Sports

Indiana Predictably Runs From Notre Dame Making Curt Cignetti’s Claims Of SEC Cowardice Ring Hollow

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iStockphoto / Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Indiana cancelled a football series with Notre Dame.


The Indiana football team has reportedly cancelled an upcoming series with Notre Dame. The move should come as no surprise given Curt Cignetti’s recent comments at Big Ten Media Day.

The Hoosiers coach hyped the conference as being the most competitive in the sport. It now seems he was maneuvering to scratch the Fighting Irish for an easier non-conference path.

Indiana was college football’s best team in 2025-26, winning the school’s first ever national title. That did not shield the program from criticism.

Indiana won’t schedule out of conference.

“We figured we’d adopt an SEC scheduling philosophy,” the coach said in 2025 after cancelling a matchup vs. a P4 opponent. His reasoning? The Hoosiers already play nine league games.

Adding another tough game to the slate was not advantageous, especially during a time when the SEC and ACC were playing eight conference matchups.

A loss can impact College Football Playoff standing. Guaranteeing three wins outside of Big Ten play is pertinent.

We’ve seen Cignetti’s stance executed in real time. Indiana paid $2 million to cancel a series with Virginia, a program with five winning seasons over the last two decades. The Cavaliers were replaced by Kennesaw State and Austin Peay.

That’s now been followed by the cancellation of Notre Dame. These are not the Hoosiers’ lone cancellations to impact the Cignetti era.

The school nixed a series with Louisville a few years prior. While that cancellation came under former coach Tom Allen’s watch, it provided a non-conference slate lacking P4 competition for each of Cignetti’s first two seasons. The Hoosiers were able to sweep through those out of league matchup to secure back-to-back playoff appearances.

Scheduling has been top of mind amid Indiana’s rise to college football relevance. In 2024, the Hoosiers had the 42nd most difficult slate in the sport. Their best win came over 7-5 Michigan. They still jumped fringe playoff teams Ole Miss, Alabama, and South Carolina.

In 2025, the schedule was more impressive. Still, Indiana boasted one of the easiest non-conference paths with a murderers’ row of Old Dominion, Kennesaw State, and Indiana State.

Curt Cignetti has not faced a P4 team outside the Big Ten during the regular season…

And he will not do so for the foreseeable future following Indiana’s cancellation of Notre Dame (Yes, technically the Irish are not P4, but you get the point).

There are no P4 opponents on any Hoosiers schedule through 2032. There are only Group of 6 schools. Those schedules are currently full through 2029.

Cignetti’s gone viral for comments made in past interviews, most notably in the 2024 season that ended with a loss to Notre Dame.

“We don’t just beat top 25 teams, we beat the s— out of them,” he said after beating zero ranked teams in the regular season. Those comments aged poorly as they were immediately followed by the playoff loss to the Irish. The Hoosiers went 0-2 in their in their only meetings with ranked foes.

They redeemed themselves in ’25 with massive wins over Miami, Alabama, and Oregon. They also secured wins over ranked three ranked teams in the regular season/Big 10 title.

That does not change the fact that the program continues to run from non-conference competition. The latest move should not be a surprise.

Cignetti hyped the Big Ten with a jab at the SEC.

Cignetti called the Big Ten the “best league in football” while on the podium for media days. He pointed to physicality, difficulty on the road, and overall talent within the conference.

He also provided a slight to the SEC “hype machine.”

His words provided an opening to avoid non-conference competition AKA the “SEC model.” He believes the Big Ten schedule is enough. There is no reason to schedule Notre Dame. The removal was predictable.

But the words ring hollow given recent movement. The SEC has adopted a nine-game conference schedule in addition to a mandatory P4 non-conference foe. Indiana continues to duck competition.

The Hoosiers refuse to challenge themselves outside of Big Ten play. It wreaks of the cowardice he’s previously referenced to mock his rival league. It now seems those words were a smokescreen. The cancellations were never about the SEC. They were always about Indiana.

Indiana will not play Notre Dame in 2030 or 2031. The Hoosiers cancelled. They will have an easier path to the College Football Playoff. I guess it’s a win.

The Irish, meanwhile, will fill the opening with another P4 opponent. A rivalry with USC will resume in 2030.