Former IU football greats Antwaan Randle El and Vaughn Dunbar are back on the College Football Hall of Fame ballot in 2027, the National Football Foundation announced on Monday.
If you’ve been a long-time reader of TDH, you know the pair have been regulars on the ballot.
Actual enshrinement is incredibly rare.
NFF says of the 5.86 million individuals who have played college football since Princeton first battled Rutgers on Nov. 6, 1869, only 1,129 players have earned induction into the NFF College Football Hall of Fame, or less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%) of those who have played the game during the past 157 seasons. From the coaching ranks, 241 individuals have achieved NFF Hall of Fame distinction.
Randle El and Dunbar have been overlooked for years at least in part because they were not on elite teams. And that got us thinking — who from the last two IU football teams will end up in the Hall of Fame?
Headlined by head coach Curt Cignetti and quarterback Fernando Mendoza, several members of the 2025 IU football team are at least eligible to end up on the ballot. Cignetti and Mendoza both seem like locks to end up enshrined in Atlanta, with Cignetti eventually following in the footsteps of his father Frank Cignetti, Sr.
A key requirement for a player to be in the College Hall of Fame is inclusion as a first-team All-American by one of the five selectors (i.e. AP, FWAA, AFCA, Walter Camp, Sporting News). Accordingly, also eligible for the Hall of Fame from the 2025 team are D’Angelo Ponds, Carter Smith and Aiden Fisher. Fisher earned first team All-American honors in back-to-back years.
The Indiana players and coaches currently in the Hall of Fame are: head coach Bo McMillin (inducted in 1951), Pete Pihos (1966), Zora Clevenger (1968), George Taliaferro (1981), John Tavener (1990), and Anthony Thompson (2007).
College Football Hall of Fame Criteria:
- FIRST AND FOREMOST, A PLAYER MUST HAVE RECEIVED FIRST-TEAM ALL-AMERICA RECOGNITION BY A SELECTOR RECOGNIZED BY THE NCAA AND UTILIZED TO COMPRISE THEIR CONSENSUS ALL-AMERICA TEAMS.
- A player becomes eligible for consideration by the NFF’s Honors Courts 10 full seasons after his last year of intercollegiate football played.
- While each nominee’s football achievements in college are of prime consideration, his post-football record as a citizen is also weighed. He must have proven himself worthy as a citizen, carrying the ideals of football forward into his relations with his community and fellow man. Consideration may also be given for academic honors and whether or not the candidate earned a college degree.
- Players must have played their last year of intercollegiate football within the last 50 years.* For example, to be eligible for the 2024 ballot, the player must have played his last year in 1974 or thereafter. In addition, players who are playing professionally and coaches who are coaching on the professional level are not eligible until after they retire.
- A coach becomes eligible three full seasons after retirement or immediately following retirement provided he is at least 70 years old. Active coaches become eligible at 75 years of age. He must have been a head football coach for a minimum of 10 years and coached at least 100 games with a .600 winning percentage.
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