CFP Championship: How Indiana and Miami were built
- - CFP Championship: How Indiana and Miami were built
Jeff Tracy and Kendall BakerJanuary 16, 2026 at 9:35 PM
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🚨 Headlines
⚾️ Dodgers land Tucker: We all saw this coming, right? The two-time defending champion Dodgers signed top free agent Kyle Tucker to a four-year, $240 million contract — an average annual value ($60M) that trails only new teammate Shohei Ohtani's ($70M) for the largest in MLB history.
🏀 Point-shaving indictment: Federal prosecutors have indicted 26 men, including 20 former college players, for their roles in an alleged point-shaving scheme across dozens of games from 2022-25 in both the NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association.
🎾 Australian Open draw: 256 men and women were drawn into their brackets for the year's first Grand Slam, which begins this weekend in Melbourne. Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka are the top seeds, while Jannik Sinner and Madison Keys are the defending champions.
⚾️ Kershaw joins Team USA: Despite retiring at the end of last season, Clayton Kershaw has decided to pitch for Team USA at the World Baseball Classic in March. He joins a star-studded roster that also includes Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal.
🏀 Klay passes Dame: Klay Thompson nailed a season-high six 3-pointers in the Mavericks' win over the Jazz, giving him 2,809 in his career to pass the injured Damian Lillard (2,804) for the fourth-most ever. Only Steph Curry, James Harden and Ray Allen have more.
🏈 How Indiana and Miami were built
(Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports)
Indiana and Miami square off on Monday night for the College Football Playoff National Championship, and though the juggernaut Hoosiers are the clear favorite, you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise if you only looked at the two teams on paper.
Head-to-head: The Hoosiers and Hurricanes have the same number of unranked recruits (19), according to Rivals, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.
Miami: They have five 5-star recruits and another 32 with 4-stars, led by starting QB Carson Beck, starting RB Mark Fletcher and All-American edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. Their roster — which, it should be noted, would itself look like an underdog against the sport's biggest Blue Bloods — is rounded out by 34 3-star recruits.
Indiana: What if I told you the No. 1 seed has zero 5-star recruits and just six 4-star recruits? Instead, this squad comprises mostly 3-stars, with none more important than Heisman-winning QB Fernando Mendoza. Here's where I remind you that they are 15-0 with the nation's second-highest scoring offense (42.6) and second-lowest scoring defense (11.1).
Consider this: Indiana's lack of top-end recruits is virtually unprecedented. The last 20 national champions had at least two top-10 recruiting classes in the four years leading up to their title, per On3. Indiana's last four recruiting classes? No. 53 (2025), No. 60 (2024), No. 59 (2023) and No. 29 (2022). Miami's, by comparison, were ranked 14th, 5th, 8th and 13th.
Indiana and Miami's recruiting rankings the past four years. (On3/Rivals)
So, how have the Hoosiers done this? Having a Heisman winner at QB certainly helps, but you can't discount the importance of continuity and experience, which Indiana has in spades.
Their starters average a whopping 4.4 years of college experience. And, because just eight of them are first-year transfers, that means two-thirds have played together in Bloomington for at least the last two years. Plus, six of those starters followed head coach Curt Cignetti from James Madison, so the ties run even deeper.
Miami's starting lineup has roughly the same number of homegrown players as Indiana (9 vs. 8), but they've relied more heavily on the portal this season, with 12 first-year transfers. The end result: A squad that hasn't had as much time to jell.
The last word: It's human nature to search for answers when the unexpected occurs; to find order in chaos. And to those who've followed college football for more than two years, there's nothing more chaotic than Indiana being a win away from the title. But perhaps, writes Yahoo Sports' Dan Wolken, the Hoosiers are just that good.
When a phenomenon like Indiana football happens, our natural impulse is to scramble for an explanation. How did Curt Cignetti do this so quickly at a dormant program where nobody ever conceived of such possibilities? Why do the normal rules of building championship teams suddenly not apply?
We want it to make sense. We want to know the secret. We want to know if Cignetti possesses some kind of football Rosetta Stone that nobody else in the sport's 155-year history has figured out. And the lack of an answer is breaking people's brains.
But what if the actual answer to Indiana football being on the precipice of a 16-0 national championship season is that there's no answer? What if it's one of those accidents of history where everything aligned just the right way both with Cignetti's arrival at Indiana and in college football more broadly to open the door for a traditional have-not?
Keep reading.
📺 Weekend Watchlist
(Josh Heim/Yahoo Sports)🏈 NFL Divisional Round
The final eight teams take the field this weekend with a spot in the Conference Championships on the line.
Saturday:
Bills (+1 at BetMGM) at Broncos (4:30pm ET, CBS): This is Denver's second playoff game since winning Super Bowl 50 almost exactly 10 years ago. Their first? Last year's Wild Card loss to none other than the Bills.
49ers (+7) at Seahawks (8pm, Fox): These NFC West foes will square off for the second time in a three-week span, and the third time this season. San Francisco won the first matchup, 17-13, while Seattle took the second, 13-3, in Week 18.
Sunday:
Texans (+3) at Patriots (3pm, ESPN/ABC): Drake Maye took the fourth-most sacks during the regular season (47), and he'll have to deal with one of the league's best pass rushing duos in Danielle Hunter (15 sacks) and Will Anderson Jr. (12).
Rams (-3.5) at Bears (6:30pm, NBC): Puka Nacua has averaged 108.3 receiving yards through his first four playoff games, which is the best mark in NFL history (min. 4 games). Expect Matthew Stafford — and Chicago — to keep eyes on him all night.
🏈 CFP National Championship
It all comes down to this. Will Indiana complete their undefeated storybook season and win their first-ever national championship, or will Miami — playing on their home turf at Hard Rock Stadium — capture their first title since 2001? We'll find out on Monday night (7:30pm, ESPN).
Odds (via BetMGM): Indiana is up to an 8.5-point favorite after most of the early money came in on the Hoosiers to cover the spread. They're -350 on the moneyline (Miami is +280), and the over/under is at 47.5.
🎾 Australian Open
The first Grand Slam of the year begins this weekend in Melbourne (Sat-Sun ET, ESPN/ESPN2), where 256 men and women will be competing for a record $74.9 million prize pool.
Storylines to watch: Novak Djokovic's pursuit of a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam; a potential fourth consecutive major final between Carlos Alcaraz (going for the Career Grand Slam) and Jannik Sinner (seeking a three-peat); Coco Gauff vs. Amanda Anisimova for the title of top-ranked American; Venus Williams, 45, is set to become the oldest woman to compete in the Australian Open main draw.
More to watch:
🏀 NBA: Cavaliers at 76ers (Fri. 7pm, ESPN); Timberwolves at Rockets (Fri. 9:30pm, ESPN); Suns at Knicks (Sat. 7:30pm, NBA); Magic vs. Grizzlies in London (Sun. 12pm, Prime)
🏒 NHL: Panthers at Hurricanes (Fri. 7pm, NHL); Wild at Sabres (Sat. 12:30pm, NHL); Lightning at Stars (Sun. 2pm, NHL)
🏀 NCAAM: No. 19 Florida at No. 10 Vanderbilt (Sat. 2pm, ESPN); No. 17 Arkansas at No. 21 Georgia (Sat. 4pm, ESPN2); No. 11 BYU at No. 15 Texas Tech (Sat. 8pm, ESPN)
🏀 NCAAW: No. 20 Tennessee at No. 21 Alabama (Sun. 2pm, SEC); No. 6 LSU at No. 13 Oklahoma (Sun. 3pm, ESPN2); No. 12 Maryland at No. 3 UCLA (Sun. 4pm, NBC); No. 15 Michigan State at No. 11 Iowa (Sun. 8pm, BTN)
⛳️ PGA: Sony Open (Fri-Sun, ESPN+/Golf) … Nick Taylor and Kevin Roy (-8) are tied for the lead in Honolulu after the first round.
⚽️ EPL: Manchester United vs. Manchester City (Sat. 7:30am, USA) … Newly-hired manager Michael Carrick makes his Red Devils debut in the 198th Manchester Derby.
⚽️ AFCON: Senegal vs. Morocco (Sun. 2pm, beIN Sports) … Final in Rabat, Morocco.
Full weekend slate.
❤️ Why we love sports
Scott and his wife at the Rose Bowl. (Scott Endres)
Scott E. (Louisville, Kentucky) writes:
1975 was the first time I went to a college football game, if you could even call it a game. After all, it was Indiana, a team in the middle of a long era of futility, and we were playing a powerhouse in Nebraska. The Cornhuskers won, 45–0, with IU coach Lee Corso even calling a timeout with 30 seconds left just to increase the pain.
But for an 11-year-old, I was in heaven, mainly because I was there with my dad. My parents had divorced, and this was my chance to be part of something with him. That day quietly set the foundation for a lifelong love affair with IU football.
I kept coming back at different stages of my life: more games with Dad, games as a student, watching my 4-year-old son bang a crimson drum set at tailgates, and bringing my future wife to one of our first dates, where she fell in love with IU football and I fell in love with her. Through all of it, IU was still not very good.
When our son grew older, Saturdays belonged to him, but I always kept track of the Hoosiers, and always looked forward to the best time of IU football season: the opening kickoff. Everything up to that point was hope. After the kickoff? Mostly despair as IU became, well, IU.
Scott's son banging on his drum set at a tailgate, circa 2004. (Scott Endres)
The years moved ahead, and though Dad passed away, I was still a fan, but didn't expect anything. Each year, my wife and I would watch the Rose Bowl Parade on TV. She'd say we should go someday, and I'd say it would never happen. So she finally made a bet: "When IU makes the Rose Bowl, we'll go." I took it, because I was sure it never would.
On December 6, 2025, the bet was called in. Indiana won the Big Ten Championship and we followed them to the Rose Bowl. The trip was beyond what we could have expected, with IU football zombies roaming around Pasadena in a fog mumbling, "We can't be here. We're Indiana."
However, when push came to shove, the IU fans figured it out. As the band played "Indiana, Our Indiana," Hoosier Nation sang along at the top of their lungs as the release of years of frustration echoed throughout the stadium.
As for me, I was in a place I never thought I'd be, next to the love of my life, who was wearing a necklace my step-mother gave her, which was made from a silver dollar with the year my dad was born. I cried tears of joy as I screamed, "INDIANA, OUR INDIANA, INDIANA WE'RE ALL FOR YOU."
💯 Big numbers
(Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)🏈 15th different opponent
Crazy but true: When the Rams visit the Bears on Sunday, Sean McVay will somehow be facing his 15th different opponent in 15 career playoff games as a head coach. He's never played the same team twice.
The full list: Falcons (2017); Cowboys, Saints, Patriots (2018); Seahawks, Packers (2020); Cardinals, Buccaneers, 49ers, Bengals (2021); Lions (2023); Vikings, Eagles (2024); Panthers, Bears (2025). … To keep his streak alive, he'll need to lose this weekend as he's already gone up against San Francisco and Seattle.
🏒 11 straight wins
The Lightning (29-13-3) have won 11 consecutive games dating back to Dec. 18 to take over first place in the Eastern Conference. Their winning streak is tied for the longest in franchise history and is also the longest in the NHL this season.
What they're saying: "It's a long way from winning one in our first seven to start the year, I'll tell you that," said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper following Wednesday's shootout victory over the Penguins. "Just tons of buy-in. Great group. Leaders, phenomenal."
(Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
⏱️ 15:23:21
Katie Ledecky's historic domination of the women's 1,500-meter freestyle isn't showing any signs of slowing. The 28-year-old posted the second-fastest time ever on Wednesday in her 2026 debut, finishing in 15 minutes, 23.21 seconds.
Lapping the field: Ledecky touched the wall to finish her race just a few seconds ahead of the swimmers in the adjacent lanes… all of whom still had a lap to go.
🏀 100 points
Adrian Stubbs of Maryvale High School set the Arizona single-game high school scoring record on Tuesday with 100 points… in just three quarters… while making just six 3-pointers. As a reminder: High school games use eight-minute quarters, so the senior guard dropped 100 points in just 24 minutes of play.
Record books: The national high school single-game scoring record is 135 points, set by Danny Heater (the perfect name!) of Burnsville High (West Virginia) in 1960.
🏈 Coming soon to D.C.
(Washington Commanders)
The Commanders shared the first renderings of their new home that will be built on the former RFK Stadium site, and I gotta say: Bravo. The monument-like vibe fits the surroundings, the shape pays homage to RFK and the transparent domed roof is awesome. Dan Snyder could never.
(Washington Commanders)
Details: The $3.65 billion stadium and mixed-use development is expected to be ready in time for the 2030 NFL season. The venue will be designed by HKS, which also designed SoFi Stadium (Los Angeles), U.S. Bank Stadium (Minneapolis) and AT&T stadium (Arlington, Texas).
🏀 NBA trivia
(Amy Monks/Yahoo Sports)
Cooper Flagg's recent hot streak has made him a heavy Rookie of the Year favorite. If he wins, he'll be the third Maverick to do so.
Question: Can you name the other two?
Hint: 1995, 2019.
Answer at the bottom.
📸 Photo finish
Anthony Black dunks over four Grizzlies during Orlando's 118-111 win in Berlin. (NBA)
Hang it in The Louvre.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Trivia answer: Jason Kidd and Luka Dončić
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Source: “AOL Sports”
