All summer we’ve been covering the Cignetti Effect on college football.
Did new Purdue AD Tommy McClelland fall victim to the temptation of winning the press conference with a Curt Cignetti-esque viral quote?
Sure seems like it.
Introduced today in West Lafayette, McClelland seems to have arrived at Purdue a bit misinformed.
“We are here to win championships,” he said. “If you don’t want to win championships, go to Indiana.”
Say what now?
A Louisiana native who has spent most of his career in the South, McClelland arrives at Purdue after four years at Rice. Perhaps he was simply unaware that just over six months ago Indiana won the national championship in the most significant college sport?
And he probably had no idea the Hoosiers have outscored Purdue 122-3 in football the last two years?
You could certainly forgive McClelland if he has been living under a rock the last two years and missed that.
But it’s about much more than just Indiana’s 2025 football national title, however.
Championships? You want to win championships? At Purdue?
In the words of Chad Johnson, child please.
Indiana holds a massive, massive lead in all-time team championships when compared to Purdue. 25-3, in fact, with none by the Boilermakers in the two big revenue sports, football and men’s basketball. No, we’re not counting some goofball title declared by a baker more than a decade after a season ended. No self respecting school would claim such a “title.” It’s embarrassing.
In fact three IU programs — men’s soccer, men’s swimming and diving, and men’s basketball — each have more national titles than all Purdue teams combined.
As Cignetti himself said on his own first day on the job, “Purdue sucks.” More than anything else, it’s a school ironically better known for its lack of meaningful championships.
But perhaps McClelland is here to change all of that and shock the world — just like Cignetti.
Good luck.
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