Indiana pulls off the most improbable turnaround in college football history to win its first national championship

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 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. It’s something many college football fans never thought they’d see: The Indiana Hoosiers are college football’s national champions. 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.