One of the biggest new controversies in college football is non-conference scheduling, and no one has been more front and center in that debate than Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti. From calling out the SEC to canceling the Hoosiers' home-and-home series with Virginia, Cignetti has made it clear where he stands on the issue.
Indiana made headlines once again by adding Howard (2026) and Miami (OH) (2028) to complete their non-conference schedules for the next five seasons. Notably, this slate includes zero games against power conference opponents, five games against FCS programs, and every matchup will take place at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.
This has clearly sent a message, that with the current state of the playoffs and possible expansion, the Hoosiers see no benefit in scheduling tough games in the non-conference as they would rather focus on Big Ten contests.
Lost in all of this, is the cost that comes with these games. In college sports, when larger programs schedule lower-tier opponents, it’s known as a “guarantee game” where the bigger school pays the smaller school to come play them. Here is a breakdown of how much Indiana will be spending on its non-conference schedule over the next five seasons.
2025
- Old Dominion ($1.3 million)
- Kennesaw State ($1.3 million)
- Indiana State ($475,000)
2026
- Colorado State ($1.3 million)
- Howard ($525,000)
- Western Kentucky ($1.1 million)
2027
- Kennesaw State ($1.3 million)
- Indiana State ($500,000)
- UMass ($1.4 million)
2028
- Austin Peay ($400,000)
- Eastern Michigan ($1.3 million)
- Miami (OH) (1.3 million)
2029
- Ball State (1.3 million)
- Eastern Illinois ($550,000)
- Western Kentucky ($550,000)
That makes for a grand total of $14.6 million, and you can add on another $500,000 for the fine that Indiana has to pay for cancelling their series with Virginia.
While these numbers may be wild to see, it really is nothing for a school like Indiana, especially in today's era of college football where players are signing deals that are near this number. To put it in perspective, thanks to the Big Ten’s recently signed TV deal, each Big Ten school is expected to earn around $75 million in 2025, according to USA Today.
However, with this type of schedule, the Hoosiers are putting themselves in a no-win situation. Yes, they may get some easy automatic wins, but those do nothing to help build a resume, and if you do slip up, it makes for an all-time loss. I could understand not wanting to schedule powerhouse programs, but maybe add in some lower tier power conference teams (like Virginia) or some respectable Group of Five names.
In my mind, this entire non-conference scheduling dilemma stems from the expanded College Football Playoff, which has clearly created two sides to stand on: Since you can now afford to lose, schedule tough opponents where a win would be a massive, a loss does not hurt, and regardless your team is tested OR schedule cupcakes to just rack up wins and bolster your record enough so that they can’t keep you out of the top 12, or whatever the number may be in the future.
In the end, I think a lot of people will be rooting for Indiana to slip up to see some of that non-conference money spending go to waste, and bring back the iconic clip from when North Carolina A&T beat East Carolina and got paid.
North Carolina A&T got paid $330,000 last week by East Carolina & beat them. Awesome postgame line from coach Sam Washington, who this year is getting paid less than $330,000 pic.twitter.com/95GjGobdlb
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) September 7, 2018
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