If there is one thing that Indian fans can count on head coach Curt Cignetti doing, it is speaking his mind, and maybe even stirring the pot a bit.
Just days before the National Championship is set to be played, Cignetti made a little post to social media, which doesn't seem like it should be a big thing. However, the Indiana coach decided to throw a little shade at the SEC in his post very subtly.
Get better today! Structured, organized and relentless work creates opportunities.#GoIU #IUFB pic.twitter.com/F92KdghxqZ
— Curt Cignetti (@CCignettiIU) January 16, 2025
In the photo that Cignetti posted, it is clear that the first-year Hoosier coach placed his post season Top 5 rankings right where it could be seen and it seemed to leave on teams from one particular conference.
For anyone that can't see it, here is how Cignetti ranked his top 5 post-season teams:
1. National Champion (Ohio State/Notre Dame)
2. Runner-up (Ohio State/Notre Dame)
3. Oregon
4. Indiana/Penn State
5. Penn State/Indiana
Cignetti didn't put a single SEC team in his top 5 rankings even though one of them made the quarterfinal, and two of them made it further than Indiana did in the College Football Playoff. This seemed to be a common theme this college football season of everyone feeling like there is SEC bias with the CFP selection committee, even Kirk Herbstreit said it.
So, for Cignetti not to even put them in his top five post-season list is just throwing a bit of shade at a conference that definitely threw it at Indiana all season long. When Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina didn't make it into the CFP, the SEC and those teams threw a lot of shade at the fact that Indiana didn't play anyone and they shouldn't have made it into the CFP.
Well, if Alabama wanted to make it in, they shouldn't have lost to Oklahoma in a game where they only scored three points. If Ole Miss wanted to make it in, they shouldn't have lost to Florida and Kentucky, South Carolina was the only one that had a real case to make it in.
So even though the season is over, Cignetti can still throw a little bit of shade here and there, as long as he can back it up in 2025.