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Indiana’s reputation as a Basketball School is in serious jeopardy after Curt Cignetti staged one of the most miraculous turnarounds in college football history. Mark Cuban jumped on the bandwagon after the Hoosiers experienced a meteoric rise last season, and the team will have plenty of money to work with in the transfer portal after getting a sizeable donation from the billionaire alumnus.
The college football landscape has undergone a dramatic change over the past five years or so thanks to the advent of the NIL Era and its impact on the transfer portal. However, the sport itself is still dominated by teams that have historically been among the best in the country, with one very notable exception: Indiana.
The Hoosiers were coming off three consecutive losing seasons when the school ended Tom Allen’s tenure after seven years and replaced him with Curt Cignetti. That turned out to be a very good pivot, as he led them to a 10-2 record and a berth in the College Football Playoff during his first year at the helm before outdoing himself during the current campaign.
Indiana will have to deal with some significant losses on the roster front in the wake of their ongoing playoff run, and they’ll have some help after one of the richest people on the planet reaffirmed his support for a program he’d declined to back before Cignetti arrived in Bloomington.
Mark Cuban is funneling even more money into Indiana’s football team to help them compete in the transfer portal
Cuban originally enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh before transferring to Indiana’s Kelley School of Business. He received his degree in 1981 before moving to Texas and embarking on the tech career that would make him a billionaire by the end of the millennium (his interest in Hoosiers basketball was a motivating factor in founding the internet radio company Yahoo purchased for $5.7 billion worth of stock in 1999).
His alma mater was the recipient of various donations Cuban sent its way over the years, but prior to 2024, he had never given money to directly support the athletic department. However, that changed after Cignetti persuaded him to fork over an unspecified “big number” during his first season as head coach, and it sounds like the new booster is happy with the return he’s gotten on his investment.
According to Front Office Sports, Cuban recently cut another check to support Indiana’s efforts in the transfer portal, and while he once again declined to say how much he’s donated, he made it clear it was bigger than his initial foray, telling the outlet, “Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year.”
Indiana already snagged former TCU QB Josh Hoover to fill the void that will form when Fernando Mendoza takes his talents to the NFL, and they’ve also landed some notable names to replace some key edge rushers who will be graduating.
All signs point to Indiana remaining a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future, and having Mark Cuban in your corner certainly doesn’t hurt.