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Indiana's Curt Cignetti: 'Our final number was closer to $15 million than $40 million'

Andy Staples head shotby: Andy Staples04/23/26AndyStaples

How much did Indiana spend last year to build a national championship roster? We may never know the exact figure, but Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti dropped some significant breadcrumbs Wednesday.

“What I will tell you, honestly, okay, is our final number was closer to $15 million than $40 million,” Cignetti said during an appearance on Andy and Ari On3. “Now, obviously, it was somewhere in between.”

Sportswriting and math don’t usually mix well, but the midpoint between $15 million and $40 million is $27.5 million. If the number is closer to $15 million than $40 million, then it would be less than $27.5 million. But if it wasn’t significantly less, then Indiana would have been in line with the top half of the Big Ten and SEC but beneath the biggest spenders.

The question arose because of a post Cignetti made last week on X. After Alabama general manager Courtney Morgan told Front Office Sports that programs are spending “more than $40 million” on rosters to chase national titles, an Indiana fan responded, “I’m almost 100 percent certain Indiana did not pay $40 million to win a national championship.”

Cignetti quoted this response and added this: “Correct, not even close.”

“I don’t know why I responded to that,” Cignetti said Wednesday. “I just saw it and it kind of hit me.”

The discussion isn’t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, because Alabama’s Morgan was referring to rosters for the 2026 season. Those have proven more expensive than the 2025 rosters. Last year, according to conversations with coaches, athletic directors and personnel staffers, the top spenders spent $30 million to $35 million. The price has gone up.

But it’s understandable that Cignetti has pushed back on the notion that Indiana or some sugar daddy booster — billionaire Indiana grad Mark Cuban for example — simply stroked a few checks to turn one of college football’s most historically unsuccessful programs into a juggernaut that is 27-2 since Cignetti arrived. As the Hoosiers kept winning last season, it seemed the estimate for the price of Indiana’s roster kept rising by the week.

The truth, according to Cignetti, is the Hoosiers spent a decent amount of money in 2025 but nowhere near the most. “You’ve got to get them to all play together and play the right way,” Cignetti said.