AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
OK. Fans knew college football was in a weird place before this season started. Players can now get paid millions through names, images and likeness deals. And thanks to the transfer portal, players are switching schools at a dizzying pace. But Indiana University becoming an undefeated juggernaut on the verge of winning the national title is, without hyperbole, the most shocking college football story of the century - maybe ever. Before we start crowning people, though, the Hoosiers do face the University of Miami in the college football playoff National Championship tomorrow night. For a preview, we have Holly Anderson. She's the co-host of the podcast "The Shutdown Fullcast" and joins me now. Welcome back.
HOLLY ANDERSON: Hi. Good to be back.
RASCOE: So for our nonfootball fan listeners - I may be one of them - can you explain how historically bad the Indiana Hoosiers were at football before Coach Curt Cignetti took over two years ago?
ANDERSON: Heading into the start of this season, Indiana football was the losing-est (ph) program in the history of this league. They had more losses total coming into the season over the course of the history of their school than any other team in major college football. Now, they've been playing since 1887, so they had a while to pile that up.
RASCOE: OK.
ANDERSON: But that you come off of that, and now they are in a situation where thanks to the expanded playoff, if they win on Monday night, they will be the first 16-0 college football team since Yale in 1894.
RASCOE: How did Indiana turn it around this quickly? Is it all about the coach?
ANDERSON: There's a lot of things going on different at Indiana. They do have a new-ish coach, Curt Cignetti. He leveled up a division and came from James Madison, but as he was very fond of telling everybody when he first got the job, he's won everywhere he's been. And he - turns out he can back that up a little bit. He brought a big chunk of the roster with him from JMU, and they're also a very experienced team. There's a lot of upperclassmen so, you know, you don't have to spend a lot of time with the basics teaching this team. They know what they're about. And they just started mowing down blue-chip teams left and right. You know, they ran into the first round of the playoffs last year, lost in the first round against Notre Dame, and that by itself would've been a story. And this year, they're undefeated. This has - in this millennium, the history of the sport, this century - pick your benchmark - they have hit it.
RASCOE: That's a huge turnaround. I mean, does Indiana's rise put more pressure on other programs to succeed? Like, are coaches going to hear, hey, if Curt Cignetti can do all of this in Indiana, why can't you?
ANDERSON: So you kind of hit on it in your introduction. There's a lot of upheaval in the sport right now, and the rate of change is itself increasing. We'll see at the start of next year how many programs start trying to chase, you know, the Cignetti way, which - a phrase that doesn't exist yet but will probably be an airport book, you know, in three weeks.
RASCOE: Well, as we mentioned, the National Championship is tomorrow night. Miami is back for the first time in 23 years. The Hurricanes are the underdogs, but the game is in Miami. Do they have a chance for an upset?
ANDERSON: So they play these games for a reason. Everybody's got a chance for an upset. You know, Indiana has laid waste to its two previous postseason opponents. But the interesting thing to watch here is that, you know, that you have Mario Cristobal at Miami, who is - he - you know, he's not cut from the exact mold as Cignetti, but you get the feeling that they would get along well, you know, if they had to take a buddy road trip together.
RASCOE: Road trip together. Yeah.
ANDERSON: They're both the craggy, cranky type, and they're very big on, we have a philosophy. We're going to stick to it. We have a game plan. We're going to stick to it. We're not going to deviate just because things start to go wrong. So it's kind of like - the metaphor I've been using is, you got two boa constrictors. Who can swallow more of the other one's tail first?
RASCOE: Holly Anderson is the co-host of "The Shutdown Fullcast." Thank you again.
ANDERSON: Thanks, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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