The Championship Bowl is over, and the 2025 college football season has officially concluded. For the first time in Indiana Hoosiers football history, the school won a championship. How did they do it? How did they beat the Miami Hurricanes? Let’s go over how Indiana played leading up to the final game and take a look at the team they faced – the Miami Hurricanes. Finally, we’ll end with some of the biggest questions for The Hoosiers next season.

The Hoosiers played an impressive college season going 16-0 overall. Led by their quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, they stayed high all season. Their dominant defense was the main story, with the second best defense in all of college football this year, just 2 points behind Ohio State. Their offense was also second, scoring an average of around 42 points per game, just 3 less than the number 1 seed in North Texas. Head Coach Curt Cagnetti is just in his 2nd season, but he has transformed the program into a powerhouse. When you put it all together, this team had everything. For their playoff run before the championship, first off, Indiana started by beating the number 9 seed Alabama in the Rose Bowl. For the game to get into the championship bowl, the team beat the number 5 seed Oregon.

As for the Miami Hurricanes, they were originally projected to be eliminated in late November. They went into the playoffs as the 10th seed, going into the championship game to face the Hoosiers. Their defense was their biggest concern all season. With their new defensive coach, the team made a big turnaround and had the 5th best defense in all of college football. They went 10-2 for their regular season and had an overall record of 13-3, their best season in over 23 years. Their transfer quarterback Carson Beck was able to put together some scrappy wins to help them move on into the championship. For the team’s playoff run, due to their seeding, they had to play an initial elimination game. First, the team beat Texas A&M in the first round in a tight game with a score of 10-3. Then Miami went on to beat number 2 seeded Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl (24-14). Finally, to get into the championship bowl, Miami beat Ole Miss at the Fiesta Bowl with a score of 31-27.

The Championship Bowl took place on January 19th at Hard Rock Stadium. Indiana beat Miami with a score of 27-21. The first half ended with the Hoosiers being ahead 10-0, but the Hurricanes would end up scoring 3 touchdowns in the second half, beating The Hoosiers in the end. The player of the game came as a shock to no one. Fernando Mendoza was the winner, throwing for 186 yards and rushing for a critical fourth-quarter touchdown to help seal the victory. On the other side, running back Mark Fletcher Jr. has been a huge star all year for Miami. His performance in the championship was historical, keeping Miami in the game with a 57-yard touchdown run and finishing with two rushing touchdowns.

There are many questions for Indiana Football going into next year. For starters, Fernando Mendoza is declaring for the NFL draft this year and is projected to go first round, so the team is going to need a new quarterback to fill his shoes. It is projected that TCU transfer Josh Hoover will be their quarterback for next season. Hoover committed to the team this past January and is planning to start next season. He will be the third consecutive starting QB coach Curt Cignetti has acquired from the transfer portal. The next question going into this next season will be, can they make their offense and defense as successful next season? The team is looking into the transfer portal since key players like Wide Receivers Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr. and Running Backs Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby, plus Cornerback D’Anglo Ponds and more are heading into the NFL Draft, as well. The third and final question for the team going into this year is, can they repeat their success next season? It’s going to be hard to replace any of their star players going into this 2026 season, so it’s going to be difficult to even come close to repeating the same success the team had last year.

This team had it all. They deserved to win in the end. Who will be the champions next year? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.