior at Indiana, remembers the university being primarily known for its basketball team. He shares, “If you speak to anyone around my age, you would say Indiana basketball. That’s what [Indiana’s] known for.” And yet, just two years after finishing 3-9 under head coach Tod Allen, the Indiana program has miraculously produced one of the most dominant seasons in recent college football history, finishing the season with a perfect 16-0 record and defeating Miami in the national championship.
The program’s turnaround began with the hiring of head coach Curt Cignetti in 2023. Under Cignetti, Indiana football immediately returned to national relevance in his first season, winning 11 games before falling short to Notre Dame in the playoffs. Over the offseason, Indiana made key roster changes, most notably the acquisition of quarterback Fernando Mendoza. However, even with these additions, hardly anyone picked Indiana to be a top contender heading into the 2025-2026 season. “I didn’t really think Indiana was going to be that great at the start of the year. I mean, I had never really heard of Fernando Mendoza,” says Caden Kropf ’27. Yet, as the season started, the Hoosiers toppled perennial powerhouses such as Alabama, Oregon, and Ohio State en route to the National Championship against Miami. In the championship game, with 9 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Mendoza dove into the endzone to give Indiana a 24-14 lead, cementing the team’s legacy as one of the most improbable Cinderella runs in NCAA history.
Moving forward, Indiana’s unlikely success on the football field may lead to upgrades apart from attracting 5-star recruits. In fact, it may make Indiana the next example of the “Flutie Effect.”
Named after quarterback Doug Flutie, who increased admission rates to Boston College by 30% after beating the University of Miami on a last-second Hail Mary pass attempt, the Flutie Effect refers to the dramatic increase in popularity universities experience as a result of recent athletic success. For instance, applications to Georgetown University from 1983 to 1985 increased by 45 percent after the Hoyas won their first NCAA men’s basketball championship.
Most recently, the Flutie Effect can be seen in full effect just a few miles from Episcopal at Villanova University. Christina Cerenzia, a college counselor at EA, explains, “working in admissions during Villanova’s almost back-to-back success has been wild… There certainly were more applications there.” In addition to more college applicants, Villanova also received an influx of alumni donations. Using these funds, the university renovated buildings such as the Finneran Pavilion while also constructing new residential buildings, such as The Commons—a $225 million project that now provides housing for roughly a thousand students. Cerenzia explains, “You typically always feel connected to your institution, and then if you have the means to give or support a school in that sort of way, and there’s all that hype, I bet [Indiana’s] institutional advancements are maximizing efforts on this too.”
Photo courtesy of Grace VanderWaag ’26
Though it is still too early to know exactly how many new donations Indiana will receive, it is more than likely that the university’s amenities and campus will benefit tremendously following this year’s success on the football field. Mark Cuban, one of Indiana’s most noteworthy alumni and benefactors, recently implied that he intends to increase his grants to his alma mater, saying in an interview with Front Office Sports that Indiana will be “happier this year than last year.”
New contributions to Indiana may also benefit potential college applicants seeking financial aid. Jonathan Coffington, the chief communications officer and marketing director for Indiana University, explains, “This success we’re seeing this year on the field also means helping us raise over a hundred million dollars in scholarship and financial aid resources to make an IU education affordable to kids who might not otherwise be able to afford it.”
If Indiana does become the next example of the Flutie Effect, then what began as a miracle on the field may ultimately lead to the beginning of an entirely new chapter for the institution as a whole. As applications and alumni engagement grow, the 2025-2026 Indiana football team may not only be remembered for their late-game heroics on the field, but also as a catalyst for overdue improvements off the field as well.