Alabama vs. Indiana at the Rose Bowl a classic clash of inevitability, possibility in CFP quarterfinals

The Rose Bowl is one of the most traditional sites and games in college football, but this season it will host a game that could only exist in the modern day of the game. Alabama, one of the most storied programs in college football, will play in the game, and there it will face Indiana, a team with little football history, at least successful to speak of.

Oh, and Indiana is the No. 1 team in the country, and it's favored to win by a touchdown.

If you haven't paid attention to college football for a while, that last sentence likely caught you off guard. Don't worry. It still surprises those who follow the sport closely, too. I make my living by following the sport, and I still catch myself by surprise when I type that "No. 1" next to Indiana's name.

This year's Rose Bowl is a matchup of two teams with plenty in common, but from wholly different backgrounds and timelines.

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer spent the 2019 season as Indiana's offensive coordinator. While in Bloomington, he worked alongside then-Indiana defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, who now serves in the same role at Alabama.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who seemingly came out of nowhere to become one of the most recognizable coaches in the sport, did not come from nowhere. He'd been an assistant coach on college staffs for nearly 30 years before finally getting a head coaching job, but his final five seasons as an assistant were spent at Alabama. Cignetti was Alabama's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator from 2007 to 2011 under Nick Saban. He was there for the start of Saban's tenure in Tuscaloosa and helped Alabama win two national titles before leaving for Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Now Cignetti is at the helm of one of the most impressive turnarounds in college football history, and one that could only happen in the modern game. Indiana first began playing football in 1899 and has lost 715 games since then. Only Northwestern (719) has lost more in the history of the sport, and the Wildcats passed the Hoosiers this year. Indiana's football has mostly existed because membership in the Big Ten required it to do so. The Hoosiers were always one of the teams that other Big Ten fans saw on the schedule and marked as one of their wins for that season.

That's no longer the case. In the age of NIL, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal, all a football program needs to be taken seriously is a willingness to spend the money and a coach who can lead. Indiana found the coach and immediately began pouring financial resources into the program in a way it never had before.

The results speak for themselves. In 2024, Cignetti's first season, the Hoosiers won 11 games for the first time in program history and reached the College Football Playoff. In 2025, they've already won 13 games and won their first Big Ten conference title since 1967, only the third time the Hoosiers have ever done so. The reward is the No. 1 spot in the polls and the College Football Playoff, and the team's first trip to the Rose Bowl since that 1967 season.

Even Alabama, which was never a member of the Big Ten or Pac-12, the two leagues that always sent their champions to the game, has played in two Rose Bowls since then. This will be its third trip. And that's who Indiana, a Cinderella in a sport that seems allergic to them, must get past in Pasadena.

Alabama did not win its conference this year. It hasn't done so since 2023. It's a sore spot, sure, but one that's soothed by the 18 national championships it claims, more than any other program in history. While it's not the No. 1 team in the country right now, it has spent 141 weeks at No. 1 in the AP poll, which is also more than any other program in history. Only Michigan (1,021) and Ohio State (990) have won more games than Alabama's 985 games, though to be fair, 142 of Michigan and Ohio State's all-time wins have come against Indiana, and this is Alabama's first crack at the Hoosiers.

This year's Rose Bowl is a battle between what is and always has been versus what can be in college football. It's the known versus the unknown. Inevitability versus endless possibility.

A classic story, but a version that can only be told in 2026.

*records via Winsipedia