PHOTO: Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has turned Hoosiers football upside down.

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— Click here for review and purchase link: THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s and here for a purchase link to RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans.

— Watch a three-minute video to learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.

— Documentary synopsis: Duffy documentary snynopsis.pdf – Google Drive

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By TOM SHANAHAN

To fully appreciate Indiana football bumping second-year head coach Curt Cignetti’s salary from 8.3 million to 11.6 million on Thursday, some context is required.

Indiana’s football profile is a long way from 1967 when it succeeded Michigan State as Big Ten Conference champions and playing the Spartans in a conference showdown in 1987. But that’s the new world order of college football as the No. 3-ranked Hoosiers (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) play host to the Spartans (3-3, 0-3) on Saturday at Indiana’s Memorial Stadium.

A Cignetti-like coach could not have done in 1968 or 1988 what he has pulled off in 2024 and 2025.

College football success now isn’t about being a blue blood with a recruiting legacy. It’s about financial support and hitting it big in the transfer portal. Nobody has done it better than Cignetti, the 64-year-old coach Indiana took a chance on while other schools passed on the old guy.

The past two seasons are not only unprecedented success for Indiana, a basketball school, it’s rare for college football at any place or any time.

In the 1967 football season, Indiana was 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the Big Ten when it finished in a three-way tie for the conference title with Minnesota and Purdue. Since the Rose Bowl tiebreaker favored the team that had gone the most years without a Rose Bowl appearance, Indiana got the bid.

It was the first time – and only time – Indiana has ever played in the Rose Bowl since the exclusive Big Ten contract with the Rose Bowl was signed prior to the 1947 season.

So, what was Indiana’s recruiting bump with this unprecedented 1967 success under coach John Pont?

Indiana was 6-4 overall in 1968, but the freshmen who enrolled in 1968 (the NCAA didn’t permit freshmen eligibility until 1972), contributed to a 4-6 record as sophomores in 1969, 1-9 as juniors in 1970 and 3-8 as seniors in 1971.

In otherwise words, no bump at all.

From 1968 to 1986, Indiana football enjoyed one winning season – 8-4 in 1979. The skid included 1-10 record in 1974 under second-year coach Lee Corso and 0-11 in 1984 under first-year coach Bill Mallory, who previously coached five seasons at Miami (39-12), five at Colorado (35-21-1) and four at Northern Illinois (19-15).

The next time Indiana was in contention for a Rose Bowl bid was the 1987 season under Mallory’s rebuild. The Hoosiers were ranked No. 16 and 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten when they traveled to No. 13 Michigan State (6-0-1, 5-0-1 Big Ten) to decide the Big Ten title on November 14 at Spartan Stadium. Michigan State won 27-3 to clinch the title and beat USC in the Rose Bowl.

The recruiting bump from Indiana’ 1987 season?

Mallory’s teams never again finished above fifth place in the Big Ten. After 13 seasons, his overall record was 69-77-3. It was his only losing overall record at four schools. His last season, 1996, Indiana finished 3-8 and 1-7 in the Big Ten.

With a 1987 Big Ten title and overall winning record coaching the Hoosiers, Mallory might have earned induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. His career record was 167-130-4 with two Mid-American Conference titles and one Big Eight title.

I remember in the 1990s, while covering San Diego State football, the Aztecs coaches were frustrated when they’d lose a promising California junior college prospect to Indiana because the Hoosiers’ coaches would tell the recruit that by playing at Indiana, they had a chance to play in the Rose Bowl.

San Diego wasn’t a Big Ten member, but the Aztecs essentially had as much chance as Indiana to play in the Rose Bowl. But the prospects fell for the empty-promise pitch.

Following Indiana’s 1987 success, the Hoosiers didn’t post a winning Big Ten records until Tom Allen posted marks of 8-5 overall and 5-4 in conference in 2019 and 6-2 and 6-1 in 2020. As for the bump, Indiana finished 2021 at 2-10 and 0-9. Allen was fired two years later with an overall record of 33-49.

Enter Cignetti in 2024 with a fistful of transfers who followed him from James Madison and other transfer portal additions. It’s hard to think of Indiana as a football power, but Cignetti has managed to rebuild the program through NIL and revenue sharing support from the administration. So far, he’s hit it big two years in a row in the transfer portal.

Cignetti went 11-2 in 2024 and advanced to the College Football Playoffs with a first-round loss to Notre Dame. In 2025, the Hoosiers are ranked an unprecedented No. 3 with 6-0 overall record and 3-0 mark in Big Ten play. Without Ohio State on Indiana’s schedule, the Hoosiers could share the Big Ten title with an unbeaten conference record.

Indiana is a long way from its 1987 showdown against the Spartans. It’s a new world in college football, and Cignetti has capitalized on it unlike anyone else.

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I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055

I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.

Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation and Alabama.

— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.

— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”

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PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books

— RAYE OF LIGHT, August Publications or on Amazon.

— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.

PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books

— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here. 

— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP, coming soon on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.