00:00I, too, fell in love with this great Cignetti Indiana story.
00:04Obviously, I've taken my shots on the alumni of Indiana
00:07and the people that go to Indiana, which is pretty much everybody
00:10because the acceptance rate is 80%.
00:12It's hard not to get into Indiana.
00:16But I bought into the story.
00:18I bought into the story in the same manner I bought into the 1980 Olympic hockey team.
00:22You know, do you believe in miracles?
00:24Yes.
00:25You know, the great Al Michaels call back in 1980.
00:27I bought into the Indiana story in the same manner I bought into North Carolina State
00:33beating five Slamma Jamma and the great Houston, Akeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler teams
00:39and winning a national title with Lorenzo Charles
00:42and the putback on the Derek Wittenberg Miss.
00:46I bought into it because at the end of the day, Tyrone,
00:49I am a sucker for a rom-com.
00:52I am a sucker for a good Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks.
00:58I don't care if you're sleepless in Seattle.
01:00I don't care if you have an orgasm in a deli in New York City.
01:04I'm a sucker for a rom-com.
01:06I like happy endings, okay?
01:08And I mean that with the intended double entendre.
01:12All right.
01:12Oh, all right.
01:13And there's a place two blocks away.
01:14Merry Christmas.
01:15I got you.
01:16Just for the record, just so I can put it out there,
01:18my favorite rom-com is Definitely Maybe.
01:21Definitely Maybe?
01:21Yes, with Ryan Reynolds.
01:23Nobody ever heard of it.
01:24Hold on a sec.
01:25You don't know what you're talking about.
01:25It's a very good rom-com.
01:26Here's the 10th spot for later.
01:28There you go.
01:30Come on.
01:30There you go.
01:31All right.
01:31All right.
01:32Wow.
01:33Okay.
01:34Look, he's lonely.
01:35He's lonely.
01:35He's watching Jersey.
01:36I'm fine.
01:36I'm fine.
01:36He's lonely.
01:37I'm fine.
01:38All right.
01:38So here's the deal.
01:40We all got sold a bill of goods and damn it,
01:42we bought it hook, line, and sinker.
01:44We're like smallmouth bass.
01:46You're more like a big mouth bass,
01:47but that's another story for another day.
01:50And here's what I said.
01:51We bought it to the notion that Indiana was this little engine that could.
01:56That Indiana fought against the big boys and came out standing tall.
01:59You know, they dispatched the Ohio States of the world.
02:02They did.
02:02You know, Texas not even in the top 12.
02:04Alabama, LSU.
02:06They beat up on Alabama.
02:07All these like blue blood college football programs.
02:10You know, Notre Dame, bitching and moaning.
02:12We're not even in the tournament, right?
02:13Yeah.
02:14And then along comes little Indiana.
02:17A team with more losses than any football program in football history in this country.
02:22Actually, never done anymore.
02:24Somebody passed them this year.
02:25But going into the year.
02:26Because they went undefeated.
02:27Yeah.
02:27Going into the year.
02:28It's like, can Signetti really go from James Madison and come to Indiana,
02:34the doormat of the Big Ten?
02:36Yeah.
02:36Can they do that?
02:37And actually somehow put together a winning season?
02:40Oh, my God.
02:40They did.
02:41And can they win a bowl game?
02:42Oh, my God.
02:42They did.
02:43And can they be undefeated?
02:44Oh, my God.
02:45They did.
02:45Can Indiana actually take out a former powerhouse program like Miami with four national championships?
02:52And can they win and be undefeated?
02:53And we're like, yes, they can.
02:55In their building.
02:56Yes.
02:56And it was like, America wins again.
02:59The underdog reigns supreme.
03:03And then you do a little digging.
03:05And unfortunately, a story that had a great and a very happy ending is not the story that we were sold, Tyrone.
03:12And it sands me because I bought into it.
03:15Even though I'm at war right now with Indiana graduates and alumni and people currently enrolled in Indiana, you know, dumb people.
03:22The reality is that I bought into it like a sucker.
03:26And I'm so mad at myself because I like to think that I've got a certain level of street smarts that I can spot the fraud a mile away.
03:34I can spot the fact that I'm being set up a mile away.
03:37And the reality is that we all got suckered in this one.
03:41And while I do think Cignetti is a great college football coach, I want to take nothing away from him.
03:45We got sold a bill of goods.
03:48Did you know that Indiana spent almost dollar for dollar the same amount of money that Miami spent on their roster this year in NIO money?
04:00I did know that.
04:01You did know that.
04:02I brought that up yesterday.
04:03No, you didn't.
04:04Yes, I did.
04:05They bought a championship is what they did.
04:07Of course they did.
04:08Indiana spends money with the big boys.
04:11They do.
04:11Indiana spends the same level of money Alabama spends.
04:14Yes.
04:14They spent the same amount of money that LSU spent.
04:17They spent the same amount of money that everyone other than Texas.
04:22Texas is the only school that outspent Indiana this past football season.
04:28So Indiana is like all the other ones.
04:31If you have an alumni like Mark Cuban willing to write a big check, you too can go out there and get a 23-year-old quarterback who graduated college before transferring into your school.
04:42You can have an average age, which they did, of 24 years old.
04:47They did.
04:4824.
04:48Average age.
04:49Yeah.
04:50Of the Indiana football team.
04:51And they spent 21 and a half million dollars on this year's roster.
04:57And I'm sitting there like a sucker going, what a great story.
05:01Indiana doesn't spend that kind of money.
05:03Now, I know Mark Cuban has spent money in Indiana even prior to Signetti getting there.
05:07Yeah.
05:07Like rebuilt, you know, locker room and facilities and all that stuff.
05:11Yeah.
05:12But Indiana is not the little engine that could.
05:15We got sold a bill of goods because Indiana has never been good at football.
05:20And how did they get good at football?
05:22They started stroking checks.
05:25They decided that we cannot compete unless we open up the checkbook.
05:30And it's a memo to every college out there.
05:33And this is why teams like Alabama are not locked to go to the championship anymore.
05:38Because for years, teams like Alabama, teams like Syracuse in basketball always wrote a check
05:44or gave a kid a bag of cash.
05:46And a lot of schools were either not willing to do that or able to do it.
05:50As soon as Indiana said, I'm your huckleberry, I'll start stroking checks, they went from the
05:56little engine that could, this poor little program that no one knew even played football,
06:00that more losses going into the season than any program in college football history.
06:06And all of a sudden, they can become a superpower overnight.
06:10Period.
06:11Stop.
06:11The Indiana story is not a story to celebrate.
06:16The Indiana success is not a story to tell your children about.
06:21It's not.
06:22It is built up on the backs of paychecks.
06:26It is not built up on, hey, everybody wants to play for Kurt Cignetti.
06:30It's not built up on, oh, Blooming, whatever the hell, Bloomingdale, whatever it is in Indiana.
06:36What a great campus it is.
06:37It is built up on, I'm a paid mercenary.
06:41And Indiana is now willing to pay me as much as Alabama and LSU and Notre Dame and USC and
06:50Georgia.
06:50They are no better than any one of those schools.
06:54So let's stop talking about what a great story Indiana is this year.
06:58It's not the greatest story for a lot of people falling on their knees about, this is the greatest
07:03story in college football history.
07:05It is.
07:06It's not.
07:07It is.
07:07It's not.
07:09It's not.
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