Curt Cignetti just pulled off something nobody thought possible in college football
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Curt Cignetti just pulled off something nobody thought possible in college football originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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For years, the answer to the question was simple. Who is the best coach in college football?
The conversation almost always started with Kirby Smart, occasionally drifted toward Ryan Day, and sometimes included other playoff regulars. But entering the 2026 season, Sporting News made a change that would have sounded impossible just a few years ago.
According to a recent ranking of all 138 college football head coaches; Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is now No. 1. That's not a typo. It's a reflection of one of the most remarkable coaching runs the sport has seen in recent memory.
The season that changed everything
Cignetti didn't just win at Indiana. He completely transformed what was possible there. The Hoosiers finished a perfect 16-0 in 2025 and captured a national championship, turning a program that spent decades fighting for bowl eligibility into the biggest story in college football.
Indiana had long been viewed as one of the Big Ten's toughest jobs. Winning seasons were celebrated. Conference title dreams felt unrealistic. Cignetti changed that almost overnight.
His confidence became famous the moment he arrived in Bloomington. At the time, some viewed it as bravado. Now it looks more like a promise fulfilled.
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Why he passed Kirby Smart
Smart remains one of the sport's giants. The Georgia coach owns two national championships and has built the Bulldogs into the gold standard of the SEC.
But rankings are about where coaches stand today, not where they stood five years ago. Cignetti's recent body of work is impossible to ignore.
Between James Madison and Indiana, he has gone 46-6 over the last three seasons. He took an FCS powerhouse and then turned one of college football's most overlooked Power Four programs into a national champion.
Few coaches in America can match that level of immediate impact.
The pressure starts now
Being No. 1 is one thing. Staying there is another. Every coach who reaches the top becomes a target, and Cignetti will enter 2026 carrying expectations Indiana has never experienced before.
The good news for the Hoosiers is that their coach has never seemed interested in lowering expectations. That mindset helped build a champion. Now it has earned him the title of college football's top coach.
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