Indiana could challenge 2019 LSU as college football's greatest team ever

There's not much else that can be said about the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers that hasn't been said already, except one thing. 

Is this year's Hoosier squad worthy of being mentioned as one of college football's greatest-ever teams, or even the No. 1 spot itself? 

That question would've seemed absurd even after Curt Cignetti and IU put the world on notice a season ago by going 11-2 and making the College Football Playoff. But Cignetti's second Indiana team has decimated its competition every week. They beat Ohio State to win the Big 10 and Alabama to win the Rose Bowl and advance to the CFP semifinal.

And on Friday night, Indiana earned the biggest win in school history by trouncing, destroying and obliterating Oregon by a score of 56-22 to advance to the CFP National Championship Game against Miami on Jan. 19. 

Led by a head coach in Cignetti who is already an IU legend and a Heisman Trophy-winning QB in Fernando Mendoza, Indiana has staked its claim as one of the two best teams in college football this season. 

But how do the Hoosiers stack up against what is widely considered the greatest team of all time? 

How Indiana compares to 2019 LSU 

Friday's edition of the Peach Bowl was eerily reminiscent of the 2019 edition that saw LSU beat Oklahoma 63-28 to advance to the National Championship, in which they beat Clemson 42-25. 

Time will tell whether or not the same fate awaits Indiana against Miami, but there are certainly plenty of similarities between the two squads. 

Both were led by a Heisman-winning QB. Both largely skated through their regular season schedules (Indiana won two games by one score; LSU won three by one score). Both blew out their opponents in the Peach Bowl/CFP semifinal to advance to the national championship game. 

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two teams — aside from the fact that LSU cruised past Georgia in the SEC Championship while Indiana clawed its way to a 13-10 win over Ohio State to win the Big 10 — is the relative lack of superstars that Indiana has. The Hoosiers famously boast zero five-star recruits and only seven four-stars. 

LSU's 2019 roster included Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson, among other future NFL stars. Indiana's roster is a much more old-school group of players that have melded together to form a team good enough to run anyone out of the building and great enough to challenge LSU's 2019 team for a spot on the Mount Rushmore of college football's greatest-ever teams — that is, if they finish the job and take down Miami on Jan. 19.