The Big Ten is on top of the college football world for the third year in a row.
A Big Ten team is the national champion for the third year in a row as Indiana defeated Miami, 27-21, in Monday night’s College Football Playoff final to win its first-ever national championship in college football.
Indiana, which became the first FBS team in the modern era of college football to go 16-0 and the second team to win the 12-team College Football Playoff, follows Michigan and Ohio State as the third straight Big Ten team to win the national championship.
It’s the first time the Big Ten has won three straight national championships since 1940-42. Minnesota won the national championship in both 1940 and 1941, while Ohio State won its first national championship in 1942.
The Hoosiers never trailed in the national championship game, though they had to battle much harder to beat the Hurricanes than they did in either of their first two College Football Playoff games.
Indiana shut Miami out in the first half, allowing the Hurricanes to gain just 69 yards in the first two quarters, to take a 10-0 lead into halftime. Miami running back Mark Fletcher broke the shutout on the Hurricanes’ opening drive of the second half with a 57-yard touchdown run. Indiana extended its lead back to 10 with a punt block by defensive end Mikail Kamara that linebacker Isaiah Jones recovered in the end zone.
INDIANA BLOCKS THE PUNT AND FALLS ON IT FOR SIX pic.twitter.com/N1BSrFr4hh
— ESPN (@espn) January 20, 2026
Miami responded with a 10-play, 81-yard drive, capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by Fletcher on the opening play of the fourth quarter. Indiana extended the lead back to 10 with a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that culminated with Fernando Mendoza turning a 4th-and-4 quarterback draw into a 12-yard touchdown run that immediately became the most iconic play in Indiana football history.
FERNANDO. MENDOZA.
— ESPN (@espn) January 20, 2026
THE PLAY OF A LIFETIME pic.twitter.com/g3o5nNNslr
Miami punched back again as Carson Beck and Malachi Toney connected for a 41-yard gain, then a 25-yard touchdown two plays later, to make it a three-point game with 6:37 to play. The Hoosiers drove inside the red zone and took nearly five minutes off the clock on their subsequent drive, but were forced to settle for a 35-yard field goal with 1:42 to play, giving Miami the chance for a game-winning drive.
Indiana secured the national championship when Jamari Sharpe – the nephew of former Miami cornerback Glenn Sharpe, who committed the infamous pass interference penalty in the Hurricanes’ loss to Ohio State in the 2003 BCS National Championship Game – picked off Beck with 44 seconds to play.
INDIANA PICKS IT, THE HOOSIERS ARE ON THE VERGE OF A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP pic.twitter.com/YFTgZUVC4x
— ESPN (@espn) January 20, 2026
The win capped off a 16-0 season for the Hoosiers, who became the first team to go 16-0 at the highest level of college football since Yale in 1894.
Indiana went 12-0 in the regular season, then won its first Big Ten championship in 58 years by defeating Ohio State 13-10 in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Hoosiers blew out their first two opponents in the CFP, Alabama (38-3) and Oregon (56-22), to punch their ticket to the national championship game.
Now, for the first time ever, Indiana – which had lost more games than any other team in college football history until it was surpassed by Northwestern earlier this season – stands atop the college football world as the best team in the sport.
Miami, on the other hand, suffered its second straight loss in a national championship game. The Hurricanes were playing in the national championship game for the first time since their aforementioned double-overtime loss to Ohio State 23 years ago.
