There have been countless "historic" seasons in college football history. The Cinderella stories and the unprecedented champions rule the hearts of those seeking an underdog story. Majority of the time, once those underdog stories appear, the fans have something new to undermine the dominant teams with.
There is no doubt that Indiana head caoch Curt Cignetti is a fantastic college football coach, and a top three one in the sport at that. To be able to take a losing program like the Indiana Hoosiers and win them a national championship in such a short time frame is unheard of.
Several national media platforms and fans have used this as a reason to say that he is the best coach in the sport right now and dethrone Kirby Smart from the top spot he's held since Nick Saban retired. However, according to On3, everyone needs to pump the brakes on that wild claim.
Kirby Smart's prolonged dominance will always overcome Curt Cignetti's recency bias
In a stat provided by On3, the Georgia Bulldogs have had an impressive win percentage of 76.6 against final AP top 25 opponents in the past five seasons which leads the country in that statistic. In this statistic, Indiana is not pictured inside the top 10.
In fact, Georgia has faced more than double the amount of AP top 25 teams in that five-year time frame than Indiana has played. While Georgia has played in 30 matchups featuring a top 25 opponent (and winning 23 of those), Indiana has only faced 14 with a record of 6-8.
If you want to dispel this by saying Cignetti did not arrive until 2023, that will still mean he was 0-2 in 2024 with a point differential of 32-65. And in those two years, Georgia has played in double the amount of top 25 games as Indiana with a comparable win percentage.
Indiana's national title can't compete with Georgia's championships
Indiana has won in an age where you can buy a roster for championships, and they had a whopping 36 total transfers on their roster in 2025. Why this makes such a difference is that the school can now affordably buy players that are experienced and have proven their talent at other schools without having to develop anyone into champions.
So, how many transfers did Smart have in his championship reign in 2021? They had just three transfers in 2021, and one of them did not get any playing time. Smart instead took players like walk-on Stetson Bennett and turned them into a Heisman contender and champion. Cignetti bought All-PAC12 quarterback Fernando Mendoza and a host of other players with experience to their championship.
This isn't meant to dispel what Cignetti has done. He is a fantastic coach that has done something that has not been done before in the sport, win with Indiana. However, that should not put him above a coach that has maintained dominance for a decade. Hopefully, more statistics being brought to light like this one and continued dominance in 2026 will start to remind people of what Georgia is, a true powerhouse.
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