Indiana University Football Ranked No. 6 in the 2026 Associated Press Preseason Poll On Monday at noon Eastern, the 2026 AP preseason poll was released. Despite Indiana coming off a perfect season which saw them win their first national championship, they will not begin their title defense atop the rankings. The Hoosiers received a No. 6 ranking, as voted on by over 60 media members. The five teams ranked above them to begin the season in order are: Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas. Though this is the highest Indiana has ever been ranked to begin a season, leaving the Hoosiers out of the top five will certainly cause some hard feelings. Remember, Indiana was ranked No. 20 last year in the AP preseason poll and then proceeded to leave Miami with a national title five months later. Ranked opponents for Indiana in 2026 include: No. 1 Ohio State (Oct. 17), No. 14 USC (Nov. 14), No. 16 Michigan (Oct. 24) and No. 17 Washington (Nov. 21). Big Ten programs who are ranked in the preseason poll but are not on Indiana’s schedule include: No. 2 Oregon, No. 18 Penn State and No. 22 Iowa. IU opens the 2026 season at home vs. North Texas on Sept. 5 at noon Eastern.
Report: Indiana University Board of Trustees votes signal coming Memorial Stadium upgrades Some long overdue maintenance and improvements appear to be coming at Memorial Stadium. On Friday the IU Board of Trustees approved $50 million of financing for renovations at the 66-year-old home of Indiana football, Indiana Public Media is reporting. The Board also voted to make a $150 million capital project request to the state for further improvements to the stadium. These votes come after IU AD Scott Dolson has spearheaded efforts to gauge what stadium enhancements are important to the fans. Twice in the last three years, Dolson has surveyed the fanbase on topics such as the gameday experience, stadium amenities, seating and other features.
The stadium also has significant deferred maintenance that needs to take place. In recent years as a result of fan feedback, IU has enhanced stadium concessions and offered a variety of premium seating options. It appears that was just the beginning. Head football coach Curt Cignetti has publicly voiced his desire to expand the seating capacity of Memorial Stadium and upgrade the press box. All eight of Indiana’s games are expected to be sellouts in 2026. But at Big Ten media day last month, he acknowledged such undertakings take significant time to accomplish. The $150 million request to the state could be part of a series of steps in that direction. Memorial Stadium currently maxes out at just over 56,000, placing it in the bottom-third of the Big Ten.
Blocking Wide Receivers? Indiana University Football Staff had to quickly learn what Curt Cignetti prioritized IU coach Curt Cignetti brought most of his position coaches with him from James Madison to Bloomington. But much of the personnel staff was new as he looked to assemble a modern Power Four front office in the age of the transfer portal and players getting paid. In order to facilitate high school and college recruiting efforts for Cignetti, that new team had to quickly learn the head coach’s preferences. What players should they focus on? What film should they clip for the head coach? What traits should they highlight in their reports? Coming from other programs around the country, positional skill and measurables like size and speed were typically what the head coach focused on. But in their early days in Bloomington in late 2023 and early 2024, Cignetti’s new personnel staff learned to focus on other attributes.
“When we were watching film with Coach Cig that first weekend, we were here, he was talking about how a receiver blocked,” Director of Player Personnel Mike Ferrara said on the Up Close in Personnel podcast with Alex Brown. “I was like, ‘He can catch the ball pretty well, too, don’t care about that?’ He was like, ‘I gotta see this guy block. Is he physical? Is he aggressive? Is he gonna put his face on someone?’ I’m like, okay, that’s different. Obviously (ability to catch the ball) is gonna be a big part of your offense, but he’s watching junior high school tape wondering if this receiver is gonna block and show aggression.”
This mindset has bubbled up to the surface in public comments made by IU receivers Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper, Jr. over the last couple years, along with Cignetti. Receivers were expected to physically set the edge when blocking in the run game and continue blocking downfield through the whistle. It’s a requirement to see the field in Cignetti’s program. Some would say it’s old school, and perhaps it is. But it’s also a glimpse into the micro-level details that make his teams a little different.
And it starts with the personnel staff, recruiting at the high school level and in the transfer portal. “That difference opened our minds in our department,” Ferrara said. “None of us in our department were with him (Cignetti) at JMU, so coming in we all had to adjust and kind of mold our thought process of evaluation to what he was looking for. And that was a big thing for me that stood out at one of the first points, like, alright, he wants receivers to block, they better be willing to put their bodies on the lines for this team when they step between the white lines.”
Indiana University Men’s Soccer’s Stephane Njike Named to the Top-Drawer Soccer Best XI Indiana men’s soccer third year forward Stephane Njike was one of three in his position to feature in the Top-Drawer Soccer Preseason Best XI first team, the publication announced on Monday. One of eight players in IU’s top-ranked transfer class, Njike comes to IU after two seasons across the Big Ten Conference at Maryland. Last season, he recorded seven goals, seven assists and 21 points to earn first-team All-North Region and first-team All-Big Ten honors. Top Drawer Soccer ranked Njike the No. 15 best player in its postseason Top 100. Njike will make his IU debut Tonight, as the Hoosiers start the 2026 season hosting Notre Dame on Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 PM.
Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell lead the Indiana Fever to a 101-95 victory over the Toronto Tempo Kelsey Mitchell scored 16 points in the first quarter and finished with 29 before sitting out the fourth, Caitlin Clark added 24 points and the Indiana Fever beat the Toronto Tempo 101-95 on Tuesday for their fifth straight victory. Clark and Mitchell have each scored 20 or more in the same game 16 times this season, a WNBA record. Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter did it 15 times with Phoenix in 2008. Mitchell also scored 20 or more for the 20th consecutive game, matching Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson for the longest such streak in WNBA history. But after she scored eight points in the span of less than a minute late in the third quarter, she went to the locker room and did not return. Fever coach Stephanie White said Mitchell got “overheated.”
Aliyah Boston scored 16 points, and Sophie Cunningham made all three 3-point attempts and finished with 13 for the Fever, who never trailed. Indiana has won 10 of 12. Toronto’s Marina Mabrey cut the gap to 97-93 with back-to-back 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter, but the Tempo got no closer. Mabrey finished with 22 points and Brittney Sykes had 15 in her return from injury, but the slumping Tempo lost their 11th straight. In the Fever’s first visit to Toronto this season, there was a mix of cheers and boos when Cunningham entered the game, and fans cheered when she missed her first free-throw attempt. Cunningham said in an ESPN profile published last month that she was opposed to transgender girls and women competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
Late in the fourth, fans cheered when someone holding a banner in support of transgender rights was shown on the video screen during a timeout. Before the game, a small group gathered near the stadium’s west entrance, offering people the chance to take selfies in front of a banner with Cunningham’s photo. Mitchell and Mabrey were issued technical fouls after they clashed early in the third. Aneesha Morrow had 15 points and 16 rebounds for Toronto. Temi Fagbenle scored 13 points and Kiki Rice had 10. Sykes returned after missing more than two months with a left plantar fascia injury. She hadn’t played since a June 16 loss at Indiana.
Taylor Trojans Women’s Volleyball Sweep a Pair of Opponents to Cap Opening Weekend RV Taylor (2-2) bounced back on Saturday morning, sweeping Florida National (1-3) and Pike (1-3) to pick up its first two victories of the young season. The Trojans began the morning by sweeping Florida National (25-14, 25-13, 25-13) in a dominant defensive display. The Conquistadores had a negative hitting percentage in the match at -0.70 while TU accumulated six blocks. Ruth Anderson was outstanding in the middle, tallying a team-leading 13 kills and four blocks. The sophomore was extremely efficient picking up 13 kills in 14 attacks for an impeccable .857 hitting percentage. Margo Hernandez found her rhythm as the setter, collecting 33 assists, seven digs and two kills. The junior transfer was part of a two-setter system a year ago before taking the reigns as the full-time setter this season. Mackenzie Gerig notched 20 digs, her highwater mark at TU, while Ellie Herschberger added nine kills and ten digs in a steady performance for the upperclassmen.
Taylor then took on Pike and swept the Skyhawks (25-16, 25-20, 25-21) behind a balanced attack, highlighted by five players collecting between seven and 11 kills. The first set saw Taylor breeze past Point after scoring the first five points and never looking back. The second had TU up 9-1 behind a pair of service aces by Emily Livengood before the Skyhawks went on an 8-1 run to get within one point at 13-12. The squads traded points until a couple of errors from Point and a Hernandez kill gave TU some breathing room to finish off the set. The final set saw the Trojans fall behind from the first time in the match trailing 9-6 early on. A subsequent 11-3 run gave TU the advantage to close the sweep as Herschberger had three kills, and Anderson had three blocks in the pivotal stretch. Hernandez was electric again in dishing out 34 assists and swatting seven kills in 13 attacks for a .462 hitting percentage. Anderson was a force at the net for the Trojans, notching four blocks as the team produced eight in the sweep. Anderson added nine kills as the middle duo of Daya Vestal and Anderson accumulated 17 kills. The Trojans take the court next at the Onset Invitational in Fort Wayne, Indiana, beginning the event with a pair of matches on Friday, August 21st against No. 21 Cornerstone (0-0) and Indiana Tech (1-1).
Head coach Stephanie White thankful for the Indiana Fever fans and players after loud home ovation On Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Fever head coach Stephanie White received a loud ovation just before Indiana tipped off against the Dallas Wings. The cheers carried extra meaning for White, coming after recent online criticism and claims that she hasn’t done enough to stand up for her players. “It means a lot,” White said. “We love each other in that locker room. We know that there’s a lot of people out there that are trying to tear it apart. When we say we’re a family, we mean that. Doesn’t mean we always get along; doesn’t mean we always agree. But at the end of the day, it means we circle our wagons, and we have each other’s back. I love them. I love every single one of them.”
Since Indiana’s last home game on Tuesday, multiple Fever players, including Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell, have publicly defended their head coach, praising her leadership amid intense national attention. After Indiana’s 98-87 win over the Wings, White said she’s grateful for both the support from Fever fans and the tight-knit locker room she can always lean on. “We couldn’t go to work every day if we didn’t have each other’s back,” White said. “Not in this league; it’s too hard. It means a lot to me personally, and obviously, anytime you get an ovation from the crowd, it’s nice too. The true Indiana Fever fans are amazing. They’ve been incredible to me for a long time. More than anything, I’m thankful for this group of women and men on our staff. I’m thankful that we can lift each other up when need be and they have been lifting me up and I’m happy about that. I’m thankful for it.” White has guided the Fever to the WNBA’s top-ranked offense and a 22-12 record.