Indiana pulls off the most improbable turnaround in college football history to win its first national championship
What we watched here
• Indiana wins the title! The Indiana Hoosiers have gone from college football’s laughing stock to national champions. The Hoosiers survive Miami, 27-21, in an epic College Football Playoff national title game.
• Indiana’s incredible run: The Hoosiers – long a college football doormat – have won the national championship for the first time in school history. Curt Cignetti’s charges went 16-0, completeing a program turnaround for the ages.
• The U leaves disappointed but proud: Miami was playing on their home turf and was back in the national title picture for the first time in more than two decades. The Hurricanes put up an incredible fight against a talented Indiana team that had not been tested in the College Football Playoffs. But one final mistake from Carson Beck ended their hopes.
• Stick with CNN Sports: We’ll be here with live updates from on the ground at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens and analysis.
68 Posts10 hr 57 min ago
Indiana’s impossible dream is a reality: The Hoosiers are college football’s national champions
From CNN’s Kyle Feldscher
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza celebrates after the win over Miami. Marta Lavandier/AP
Đây là điều mà nhiều người hâm mộ bóng bầu dục đại học chưa bao giờ nghĩ mình sẽ được chứng kiến: Đội Indiana Hoosiers đã trở thành nhà vô địch quốc gia của bóng bầu dục đại học.
The Hoosiers have long been considered a basketball school and Indiana is known as a basketball-mad portion of the country. No longer. The 2025-26 Indiana Hoosiers on Monday wrote themselves into college football history by pulling off the first 16-0 season in the modern era, defeating the University of Miami in the College Football Playoff national championship game by a score of 27-21.
The game started off slow – the Hoosiers and Hurricanes traded defensive stands in the first half, with Fernando Mendoza leading his team on two scoring drives to make it 10-0 at halftime.
Miami running back Mark Fletcher Jr. puts Miami on the board with a long touchdown run in the third quarter. Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The game exploded into life in the second half as Miami’s Mark Fletcher Jr. broke free for a 57-yard touchdown run that brought Miami within a score of the Hoosiers. IU answered that score a few drives later with one of the turning points of the game.
As it felt like Miami was seizing control of the contest with its pressure on Mendoza, the Hoosiers broke through the Hurricanes’ punt team with Mikail Kamara blocking Dylan Joyce’s punt. Isaiah Jones jumped on the loose ball in the end zone as the Hoosiers regained the 10-point lead to go up 17-7.
Miami refused to back down and got an electric fourth quarter started with another Fletcher touchdown, cutting the Indiana lead again to just three points.
What came next will live long in Hoosier lore.
On a fourth down late in the game, Mendoza dives over the goal line to put the Hoosiers up by two scores. Doug Murray/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Mendoza led his team down the field – coming up huge in clutch moments.
First, it was a fourth-and-5 pass to wide receiver Charlie Becker for 19 yards that kept the drive going. Then, facing another fourth down at the Miami 12-yard line, Mendoza kept the ball on a designed quarterback run.
While taking contact, he made his way past the first-down marker and strived for more. He shrugged off a couple of hits and lunged for the goal line, taking a massive blow to the back in the process. But he got over the goal line, scoring the touchdown that would eventually seal the win.
