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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/jlittman93 on 2026-01-02 13:12:44+00:00.
I see a lot of non-Indiana fans on here being like, “I can’t imagine what Indiana fans must be feeling right now.” So I figured I’d give it a shot. Bear with me here lol.
To be an Indiana fan is to know misery. And I mean misery. Season after season of endless losing, coach after coach and nothing changing. I’m not from Indiana. I only started watching the team when I was a senior in high school back in 2010 and knew I’d be heading to Bloomington the next fall. The first IU game I watched, ever, was a game at Wisconsin. We lost, 83-20.
Over my four years in Bloomington, IU’s football team went 14-34. With losses to the likes of Ball State (twice), Navy (twice), North Texas and even Bowling Green. Bowling Green! But year after year you’d get your hopes up because it’s college football, only for this team to find a way to crush your hopes yet again. It’s a feeling every IU football fan shares.
There was always a saying around Indiana football. “Never lost a tailgate!” And like, yeah, it’s funny and all, but even up until the early days of Cignetti last season, fans would be extremely late to games or just not even show up because they’d still be out on the tailgate fields. And if they did make it into the stadium, they’d be gone by halftime. It was a desolate existence.
But there’s always been a part of me that’s dreamed for something like this. Because being a part of the Rose Bowl is the pinnacle of what Big Ten football has been all about over the decades. And we’ve been locked out of that for so, so long. I remember being thrilled about playing at UCLA last season because that would probably be the only time ever IU would play (at) the Rose Bowl. For reference, the last time IU played in the Rose Bowl Game back in 1968, my mom was a newborn. I’m 32 years old now.
So yeah, everything under Cig has been an absolute fever dream. I remember writing a whole thing in my Notes app the evening before we played Notre Dame in the CFP about how this all felt like a dream as an IU football fan. Clearly, I didn’t know what was coming.
This season in its entirely has felt so surreal. As an Indiana fan, there’s a constant nagging feeling that this success will be fleeting. That some moment will occur and all of this will be taken away. But here’s the thing. A Heisman Trophy winner, a Big Ten Championship and a Rose Bowl victory are forever, regardless of what happens over the next two games.
So let me just go back to what happened yesterday in Pasadena one last time. This was a pilgrimage for so many IU fans. Something we’ve all dreamt of for 55+ years and never thought would be reality — let alone doing so as the No. 1 team in the rankings. Just being there was the win. That stadium yesterday was more than 70% Indiana fans because of just how rare of an occurrence this really is for us.
And then for the team to go out and do THAT. I remember chanting “WE WANT BAMA” often as a student back when we’d be getting trounced by Wisconsin or Michigan State or whoever. This was Alabama, though. And for IU to not just win, but utterly destroy Alabama and give them their worst loss in 27 years and their worst postseason loss ever? And in the Rose Bowl of all games?! There were points while I was watching at home yesterday with my wife (who I met in Bloomington) and our newborn daughter that I couldn’t stop laughing in joy and disbelief at how ridiculous and how surreal this was that this was actually happening. It was literally a fever dream come true.
I know a lot of college football fans are envious of Indiana and its success right now. But if there’s anything to take from this post, it’s that it’s been absolute hell to get to this point. And for yesterday to have happened, regardless of what happens in Atlanta next Friday, it’s something every Indiana football fan is going to remember for the rest of their lives.
TL;DR: Big, big happy. Go Hoosiers!