The Indiana Football Hoosiers are Your Big Ten Champions!

I don’t know that I ever truly believed I would write the following words: The Indiana Football Hoosiers are your Big Ten Champions!

As a lifelong Hoosier fan, words cannot express how wonderful of a moment it was when the final whistle blew and the last gasp of Ohio State faded away. Immense and tremendous joy filled the house we were in. Hugging, crying, screaming, it was truly one of the best sports moments of my life.

The first person who called me was my mother, an 86’ Hoosier alum. A mother of a college basketball player, a college volleyball player, and a recovering Dallas Cowboys fan, my mom consistently reminds me how terrible Indiana football was when she attended school. She got the last year of Lee Corso, the inexplicable Sam Wyche year, and the first two years of Bill Mallory. She has seen the worst Indiana football has offered with her own two eyes.

Last season, I drug my dad to the Indiana vs Nebraska game. After that tale, my mom attended her first Indiana Hoosiers football game on October 26, 2024 when Washington came to town. Since then, it’s all she can talk about when I come over to the house.

That’s not an abnormal story from my pulses on the Indiana fanbase. This new creation of Curt Cignetti, this emerging superpower in the sport of college football, it’s growing. Indiana has one of the largest living alumni bases in the country. Many of the older generation fed on banners in Assembly Hall and raised a generation on the promise of athletic success. Success that has never really materialized.

Until now that is. Now, Indiana begins its march to the summit. Having slain almost every demon that’s haunted the program for the last 30+ years. Double digit wins? Check. Win at Happy Valley? Check. Beat Ohio State? Check. Win a Big Ten Title? Check.

All of these feats turn the volume up. They bring in the 40 year old parents from Shoals to their first Indiana game. They bring back an alumni in Jeffersonville who’s going to fly with his kids to the Rose Bowl game in the new year. A former Hoosier in Chicago gets a “Go Hoosiers” when going through the grocery store wearing their Bison gear. It’s the pride in wearing the gear around. It’s the blowup helmet in the front yard. It’s the hook into a new generation of fans.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to actually see this happen. How much joy that moment on Saturday night brought me. Hearing my little komodos in unison spout “ Hoo Hoo Hoo, Hoosiers” in a house of Buckeyes will make me smile until the end of time. That’s what this is all about. Memories. Love. Joy.

This season isn’t over, and it could be much sweeter when we finally reach the ending. This team has done it’s job  so far. It’s won. It’s brought a community to life. It’s creating memories for new fans. We’ll talk about tomorrow, tomorrow.

The Indiana Football Hoosiers are your Big Ten Champions.