Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti opened up to On3’s Andy and Ari Show about how much Indiana paid for its 2025 football roster that went on to win the National Championship. And the head coach admitted that his roster cost closer to $15 million than the $40 million that has been reported in recent months. Cignetti went on to say it was somewhere in between.
The fact that Cignetti was able to beat some of the top blue bloods and the sport and win a National Championship while likely spending roughly half of his competitors should give every Big 12 team a glimmer of hope. Now this doesn’t mean every Big 12 team is set to fork over $20 million for its football roster. My guess is that only Texas Tech is even in that ballpark.
But as the costs for putting a top team on the field continue to balloon, there will be creative ways for teams to find the right players for their program that won’t necessarily cost as much as what some of the top spenders in the SEC and Big Ten are about to fork over.
Big 12 coaches can’t just claim they can’t compete due to costs, especially in the Big 12, where rosters are not approaching the figures that they are in the Big Ten and SEC. Now, as Kenny Dillingham has cited many times, Arizona State, and the rest of the Big 12, need to be able to step up their NIL game.
But it’s always a fine line between being realistic and then looking for excuses. Mike Gundy had resources at Oklahoma State, but just seemed out of touch with how the new model of winning was going to work in college football. And the interest in adapting wasn’t there. But if you’re willing to adapt and take the proper steps in today’s landscape, you can win, and win big. Just see Exhibit A at Indiana.
