The college football world will get a first of its kind on the first day of the new year.
It’ll get a college football factory, maybe the grandest one in the history of the sport, trying to deny ultimate glory to a program that’s been short on accomplishments and long on frustration.
It’ll get Alabama and Indiana, programs with nothing in common and everything to play for on New Year’s Day afternoon. It’s only fitting that one of the most unique clashes of college football culture will come at the historic Rose Bowl, because no matter who survives into the semifinals, this College Football Playoff quarterfinal in Pasadena promises to be one for the history books.
Really, how could it not be?
When the No. 1 seed who’s 13-0 is Indiana, of all schools, and the No. 9 seed with the flaws and the 3 losses is Alabama, of all schools, you have a fascinating juxtaposition that almost feels like an alternate reality. Except it’s so very real, and when the Crimson Tide and Hoosiers kick things off at about 4 p.m. ET, the calendar will have flipped to 2026 and the sport’s whole dynamic will have flipped, too.
The intrigue will be off the charts, for so many reasons. But we’ll narrow it down to 5 things that make this mind-blowing Alabama-Indiana Playoff showcase as interesting as it gets in college football:
1. The parallel universe of Alabama being a sizable underdog to Indiana
If you landed from Mars and didn’t know Indiana was a Playoff team last year in Curt Cignetti’s first season, your general reaction would probably be something like, “Indiana is playing mighty Alabama in a Playoff game?” And that initial moment of shock would be followed by something like, “And Indiana is the prohibitive favorite in the game?”
The answers on this new college football planet we live on would be “yes and yes.” This is a totally different college football planet we live on, complete with NIL millions, transfer portals that act as player turnstiles and coaches forced to deal with all the fallout. It’s also a universe where Indiana is the program flashing the Heisman Trophy winner for the first time and where Indiana is the program that’s 3 precious victories from its first national championship.
It’s not a planet to be scared of or a reality you can’t embrace. And, yes, Indiana is about a touchdown favorite over the Tide, and IU is also getting the love from ESPN’s FPI, which is giving the Hoosiers a hearty 71.4% chance to end Alabama’s season. These seemingly upside-down numbers favoring Indiana are less an indictment of Alabama and way more just a big, fat compliment to what Cignetti has built in Bloomington in such a short time.
Alabama shouldn’t run from the reality of being a heavy underdog to what we’ve always known to be a basketball school. That’s not the way to approach it at all. The Tide shouldn’t pretend to be the favorite that they almost always are, either. They should embrace the funky, flipped situation and rally behind being the 3-loss underdog going up against the 13-0 behemoth.
Yes, there will be pressure on the Tide at the Rose Bowl because they’re Alabama, it’s a Playoff game and because the Kalen DeBoer doubters won’t be letting that first-round win over Oklahoma get in the way of their narrative. But, for once, the real, honest-to-goodness pressure will be on the other team. Because we’re living in that parallel universe, and there’s really nothing wrong with that.
2. Football blue blood meets basketball blue blood, with Rose Bowl backdrop
That aforementioned parallel universe is truly working overtime with this Bama-IU dynamic, because it isn’t just the Hoosiers being a prohibitive favorite that jumps off the page. It’s also the fact that Indiana is a full-blooded blue blood itself, just in men’s basketball. For decades and decades, Alabama football helped rule the fall months while Indiana basketball kept fans very warm during those winter months.
Even if you’re not old enough to have lived through the Bobby Knight dynasty of the 1970s and ’80s, you probably know about the iconic 1976 IU team that went undefeated, you’ve seen the furious Knight infamously toss that chair across the court and you’ve also seen Keith Smart nail that national championship-winning baseline shot against Syracuse in 1987. All of it and then some is part of the fabric of what Knight built in a basketball-crazed state that regularly sells out high school gyms.
And like the state of Indiana worships its roundball heroes, the state of Alabama does a similar loving dance with its gridiron legends. It’s just what both proud states do, because that’s how the sports-loving residents in both states have been raised. Indiana hadn’t won an outright conference title in football in 80 years before a Miami guy named Fernando Mendoza blew into Bloomington and led these Hoosiers past defending national champion Ohio State a few weeks ago.
Basketball season is well under way in the state of Indiana, Hoosiers, high schools and all, but we’re barreling toward the new year and for once the sports consciousness in the state isn’t centered around basketball. Yes, IU was in the Playoff last season, but it was cute, it was a 1-and-done and, well, this season it’s serious. The Hoosiers are the No. 1 seed, in football, and 3 wins from their first national title.
And they’re about to stare down Alabama, in football, a program that’s played in a zillion of these titanic showdowns at exactly this time of year. Just think about how many huge games Alabama football has played on New Year’s Day alone. Well, there will be another one of those coming fast and furious on the first day of 2026, and at the most gorgeous backdrop college football has to offer.
Either Bama football gets yet another signature moment, or IU takes a baby step toward becoming a football blue blood itself.
3. Curt Cignetti faces the program that helped launch his career
Cignetti has been a head coach since 2011, so it’s been a while. And he’s won everywhere he’s been, going 53-17 at IUP, 14-9 at Elon, 52-9 at James Madison and 24-2 at Indiana. That’s a combined 143-37, and that’s a really long and great sample size to prove just how good a head coach Cignetti is.
But before he became a head coach, in fact right before he became a head coach, Cignetti was an assistant at none other than Alabama. It was his unofficial launching point toward a successful head coaching career, and it started in 2007, at exactly the same time as a guy named Nick Saban was beginning his famed tenure in Tuscaloosa.
So, Cignetti not only dipped himself firmly into the tradition of Alabama football, he did it at the most perfect time, learning under Saban and being part of the early years of what grew into a dynasty. Cignetti was a wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator for the Crimson Tide from 2007-11, and there really can’t be a coincidence that Cignetti left a winning program and immediately started winning games himself at IUP.
Now, a decade and a half later, it’s all come full circle for Cignetti, who has worked wonders in just 2 seasons at Indiana. He had the Hoosiers in the Playoff in his first season in 2024, and now he’s got them sitting as the 1 seed with a 13-0 record as that old college football powerhouse from the South comes calling on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl.
When this Playoff spectacle kicks off at about 4 p.m. ET on ESPN, Cignetti is sure to have some flashbacks to his old days in T-Town under Saban. This time, Cignetti will be trying to take down the very program that helped shoot his coaching career into the stratosphere. Talk about great theatre.
4. We get to see Fernando Mendoza against an SEC defense
Mendoza has been nothing short of sensational, transferring from California and lifting Indiana from being just a Playoff team to a Playoff team with a real shot at winning it all. Really, how much better can you do than winning the Maxwell Award, the Davey O’Brien Award and the Heisman Trophy to cap it all off? And how much better can you do in leading your new program to the No. 1 seed in the Playoff?
The answer is you can’t do any better than that, at least in regular season terms. Mendoza has maxed out on that from late August to early December. He’s been the best player in college football on arguably the best team in college football. But the legacy Mendoza leaves behind in Bloomington will also be determined in the next month. By Jan. 19, when the national title game is staged in Mendoza’s Miami backyard, we’ll know if he was able to go wire-to-wire this season or whether he fell just a little short.
The 2,980 yards passing, the 33 touchdown passes against just 6 interceptions, the 13-0 record complete with that Big Ten title game victory over Ohio State, it’s all incredible and wonderful. But there’s something to be said about going up against and conquering an SEC defense, something Mendonza has not done this season, at least not yet. An SEC D, especially an Alabama D, is just a different animal compared to the Big Ten defenses Mendoza has been carving up all fall.
While this isn’t one of those historically great Tide defenses, it’s still really good and good enough to challenge Mendoza in a way he hasn’t been challenged all season. On the first day of 2026, Mendoza will get that challenge thrown in his face, and everyone will be watching to see if he blinks at all.
The overall talent level, at every level, the brute force and that speed that an SEC defense brings is a breed apart, and by the time the sun sets in Pasadena we’ll know a lot more about Mendoza’s level of greatness. It’ll be his first true taste of an SEC defense wrapped tightly around the pressure of his first taste of the Playoff stage.
5. We get to see Indiana try to keep up with an SEC offense
Just like Fernando Mendoza will be tested like never before against an SEC defense and with everything on the line, so will the Indiana defense against an SEC offense. And, just like Alabama’s defense, this isn’t one of those historically great Crimson Tide offenses either. In fact, despite all of its weapons, Bama has struggled to score points at times this season.
But not many teams could’ve produced enough points to get off the canvas from a 17-0 deficit, on the road, in primetime, with Playoff pressure and against one of the best defenses in the country in Oklahoma. Alabama was able to do that in its 34-24 first-round victory, with those continued running game struggles and all, and that Ty Simpson-led passing game will present a unique challenge to IU.
The Hoosiers’ D passed a huge test in the Big Ten title game victory over Ohio State, holding the Buckeyes’ high-octane offense to 10 points and pitching a shutout in the 2nd half. Now, Indiana will be tested again by the complexities that Ryan Grubb brings to the table, with no lifeline, knowing that one bad afternoon at the Rose Bowl could spell the sudden end to a dream season.
No matter who prevails, this is one dream matchup nobody will soon forget.
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