Head coach Curt Cignetti is looking to build on his historic first season in Bloomington after going 11-2 last season. Cignetti and his staff have built another team with high potential for 2025-26 season.
With a whole new roster and coming off appearing in the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history, head coach Curt Cignetti knows he has to keep his team working hard, or else they may become a one-hit-wonder.
ESPN recently released conference-by-conference rankings of the offseason for every Power 4 team, as well as a national ranking of the top 10 off-seasons.
According to ESPN's latest off-season rankings the Hoosiers football offseason ranked 4th-best in Big Ten and top 25 overall.
ESPN's college football reporters Adam Rittenberg, Max Olson, Eli Lederman and Bill Connelly complied the list of schools together.
The rankings are based mainly on three factors:
- Retention of key (non-draft-eligible) players
- Retention of key coaches or staff upgrades
- Player additions, primarily through the transfer portal but also high school recruits
"After last year's amazing breakthrough, Indiana probably would have loved a bit more continuity," wrote ESPN's Bill Connelly, "but winning big with a huge load of transfers likely means you'll have to take on another huge load of transfers the next year. At least the coordinators stayed."
As for the national offseason rankings, Clemson was No. 1 followed by LSU, Texas Tech, Penn State, Texas and Oregon.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach published his “2025 post-spring Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings” earlier this month and ranked Indiana in as the preseason No. 17 team.