CFP National Championship Betting - Miami vs. Indiana Lines

CFP National Championship Betting Online

Indiana football stands alone at the top of the sport. The No. 1 Hoosiers capped their perfect season with a 27-21 win over No. 10 Miami in the 2025-2026 College Football Playoff national championship on Monday, January 20, 2026 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The victory completed a stunning worst-to-first rise, delivering Indiana’s first national title in program history. The Hoosiers also became the first team to claim an inaugural championship since Florida broke through in 1996.

College Football Same Game Parlay Lines

The decisive moment came with 44 seconds remaining, when Jamari Sharpe stepped in front of a Carson Beck pass to seal the win. Miami, which never held a lead, was driving for a potential go-ahead touchdown before Sharpe shut the door.

Fernando Mendoza went 16-of-27 for 186 yards and added a fourth-quarter rushing touchdown that ultimately proved to be the difference. Omar Cooper Jr. led Indiana with 71 receiving yards on five catches, while Charlie Becker delivered four receptions for 65 yards — including clutch 19-yard grabs on late third- and fourth-down conversions.

Miami’s spark came from Mark Fletcher, who ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns, highlighted by a 57-yard burst early in the third quarter after the Hurricanes were blanked before halftime. Beck threw for 232 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and Malachi Toney hauled in 10 passes for 122 yards and a score.

Though Miami entered as the lower seed, the Hurricanes enjoyed a de facto homefield advantage with the title game played in their own stadium. It wasn’t enough to derail Indiana’s historic run.

CFP National Championship Past Results

Fernando Mendoza lowered his shoulder into a defender, spun completely around, planted a hand to stay upright, then launched himself parallel to the turf and stretched the ball across the goal line — a touchdown straight out of a Hollywood storyboard, the kind of moment that becomes a poster before the confetti even falls.

Call it the perfect scene for a program rewriting its own script.

That breathtaking score from the Heisman Trophy winner punctuated Indiana’s 27-21 victory over Miami in the 2025-2026 College Football National Championship Game, sealing a flawless season and delivering a national championship that once felt beyond the reach of a program defined for generations by heartbreak, irrelevance, and loss.

“We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done,” coach Curt Cignetti said afterward — a simple sentence that felt almost mythic coming from the man who inherited a program with more losses than any in the nation and turned it into the sport’s most improbable powerhouse in just two seasons.

Cignetti built the foundation. Mendoza finished the job. His passing numbers — 186 yards — were modest, but his defining play was that bruising, airborne 12-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-4 with 9:18 remaining. It was the moment that captured the Hoosiers’ identity: tough, fearless, and utterly unwilling to yield.

Indiana refused to be denied.

“I had to go airborne,” Mendoza said, his lip split and arm bloodied after a night spent absorbing hits from a relentless Miami defense. “I would die for my team.”

His touchdown pushed Indiana ahead 24-14, just enough cushion to withstand Miami’s late surge. The Hurricanes, who barely slipped into the playoff field, came alive behind Mark Fletcher’s 112 yards and two touchdowns, turning a sluggish first half into a furious second-half push.

“They’re the best thing that’s happened to the University of Miami in 25 years,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said, praising a group that revived a proud program’s swagger.

But the trophy wasn’t staying in South Florida. It was headed to Bloomington — a destination so unlikely that even lifelong alumni could hardly believe it. Indiana fans flooded Miami’s stadium, paying thousands for the chance to witness history, including billionaire Mark Cuban, who called the run one of the most remarkable success stories he’s ever backed.

Indiana’s 16-0 finish matched a perfect-season win total last seen in 1894, made possible by the expanded playoff. President Donald Trump watched from the stands as the Hoosiers took a 10-0 halftime lead and never relinquished control.

The symmetry was impossible to ignore: fifty years after Bob Knight’s basketball team went 32-0, Indiana had produced another undefeated champion — this time in a sport where such fairy tales rarely survive the modern era of transfers, NIL deals, and constant roster churn.

Players like Mendoza, a Cal transfer who grew up just miles from Miami’s campus, don’t come around often. And Cignetti trusted him completely. Twice in the fourth quarter, with Miami closing the gap to 17-14, the coach gambled on fourth down. The first conversion came on a 19-yard back-shoulder throw to Charlie Becker. The second became legend.

Initially sending out the field-goal unit on fourth-and-4 from the 12, Cignetti burned a timeout, gathered his offense, and dialed up a quarterback draw — banking on a defensive look he believed Miami would repeat.

“We rolled the dice,” Cignetti said. “They were in it again. We blocked it, he broke a tackle or two, and he got in.”

Mendoza’s run instantly drew comparisons to John Elway’s iconic “helicopter” play in Super Bowl XXXII — a quarterback sacrificing his body for a championship. And like Elway, Mendoza is expected to hear his name called first in the upcoming NFL draft.

“Everyone makes fun of my running style,” Mendoza joked. “But on fourth down, you put everything on the line. Anyone would.”

Miami nearly authored its own miracle. Fletcher’s 57-yard touchdown burst early in the third quarter sparked the comeback, but Indiana answered with a blocked punt recovered for a score by Isaiah Jones, pushing the lead to 17-7 and forcing the Hurricanes to chase the game the rest of the night.

It ended with Miami driving into Indiana territory before Carson Beck’s final heave was intercepted by Jamari Sharpe — a Miami native who ensured the only miracle belonged to the Hoosiers.

And what a miracle it was.

This is the same program that once celebrated leading Ohio State 7-6 by stopping a game to take a picture of the scoreboard — before losing 47-7. The same program that spent decades playing in front of half-empty stadiums and collecting losses by the hundreds.

Those days are gone.

Indiana — yes, Indiana — is the national champion.

“Nobody thought it was possible,” Cignetti said. “It might be one of the greatest sports stories ever told.”

CFP National Championship By Team

Four programs have stood above the rest when it comes to college football in the CFP era. Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and Clemson have clearly been the elite programs in the nation. These three schools have combined to win seven of the last eight national championships.

Georgia initially emerged as the new team to beat in the current era. The Bulldogs became the first team in the CFP era to win consecutive titles in 2022, and they nearly knocked off Alabama in overtime of the 2017 National Championship Game. Kirby Smart built the premier SEC team in Athens, and the Bulldogs still look to be a serious contender for the foreseeable future.

Since its inception, two teams have been constant fixtures in the College Football Playoff. Alabama made it to the CFP nine times and has played in the CFP National Championship Game six times. The Crimson Tide are 3-3 in the national championship, with two of their losses coming to the other power in this era.

From 2015 to 2020, Clemson went to the CFP for six straight seasons. The Tigers lost twice in the national semifinals, but they made it to the title game four times. They bested Alabama twice, thanks to standout performances from Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson.

Until now, it was assumed that it might be Georgia’s turn to dominate. The Bulldogs secured the biggest blowout in national championship history with a 65-7 throttling of TCU at the end of the 2022 season to win their second straight national championship. They were the first team to repeat as national champions in the CFP era. The Bulldogs did not get a chance to three-peat, as they were left out of the 2023 College Football Playoff and they were beaten in the 2025 College Football Playoff by the Indiana Hoosiers.

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