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Indiana hosts No. 4 Ohio State this Saturday in a matchup that turns a conference rivalry into a national spectacle: it’s the first top-five meeting ever at Bloomington’s Memorial Stadium and a test of whether last season’s national champions can sustain their rise. The game carries financial, recruiting and historical weight for a program that has seen rapid growth since its title run.
A first at Memorial Stadium
This meeting is a direct rematch of last season’s Big Ten title game, when Indiana edged Ohio State 13–10 on its way to a 16–0 season. The Hoosiers arrive in Bloomington riding a 22-game win streak and a 19-game home win streak—both the longest active runs in college football.
Coach Curt Cignetti welcomed the draw of a home showdown while urging fans to turn out. “I’m glad we’re playing at home,” he told local media. “We really need our crowd to be loud and very involved. We got to give them reasons to be.” He added the usual coach’s caution: “Not sure how good we are yet.”
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Money, naming rights and stadium plans
Off the field, Indiana’s recent success has translated into expanded corporate partnerships. On Thursday the school announced that Merchants Bank will add a logo patch to varsity jerseys, building on a 20-year, $50 million agreement that already renamed the playing surface at Memorial Stadium.
Those deals fit a broader push to upgrade facilities. In August the university board approved $50 million in financing for stadium renovations and voted to request an additional $150 million in state capital funding for further improvements. Around the same time, audio company JLab deepened its sponsorship and signed an endorsement deal with quarterback Josh Hoover, who transferred to Indiana from TCU this offseason.
Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson described the financial impact to the Indiana Business Journal’s Off the Record podcast. “Across the board—fundraising, ticket sales, sponsorship sales—everything has skyrocketed,” he said, while also warning that expenses have surged alongside revenue.
Recruiting, transfers and experience
The program’s on-field results have helped attract talent. Indiana made the College Football Playoff in Cignetti’s first season in Bloomington (2024) and followed with a national championship last year. Those outcomes appear to have energized the transfer market: the Hoosiers’ 2025 portal class ranked 25th nationally, and this year’s class rose to eighth in 247Sports’ rankings. Indiana alumnus Mark Cuban confirmed to Front Office Sports that he contributed to the team’s transfer portal fund.
Experience remains a central theme for the roster. Last season’s starters included 17 players in their fourth year of eligibility or beyond; this year the starting lineup has 13 players with at least four years of eligibility, and 20 of 22 starters are in their third year or higher. Entering the 2026 season, the program registered the second-most starts nationally (527) and the fourth-most snaps played (33,581).
Ohio State coach Ryan Day acknowledged the challenge: “They have a very veteran team. These guys have played a lot of football,” he said, noting that many Indiana players have logged more than a thousand college snaps.
Rivalry implications and historical context
Saturday marks the third consecutive season the two programs meet and the third straight year their matchup carries top-10 stakes. Historically, Ohio State has dominated the series, but Indiana’s title run and last year’s championship game upset have reshaped the narrative.
Aside from Michigan, the last Big Ten program to beat Ohio State in consecutive seasons was Wisconsin in 2003–04; nationally, USC defeated the Buckeyes in back-to-back years as a Pac-10 member in 2008–09. Ohio State has already lost to Texas this season; another defeat would be its second regular-season loss by the end of October for the first time since 2011, when Luke Fickell was interim coach following Jim Tressel’s resignation.
Players on both sides framed the matchup as personal. Buckeyes defensive lineman Eddrick Houston said after last week’s win over Maryland, “They took something from us that we really wanted… So it’s time to go to their place and handle business.”
For Indiana, a second straight victory over Ohio State would deepen the program’s claim to sustained elite status and help create a marquee series with conference and national implications. “Winning does a lot of good things,” Cignetti said, pointing to the stature of an opponent “used to winning and winning championships.”
