Hopefully, fans of struggling NFL teams aren’t banking on Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti making the jump to the NFL coaching ranks. While it would make a ton of sense to expect Cignetti to get NFL offers after his recent meteoric success in the NCAA, the Hoosiers are making it harder each year to buy the man out of his current commitment. 
It took a while for Cignetti to gain recognition for his accomplishments, but his notorious confidence is well-warranted, as a simple Google search confirms that he does, in fact, win. After 28 years filling assistant coaching roles at Davidson, Rice, Temple, Pittsburgh, NC State, and Alabama, Cignetti got his first head coaching opportunity in 2011 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Aside from a single 6-5 campaign, Cignetti never lost more than three games with the Crimson Hawks, going 53-17 in six years with the team. He then moved on to Elon, where he went 14-9 in two seasons before getting hired at James Madison.
Cignetti immediately made himself known with the Dukes, going 14-2 in his first year at the school en route to an FCS championship game appearance. Over three years in the FCS, Cignetti’s team went 33-5, and they kept to their winning ways when they made the FBS jump to the Sun Belt Conference, finishing 8-3 in 2022 and 11-1 in 2023. It was at this point that Cignetti was hired at Indiana, which at that point in time was the losingest program in NCAA history (most all-time losses).
In Year 1 with the Hoosiers, Cignetti and Co. went 11-2, making the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff but getting eliminated in their first game. It was the school’s first double-digit win season in its 127-year history (granted that in 61 of those seasons they did not play double-digit games). Indiana rewarded him with an eight-year, $93MM extension a month into Year 2 with the team. It hasn’t stopped there, though. Year 2 saw Cignetti’s Hoosiers become the NCAA’s first-ever team to go 16-0 en route to a national championship victory.
Apparently, Indiana didn’t believe the $11.63MM per year that they were paying him over the next several years was adequate compensation, because, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Cignetti and the team have agreed to a new deal that will increase the annual average value of his salary to $13.2MM. He is under contract with the Hoosiers through the 2033 season.
Given Cignetti’s tremendous success, an eventual jump to the NFL felt like a no brainer. Instead, the school and coach have worked hard to solidify his future at Indiana for years to come. Perhaps some downtrodden NFL franchise will at some point inquire what it would take to lure him away from Indiana, but at the moment the Hoosiers are diligently building a wall around their leader and filling that four-walled room chock-full of money.
Good for him. Well deserved!
Become a living legend at Indiana, and whatever SEC school he eventually gets a truckload of money from…….or get mistreated by poorly run NFL franchises if you upset the ego of an owner
Decisions decisions
Agreed. Cignetti has it made at Illinois right now, even though Illinois wasn’t considered a top tier program before. They still have to continue their run to fully establish that reputation, but he’s done a ton putting them on the map. It’s nice to see a non-traditional power make it. The school is wise to keep him satisfied from a football perspective-it’s really hard to compete with the traditional powers in the NCAA, and he had the most remarkable season so far for a college team. I don’t know if Cignetti will jump to the pros, but he’s already made milestones at Illinois that’ll be etched in history. Good for him.
Indiana, not Illinois.
I said it like twelve times. That’s f-ing embarrassing. I’m an idiot. Thank you.
Bears confusion.
Agreed he has it made at Indiana
Ultimately though I see
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Arkansas
Vanderbilt
South Carolina
Kentucky
Making him a significant offer to come home to the SEC and hopefully bring a natty home to them
He’s got no reason to go anywhere else, his contract calls for him to be in the top 3 salaries. At his age he’s done moving. He was probably done when at JMU but Indiana came calling and offered him a lot of money, generational wealth he couldn’t say no to. In the past 27 months he went from $1mil to over $13mil a year and climbing.
“ He’s got no reason to go anywhere else”
He actually does and that’s to be seen as great as or even better than his mentor Nick Saban
Winning at Indiana is cool and an accomplishment in its own right
But it’s not an SEC school where he once coached on Alabamas staff.
Not saying he leaves Indiana anytime soon but within 5 years I do see SEC teams come a calling and you win titles at
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Arkansas
Vanderbilt
South Carolina
Kentucky
You’re gonna wind up on top 5 lists quite possibly
He’s not going anywhere, he’s guaranteed to be top 3 in salary and he’s in his mid 60s, he’s done moving. With this portal and NIL era there is no need to go to Bama and the SEC to be relevant, he proved he could get those same results at a doormat like IU. That is far more impressive than doing it at Bama. He coached for a bit under Saban but it’s not to say he was his mentor, if anything his coaching mentor was his own father which is why he left Saban to take a humongous pay cut and coach IUP. He get on himself and won big time.
Illinois ???
SEC has and will always have a higher reputation in college football compared to other conferences
There’s a reason the SEC holds most active players on roster for 19 consecutive seasons including NIL era years
Be a big fish in a little pond or be a big fish in a big pond.
AK, WHAT ARE YOU IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE, ITS INDIANA NOT ILLINOIS.YOU DS
Yup, well deserved.
No, that was not deserved. That was lame piling on.
Not quite, AK. You’re usually well informed and we all have brain farts from time to time. However, we all have to wonder how long it will take RJ to figure out how to shut his caps lock off…that’s the difference.
Not deserved at all. You’re a level-headed and knowledgeable poster, and the correction was already kindly made by another. There was zero reason for RJ’s post.
@AK…Man…you made an easy mistake. I’m an Indiana fan living in Illinois territory. People around here have made the exact same mistake in general conversation whether it be football, basketball, or water polo. F the haters and keep on keeping on. The internet (namely message boards such as this) are a wasteland of people who only want to call people out behind the safety of their keyboard or phone. And yes…I’ve been guilty of it too.
Thanks, I appreciate all of you guys. Bad mistake on my part. I must have jumped from the Bears thread over to here and showed my behind. Thanks y’all.