Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has often said that before he arrived, football had been neglected in Bloomington.
And there’s data to back up that claim.
According to information published in the Knight-Newhouse database, IU has increased its football expenditures every year since 2021, from $23.9 million to $61.6 million. 2024 was the first year at least going back to 2005 that IU exceeded the Big Ten median in total football spending.
What happened in 2021?
A major part of the football neglect stemmed from the very top of the university. And on June 30, 2021, IU President Michael McRobbie retired, and in walked his successor, Pam Whitten.
Whitten, who grew up in the football obsessed South, arrived in Bloomington with a new vision for IU football. She took her post as IU President a year after AD Scott Dolson, and collectively they put in place the foundation that has allowed Cignetti to build a championship football program.
That national championship you witnessed a few weeks into 2026 happened because Dolson was hired in 2020, Whitten in 2021, and Cignetti in 2023. Each was a leg in the IU football triumvirate stool that shocked the sports world.
Cignetti is obviously the not-so-secret sauce. After all, he’s won everywhere he’s been — in case you hadn’t heard. But Cignetti has routinely mentioned the support he receives from Whitten and Dolson. He told the pair he needed at least average resources to succeed at IU, something the school hadn’t provided to prior coaches.
The necessary support has been there. Cignetti has said as much on repeat. And even if he said nothing, it’s obvious IU has gone all gas, no brakes on football. Cignetti has received multiple new contracts over the last two years, as have his assistants. They are all among the highest-paid coaches in college sports.
Indiana has also been aggressive in the fundraising space, out in front in the NIL era with a successful in-house collective and involvement from wealthy donors like multi-billionaire alumnus Mark Cuban and Cook Group’s Pete Yonkman.
“It’s a great thing, Indiana winning the National Championship two years into our tenure. You do it with people and a plan,” Cignetti said after his team’s 27-21 win over Miami. “Can’t say enough about our senior leadership and the people we have in the locker room and the people we have on our staff and our strength and conditioning staff, support staff and the commitment we receive from President Whitten and Scott Dolson.”
And then Cignetti added this, as a not-so-subtle reminder that a lot more went into this title than money: “I would like to say our NIL is nowhere near what people think it is, so you can throw that out.”
While the program is nowhere near the top of the resource food chain, IU football has been financially untethered over the last five years, and it started where it had to start — at the very top.
Without the proper support from the President and the Board of Trustees, Dolson and his athletics department had little freedom to invest in football in a manner that allowed Indiana to be competitive.
“You’ve got to rewind it,” Whitten said on the Pat McAfee show last week. “This actually started five years ago when I came to Indiana and met with our amazing athletic director (Dolson).
“We sat down and I said, ‘Hey, Scott, college football is about 75 to 85% of revenue in college sports.’ I think my exact words were ‘We can’t treat it like an intramural sport anymore.’
“You know, let’s get serious about it. And I really unleashed the beast with Scott when that happened.
“So, we took a couple years and we got ready. We built the infrastructure. We hired the right staff. We moved to contemporary jobs you need in college sports. We raised the funds that we needed. And then we were ready to bring in the right coach to be successful. And we got the best coach in the country. And you bet we knew he was going to be good. We were watching.”
Why should a university president be so focused on football, some might ask. Well, there’s more revenue and more applications pouring into the school now. But Whitten says she believes an elite football program enhances the college experience of the student body.
And as the IU students gathered in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to watch the national championship game, and flooded Kirkwood Ave. to celebrate the school’s first football title, you could see the formation of memories that will last a lifetime.
“These kids, they are the best and this is for them,” Whitten said. “We want their college experience to be amazing. And you know what? When you have a superstar football team, your experience is amazing as a college student.
“So, this is for them.”
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on X: @daily_hoosier and find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
