2025-2026 College Football Championship Betting
The 2025-2026 College Football Playoff Championship Game was won by the Indiana Hoosiers, as they defeated the Miami Hurricanes by a score of 27-21 on Monday, January 19, 2026. While the Hoosiers did win the national title, they did not cover the college football spread, as the Hoosiers were listed as a 7.5-point favorite. The Hoosiers were one of the most dominant teams in NCAA football history, as they finished the season with a record of 16-0. Indiana finished at 10-6 ATS, with 10 of their games going over the total and six going under.
On the other side, the Miami Hurricanes were fortunate just to get into the College Football Playoff, but they slipped past Texas A&M, upset Ohio State and then just got past Mississippi to reach the title game. They had their chance to win the title game but quarterback Carson Beck through a late interception to end their chances.
The Indiana Hoosiers had an offense that averaged over 41 points in the regular season and a dominating defense that gave up just over 10 points per game. They also had the Heisman Trophy winner in quarterback Fernando Mendoza who is expected to be the top pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
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Indiana Hoosiers
Indiana opened the season last summer carrying the heaviest burden in major college football — more losses than any program in the history of the NCAA’s top division. By Monday night, that distinction had been replaced by something unimaginable: the Hoosiers stood on top of the sport.
Indiana completed one of the most improbable worst-to-first rises the game has ever seen, defeating Miami 27-21 in Miami Gardens to claim the College Football Playoff national championship.
The catalyst was Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, whose fearless fourth-down dive into the end zone stretched Indiana’s lead to 10 in the fourth quarter and later helped steady the Hoosiers when Miami cut the margin to three. Two years ago, when Curt Cignetti arrived in Bloomington, a perfect season would have sounded like fantasy. On this night, it became fact.
With Miami driving for a potential go-ahead touchdown in the final minute, Jamari Sharpe stepped in front of Carson Beck’s throw, ending the Hurricanes’ hopes and cementing Indiana’s title.
“We’re 16-0, national champions. One of the greatest sports stories of all time,” Cignetti said.
Indiana’s postseason run was as emphatic as its ending. The Hoosiers demolished Alabama 38-3 in the Rose Bowl, then overwhelmed Oregon 56-22 in the semifinal, earning a championship matchup in Miami’s own stadium.
The win denied the Hurricanes a long-awaited sixth national title and kept Mario Cristobal from becoming the program’s fifth championship-winning coach.
Indiana now joins Yale’s 1894 squad as the only teams in major-college history to finish 16-0.
The landscape around them has changed dramatically since Yale’s era. Modern college football is dominated by entrenched powers with deep pockets and decades of tradition. Since 2009, only eight programs — names like Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, and Michigan — had claimed national titles. Indiana, meanwhile, had managed just three bowl wins in 126 seasons and spent decades as a footnote for the sport’s elite.
But the arrival of name, image, and likeness compensation in 2021 shifted the balance. Programs with little history but strong booster support suddenly had a path to compete. Immediate-eligibility transfer rules added another layer of mobility. And Indiana’s membership in the Big Ten — with its massive television revenue — gave the Hoosiers financial footing few would have imagined.
Cignetti’s hiring barely registered nationally at the time. A former Nick Saban assistant who later thrived as a small-school head coach, he introduced himself to skeptical fans with a blunt message: “I win. Google me.” What sounded brash then now reads as prophecy.
After guiding Indiana to the expanded 12-team playoff last season with a roster built largely from James Madison transfers, Cignetti landed former Cal quarterback Mendoza to ensure the breakthrough wasn’t fleeting. Mendoza delivered a Big Ten title, the school’s first Heisman, and now a national championship.
Indiana’s NIL operation, Cignetti insisted, was “nowhere near where people think it is.” He added, “Are there eight draft picks on this team? Probably not. But the whole was better than the sum of its parts.”
Miami’s defense made Indiana earn every inch early, battering Mendoza and forcing the Hoosiers into two punts on their first three drives. Indiana led only 3-0 before assembling a punishing 14-play, 85-yard march in the second quarter — matching Miami’s total play count to that point — and punching in a touchdown for a 10-0 lead. Two Hurricanes penalties extended the drive, and Miami’s missed 50-yard field goal at the half left them with just 69 total yards and no third-down conversions.
The cushion didn’t last long. Indiana punted on its first three possessions of the second half, and Miami finally broke through to cut the deficit to 10-7. When the Hoosiers’ offense stalled, their special teams delivered: Mikail Kamara burst off the edge to block a punt, and Indiana fell on it in the end zone for a 17-7 lead late in the third quarter.
Mendoza’s defining moment came with 9:27 remaining. Facing fourth-and-5 from the 13, he broke two tackles, stayed upright, and launched himself across the goal line — a play called with full confidence.
“A big concept for us this year is bet on ourselves,” Mendoza said. “They called that play, and we knew we were going to bet on ourselves one more time on the biggest stage.”
Miami kept swinging, scoring touchdowns on three straight drives to stay within reach and earning one final chance to steal the title in its home stadium. But Beck’s underthrown pass in the final minute found Sharpe instead of his receiver, ending the Hurricanes’ comeback and completing a championship run few believed possible.
Indiana — the program once defined by futility — is now the national champion.
2025-2026 College Football Schedule
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