Curt Cignetti could follow in Nick Saban's footsteps and create a dynasty at Indiana

From 2007 to 2010, Curt Cignetii was a wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Alabama. He got to watch firsthand as Nick Saban began to build one of the most formidable dynasties in sports history at Alabama. 

Over a decade and a half later, Cignetti is building one of his own. 

Cignetti and Indiana won Monday's national championship game over Miami, putting an exclamation point on a 16-0 season that delivered IU its first national championship. For the next 12 months, the Hoosiers will be known as the champions of college football. 

But there's no reason to believe they're done yet. 

Why a dynasty could be in the works

Since Day 1 of the Cignetti era in Bloomington, there's been no doubt about the direction Indiana's football program was heading in. An 11-2 debut campaign for Cignetti saw IU make the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history and become nationally relevant again. 

This season, with a team full of players that felt disrespected and undervalued, Indiana became the kings of the college football world, and did so by bulldozing whatever team lay in their path. 

When adversity struck, as it did on Monday when Miami continued to punch back, Indiana did what all great teams do: it absorbed the blow and stuck together. 

In many ways, Cignetti's Hoosiers looked eerily reminiscent of Saban's Crimson Tide. 

Cignetti is 27-2 in two seasons at IU. He's already landed TCU transfer QB Josh Hoover to be the successor to Heisman Trophy winner and soon-to-be first-round NFL Draft pick Fernando Mendoza. 

This season, constructed a championship-winning roster with exactly zero five-star recruits. He took a program that entered the 2025 season as the losingest program in college football history and made it a force to be reckoned with and the potential foundation for another CFB dynasty. 

Even the usually stoic Cignetti knows that an achievement like that warrants a smile and a cold beer.