INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana football has never played a game where winning a national title was possible. That changes Monday night.
No. 1 Indiana (15-0) faces No. 10 Miami (13-2) in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. The game airs on ESPN.
The Hoosiers demolished Oregon 56-22 in the Peach Bowl to get here. Now one game stands between Curt Cignetti's team and a perfect 16-0 season.
What This Game Means
This is Indiana's first-ever national championship appearance. Before this season, the program hadn't won a Big Ten title since being co-champions in 1967. The Hoosiers' only outright Big Ten championship occurred all the way back in 1945. Between 1992 and 2023, Indiana made just six bowl games and lost all of them.
Cignetti has gone 26-2 in two seasons and flipped the program into a national title contender. A win Monday would cap one of the most — if not the most — dramatic turnarounds in college football history.
The Hurricanes have made eight previous national championship game appearances and won five of them, their most recent win coming in 2001. Monday's contest will be Miami's third national championship game appearance since a standalone title game was introduced at the end of the 1998 season, the first year of college football's BCS era.
Here’s how Miami fared in its previous national championship appearances:
1983 Orange Bowl: Miami 31, Nebraska 30
1986 Fiesta Bowl: Penn State 14, Miami 10
1987 Orange Bowl: Miami 20, Oklahoma 14
1989 Sugar Bowl: Miami 33, Alabama 25
1991 Orange Bowl: Miami 22, Nebraska 0
1992 Sugar Bowl: Alabama 34, Miami 13
2001 Rose Bowl: Miami 37, Nebraska 14
2002 Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State 31, Miami 24
The Matchup
These teams have met twice before. Indiana won 28-14 in 1964. Miami won 14-7 in 1966. The series is tied 1-1.
Miami will be the first team in the BCS/CFP era (since 1998) to play for a national championship on its home field.
Indiana opened as a 7.5-point favorite, and the line has moved to Hoosiers at -8.5 points. ESPN's Football Power Index gives the Hoosiers a 68.3% chance to win. ESPN's SP+ model likes Indiana by 11.1 points.
How Indiana Got Here
The Hoosiers have five wins against teams ranked in the top 10 at the time of the game, including a 13-10 triumph over the then-No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Big Ten championship. The Buckeyes were last year's Big Ten champion and national champion. Indiana has the No. 1 strength of record this season.
On offense, Indiana ranks No. 2 nationally at 42.6 points per game. On defense, they rank No. 2 at 11.1 points allowed per game.
How Miami Got Here
The Hurricanes were the last at-large team into the playoff as the No. 10 seed. They beat No. 7 Texas A&M 10-3 on the road, No. 2 Ohio State 24-14 at the Cotton Bowl, and No. 6 Ole Miss 31-27 at the Fiesta Bowl to reach the title game. Miami also beat No. 6 Notre Dame (27-24), No. 18 South Florida (49-12), No. 18 Florida State (28-22), and No. 22 Pittsburgh (34-7) during the regular season.
Mario Cristobal is in his fourth season at Miami (35-18 with the Hurricanes). The team's two losses came during a late October/early November stretch against Louisville (24-21) and at SMU (26-20), both of whom finished 9-4. Miami has won seven straight since its setback against SMU.
The Hurricanes rank No. 5 in scoring defense at 14.0 points allowed per game. The most points any team has scored against Miami this season was 27 by Ole Miss in the semifinal. Their pass rushers Reuben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor have been among the best in the country all year.
The Quarterback Matchup
Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and has been even better in the playoff. In two CFP games, he's thrown eight touchdowns with zero interceptions and only five incompletions.
Carson Beck, Miami's 6-4, 220-pound senior, has completed 73.3% of his passes for 3,581 yards with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions this season. He has just two interceptions in Miami's last seven games. Beck called his own number and scored the game-winning touchdown with 18 seconds left against Ole Miss in the semis.
Beck has been sacked 17 times this season, including 10 times in the last four games.
Common Opponent
Ohio State is the lone common opponent. Both teams beat the Buckeyes by similar margins — IU 13-10, Miami 24-14.
Game Day Details
When: Monday, Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET
Where: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla.
TV: ESPN
Weather Forecast: High of 73, low of 57, mostly sunny, 3% chance of rain
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