After that impressive 11-2 season and College Football Playoff trip in 2024, Indiana football is definitely riding high. Head coach Curt Cignetti has really turned the Hoosiers into a legit contender, and the team is seriously hungry for another deep postseason run. But, you know, behind all that success, there’s kind of a storm brewing. It’s all tied to the money side of things—driven by that expected House Settlement clearing the way for direct payments and causing payrolls to spike and the transfer portal to go wild across the country. And Cignetti is pretty worried about this financial arms race that’s totally reshaping college football.
Well, this chaos reached a boiling point recently when national analyst Jay Stephens unloaded on the NCAA during the May 9th episode of Locked On BIG 10. His target? The jaw-dropping $40 million figure being thrown around as the new standard for building a championship-level roster. With programs like Ohio State, Oregon, and USC reportedly shelling out astronomical sums to stack their lineups, Stephens didn’t hold back.
He blasted the NCAA for letting the money flood in unchecked, saying, “I’m not going to say yes or no. I’m going to say the NCAA is not governing anything. You’re not following any rules. If it’s true, the 40 million dollars—this is what happens when you let the people that have the money control things going on in college football.”
Cutting through the noise, Jay Stephens pointed to a fundamental issue: the lack of oversight. In his eyes, the NCAA has essentially abandoned its role as a regulatory body, letting the richest programs buy their way to the top. And the numbers back that up. According to CBS Sports, some of the biggest spenders in the 2024 season laid out well over $30 million to keep their rosters championship-caliber. Ohio State, for example, reportedly invested close to $20 million in NIL deals to fuel its title run, with Oregon and USC not far behind, thanks to deep-pocketed boosters and corporate partnerships.
The Big Ten, which expanded from 14 to 18 teams this season, has become ground zero for this financial arms race. The conference reportedly leads the nation in playoff payouts, raking in $40 million, including $14 million each for winning the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. This kind of money is a game-changer, allowing programs to outspend their rivals on recruits and transfers while smaller schools struggle to keep up. But not everyone sees this as a crisis.
Ryan Herrings, another analyst on the Locked On BIG 10 panel, took a more pragmatic view, essentially shrugging off the numbers as business as usual. “Who cares? You tell me the rich people are spending rich people money? Of course they are!” he fired off, comparing the current landscape to Major League Baseball’s long-standing financial gaps.
He argued that powerhouse programs like Ohio State have always had a financial edge over schools like Wisconsin and that this imbalance is nothing new. “I wish Wisconsin would spend more to compete at a high level. It’s not an Ohio State, Oregon problem. They’re taking advantage of a free market system in the way they should,” he added. Meanwhile, Curt Cignetti offered a different perspective, one rooted in the harsh realities of trying to build a contender without a massive bankroll.
College football’s $40 million problem
“Right now, I would say yes,” Cignetti said when asked if $40 million is the new going rate for a championship roster. For smaller programs like Indiana, competing against the financial might of the sport’s blue bloods is a daunting task. “We’re not at $40 million, $30 million, or even $25 million,” he admitted, highlighting the massive gap between the haves and the have-nots in today’s NIL-driven landscape.
For Cignetti, the problem isn’t just about money—it’s about survival. If the richest programs continue to pour tens of millions into their rosters, the gap will only widen, potentially pushing smaller schools to the brink. This, he argues, is the real danger of a system with no guardrails, where deep-pocketed boosters can essentially buy championships while everyone else fights for scraps.
The numbers are staggering. According to Front Office Sports, the Big Ten’s recent financial windfall, including $40 million in playoff payouts, dwarfs the SEC’s $26 million and makes the ACC’s $8 million look like pocket change. Notre Dame, sitting independently, pulled in $14 million from two playoff wins, further highlighting the financial divide. With the Big Ten now stretching from the Midwest to the West Coast, thanks to the additions of Oregon, USC, UCLA, and Washington, its financial clout is only growing.
But where does that leave programs like Indiana? Cignetti knows his team can’t simply outspend its rivals. Instead, he’s betting on smart recruiting, player development, and the kind of scrappy, underdog mentality that’s made the Hoosiers a playoff contender in recent years. Still, he’s not blind to the challenge. “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to be able to compete against the best,” Cignetti said, acknowledging the uphill battle ahead. “Those people are kind of playing their own game.”
So, where does this all end? Can the NCAA step in and restore some semblance of balance, or is college football destined to become a pay-to-play free-for-all? For now, the sport’s richest programs are racing ahead, and the rest are just trying to keep up.
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