We know where Indiana's 2025 national championship run ranks in one set of standings: it's the most individually satisfying, bang-for-your-buck championship run for its fan base in the history of college football. The only title run that even somewhat compares is 2010 Auburn, when Cam Newton flew in on his Superman cape to drag an otherwise 8-5 team (Auburn's record in 2009 and 2011) to its first and only national title since 1957. But, c'mon.
This Indiana run didn't exactly come out of nowhere -- Cignetti's Hoosiers were in the College Football Playoff a year ago -- but IU leveled up from an upstart that was out-classed 65-32 in losses to Ohio State and Notre Dame into a juggernaut that Alabama and Oregon could not stay on the field with. The jump Indiana made from 2024 to 2025 was nearly as big as the one from 2023 to '24. Indiana delivered more joy to its fans this season than any American sports team since the 1980 US men's hockey team.
Let's now compare 2025 Indiana with other champions of the recent past.
For starters, we're only looking at undefeated teams. IU will fall behind plenty of others in terms of future pros, All-America honors and the like, but it takes a special level of dedication to out-play every single opponent from September to January.
Undefeated national champions, Championship Era (1998-present)
1998 Tennessee (13-0) | 2002 Ohio State (14-0) | 2010 Auburn (14-0) | 2020 Alabama (13-0) |
1999 Florida St (12-0) | 2004 USC (13-0) | 2013 Florida St (13-0) | 2022 Georgia (15-0) |
2000 Oklahoma (13-0) | 2005 Texas (13-0) | 2018 Clemson (15-0) | 2023 Michigan (15-0) |
2001 Miami (12-0) | 2009 Alabama (14-0) | 2019 LSU (15-0) | 2025 Indiana (16-0) |
An undefeated national champion was thought to be unthinkable in this new-expanded Playoff era. It's just harder to win it all now, not only because you have to play an extra game (or two) to get to the title game, but conference championship games are still around -- and changes to the sport have made it more difficult to build and maintain depth from year to year.
Four teams have made the CFP title game in the 12-team era: an Ohio State team that lost twice and didn't play for its conference championship, a Miami team that lost twice and didn't play for its conference championship, a Notre Dame that lost to Northern Illinois and also didn't play in a conference title game, and then undefeated Indiana. Those four teams were seeded 8th, 10th, 7th, and 1st. One of these is not like the others.
If we want to get absurdly technical, the absolute hardest feat to pull off in this era would be a 16-1 national championship, where you run through your regular season undefeated, lose your conference championship and a bye in the process, and then win in all four rounds of the CFP. But we're splitting hairs so finely we'd need a microscope to see the difference.
Game control: Indiana did not trail at any point in its 3-game run through the College Football Playoff, becoming the first team to do so since 2020 Alabama. (Obviously, these Hoosiers had to play one more game than those Crimson Tide.) The last time Indiana trailed in a game was the 8:02 mark of the third quarter in the Big Ten Championship, when Fernando Mendoza hit Elijah Sarratt for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown. The last time before that? A 6-minute span in the fourth quarter of the Penn State win on Nov. 8. Indiana faced one other second-half deficit all season -- 13-10 to Iowa in the fourth quarter on Sept. 27. Indiana immediately tied that game, then went on to (obviously) win, 20-15.
As a point of comparison, the last deficit 2020 Alabama faced was a 24-17 hole to Georgia late in the first half of their Oct. 17 contest, the third game of their pandemic-delayed season.
Dominance on both sides of the ball: Indiana finished the year third in scoring offense (41.6 points per game) and second in scoring defense (11.7). The last team to pull that off was, ahem, Lane Kiffin's 2024 Ole Miss squad that missed the Playoff. But the last national champion to rank among the top-3 in scoring offense and defense was 2013 Florida State, who led the nation at 12.1 points per game allowed and finished second at 51.6 points per game.
Scoring differential per game, undefeated champions
1. 2013 Florida State -- 39.5
2(t). 2001 Miami -- 33.8
2(t). 2005 Texas -- 33.8
4. 2018 Clemson -- 31.2
5. 2025 Indiana -- 29.9
6. 2020 Alabama -- 29.1
7. 2022 Georgia -- 26.8
8. 2019 LSU -- 26.5
9. 2023 Michigan -- 25.5
10. 2004 USC -- 25.2
In six games against ranked opponents, Indiana won by a combined 227-86, roughly an average of 38-14.
Advanced statistics loved this Indiana team. FEI, the official advanced metric of FootballScoop (largely because it's the most readily available), rated 2025 Indiana an 1.89 coming into the game. Oregon was second, at 1.63. This means the gap between No. 1 Indiana and No. 2 Oregon was nearly as big as the gap between No. 2 Oregon and No. 5 Texas Tech (1.28).
Indiana's 1.89 rating (as of this writing) is the highest in the FEI database, which stretches back to 2007.
Excellence across the board. Here are the statistics in which Indiana ranked among the top 10 nationally:
-- passing efficiency, 1st
-- third down conversions, 1st (highest by any team since 2022)
-- turnover margin, t-1st
-- fumbles lost, t-1st
-- total sacks, 2nd
-- rushing defense, 2nd
-- scoring defense, 2nd
-- first downs allowed per game, t-2nd
-- red zone touchdowns allowed, t-2nd
-- scoring offense, 3rd
-- tackles for loss per game, 3rd
-- yards per attempt, t-3rd
-- gains of 20-plus yards, t-4th
-- kicks/punts blocked, t-4th
-- time of possession, 5th
-- opponent passing touchdowns, 5th
-- fewest penalties per game, t-5th
-- interceptions, t-6th
-- red zone scoring, 8th
-- opponent third down conversions, 8th
-- opponent rushing touchdowns, t-8th
-- punt returns, 9th
-- yards per play, 10th
-- opponent yards per carry, 10th
-- first downs per game, t-10th
Nearly a thousand words later, we can safely say that if 2025 Indiana wasn't the best-coached team in college football history, it would take a hell of an argument to convince us otherwise.