Sorry, 16-0 Hoosiers, but $400m NFL duo were part of the real greatest team in college football history

Curt Cignetti deserves a few beers.

Fernando Mendoza has a perfect college football season that can never be taken away — no matter what Tom Brady’s Las Vegas Raiders choose to do with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Getty

Indiana’s ‘greatest’ talk is a big zero

But can we please bring a little reality to an absurd situation?

Enjoy going 16-0 for eternity, Indiana University.

Just know that the football Hoosiers aren’t close to the greatest team in college football history, and an avalanche of modern recency bias won’t change that fact.

First things first, let’s start with facts.

The college football landscape is in utter chaos and more fractured than ever.

Top talent is spread across America and the best athletes in the sport willingly follow the almighty dollar, which means that Indiana during the 2025 season has nothing in common with Texas in 2005 or even LSU in 2019. 

Of course, college football cash was stashed between couch cushions back then and the sport was dirty in the 1980s.

But there was no NIL back then, the endless transfer portal was straight out of science fiction, and it was far more difficult to be an elite college team during previous decades, when the best young names in the country were collected at far fewer schools.

Start with Miami in 2001 and go from there

Miami in 2001 is all the proof that is needed.

Those Hurricanes would destroy these Hoosiers, while Indiana’s only advantage would be having Cignetti as coach instead of Larry Coker.

getty

getty

Miami in 2001 was an NFL team in all but the official name.

Thirty-eight future pros were drafted from those Hurricanes, led by future Hall of Famer Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow, Vince Wilfork, Jonathan Vilma, Ed Reed and Antrel Rolle.

Actually, if there’s any controversy in comparing that Miami crew vs the 2025 Indiana team that just beat the Hurricanes in the College Football Playoff championship, it comes down to figuring out how in the heck Miami accumulated that much legit NFL talent on a single college football roster.

Current mock drafts only list one Indiana player getting drafted in the first round, which is also telling.

The LSU Tigers went 15-0 in 2019 and produced a record-setting offense that still defines modern college football history.

There’s no way that Mendoza and Cignetti are winning a title game vs Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Grant Delpit, Derek Stingley Jr and Ed Orgeron.

NFL's Greatest......

Ranking the top 10......

Quarterbacks of all-time – Can anyone better Tom Brady?

Wide receivers of all-time – Does Randy Moss or Jerry Rice come out on top?

Running backs of all-time – Stacking Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith and more

Tight ends of all-time – How does Travis Kelce compare?

The Tigers unleashed 726 offensive points, averaged almost 50 points a game and scored 63 points in a Peach Bowl blowout of Oklahoma.

Burrow and Chase are also one of the best QB-wide receiver pairs in the NFL today, and hold pro contracts worth more than $400 million combined.

LSU vs Texas and USC is the real debate

A 42-25 College Football Playoff Championship over Trevor Lawrence, Dabo Swinney and Clemson was the ultimate triumph for the Burreaux Tigers — and a much more complete victory than Indiana’s recent six-point win over Miami.

Then there’s Alabama in 2020, Texas in 2005, Clemson in 2018, USC in 2004 with Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Pete Carroll, Georgia in 2022, Alabama in 2009 and Jim Harbaugh‘s Michigan Wolverines just two years ago. 

All of those teams were more explosive, faced stronger competition and didn’t have the luxury of playing in the most uneven landscape in college football history.

The simple fact is that Indiana was a very good team in 2025 — and took advantage of a low point in a sport that is screaming for major governmental legislation and hard new rules.

No one is disputing that Indiana went 16-0 and the Hoosiers are a great story, especially when a 509-691-38 all-time record and decades of invisibility are factored in.

But there’s a huge difference between being an undefeated college team and a 2001 Miami crew that should’ve been playing in the AFC East.

Stay up to date with the latest from the NFL across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.