This season the IU men’s basketball team is wearing jersey patches commemorating the 50-anniversary of the last undefeated team in college hoops.
Across the parking lot, the IU football team is 11-0 and has a chance to match the magical accomplishment of Bob Knight’s 1976 national championship squad.
The personalities of the late Knight and IU football coach Curt Cignetti aren’t exactly the same, but it’s difficult to not notice some of the similarities.
Cignetti says he hears the comparison often in Bloomington.
“A lot of people around here (at Indiana), I get a lot of that, that you and coach Knight remind me of each other,” Cignetti told Nicole Auerbach in an interview for NBC Sports. “People that knew him really well.”
The 64-year-old Cignetti was 14 when IU went 32-0 in 1976, so he was in his prime as an emerging young sports fan as Knight led Indiana basketball through its golden age.
Knight was a polarizing figure for sports fans outside the IU fan base. But growing up in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Cignetti admired Knight from afar.
“I did like Bobby Knight,” Cignetti said. “The way he coached, his intensity, his presence, he said what was on his mind.”
Cignetti did plenty of speaking his mind a year ago, something he says he felt was necessary to foster belief in what’s possible at IU after decades of futility.
But 2025 has been different. Cignetti has been less outspoken, and his Hoosiers have been widely accepted as one of college football’s elites.
And now IU football has its own chance to produce a perfect season.
At 79.2%, Cignetti has a better all-time winning percentage as a head coach than Knight’s 70.9%. But Cignetti has yet to do what Knight did three times — win a national title.
Could this be the season for Cignetti to break through, at the 50-year anniversary of Knight’s crowning achievement?
“I think what you’re asking is can we equal the achievement of the basketball team,” Cignetti said. “I guess we’re going to find out.
“We’ve gotta stack days.”
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