Is Indiana a football or basketball school now?
Why not both says IU hoops legend Steve Alford.
After all, if No. 1 Indiana (15-0) wins the national championship on Monday night against Miami, the Hoosiers will become the most recent undefeated team in both college basketball and college football.
Alford was asked Sunday if Indiana was now a football school. He wasn’t ready to go that far, and he doesn’t need to.
“I don’t know about that,” he said.
“I’m not saying that, but the Hoosiers are playing for a natty on Monday night, and just so you know, if that happens, it’s an undefeated 16-0, which has never happened in football. And the last undefeated basketball team was the ’76 Hoosiers.
“So, one school, my school, could hold both of those things.”
Currently the head coach at Nevada, Alford played on Indiana’s last national championship basketball team in 1987. Later that same year, Bill Mallory led the football Hoosiers to wins over Michigan and Ohio State.
But while he grew up watching the perfect 1976 IU basketball Hoosiers 50 years ago, Alford never saw an IU football team like this — because no one has.
How good are these Hoosiers? While it has been done at lower levels of the sport, IU has a chance to become the first 16-0 major college football team since Yale in 1894.
And like all Indiana fans, Alford doesn’t need to choose football or basketball. He can just cheer on Monday night.
Football or basketball school? How about just the perfect school?
“Good luck to the Hoosiers on Monday,” Alford said.
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