Indiana football as the Big Ten’s most underrated team? Numerous CBS Sports’ analyst think so.

Saturday marks the start of a new era for the Indiana football program — with the debut of Curt Cignetti.

After a 9-27 record across the last three years, Indiana made a switch in the offseason with its coaching staff. Cignetti comes in from James Madison where he went 52-9 in five seasons, including 19-4 in the two seasons as an FBS program.

So, to say the excitement level of the fanbase is at a near all-time high is accurate.

While that may be the case, the national perspective still sees Indiana as Indiana — a program that hasn’t made a national mark consistently outside of the 2019 and then covid-shortened 2020 season.

This year, IU was ranked 17th in the Cleveland.com unofficial Big Ten preseason rankings, beating out just Purdue.

But, numerous college football analysts at CBS Sports think Indiana football is the most underrated program in the Big Ten.

“In Curt Cignetti we trust,” CBS Sports analyst Will Backus wrote. “The guy has never had a losing season as a head coach. People thought James Madison would have a rough transition to the FBS, but the Dukes went 19-4 over the past two years and finished the 2023 season ranked. The Big Ten is another sharp incline in terms of difficulty for Cignetti, but he’s earned some benefit of the doubt. He also brought a lot of key players from JMU with him to help smooth the transition. Indiana’s not a bottom-feeder, and Cignetti has a good shot at getting the Hoosiers back to a bowl.”

Both David Cobb and Chip Patterson agreed with Backus, voting for Indiana football as the most underrated Big Ten team.

For Curt Cignetti, he’s had 13 winning seasons in 13 years on the sidelines. So, being ‘underrated’ hasn’t always been the case. But, when he has been — he remembers.

“Now, I can tell you, normally at these things I stand up here and we’re picked to win the league. It’s just usually how it’s been,” Cignetti said at Big Ten Media Days. “I have been picked next to last twice, which were picked 17th out of an 18-team league, and I get it. The two times we were picked next to last, in 2022, we won the conference championship, and in 2017 we inherited an 8-45 team and won eight in a row and played JMU the last game of the year for the conference championship.

“Now, I’m not into making predictions, that’s just a historical fact. I know you guys have been waiting for me to say something crazy. That wasn’t quite crazy.”

Trending: New IU football coordinators followed Curt Cignetti because of culture and trust. Now, they feel ‘something special happening’.

His standards have been the backbone of his career and thus, the first nine months in Bloomington. From day one, Curt Cignetti has emphasized what it takes to play for him and win. He hasn’t minced words, either. It’s direct and to the point — sometimes his confident personality coming across cocky.

“You never arrive,” Cignetti said this week. “You’re always fighting human nature. You have a good day, you can’t relax. You have to come back with a better day cause you get better or you get worse, you never stay the same. You have to keep the standards high, never lower your standards.”

“Not to say that it had a losing feel to it, but I don’t know if the program was ready to take off,” Haines said of Indiana. “I don’t feel that way anymore. I feel something special happening.”

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