The Curt Cignetti Effect — Notre Dame coach on Indiana University Football: “I don’t love that being up the road” For as long as anyone can remember, if a team from Indiana was going to legitimately contend for the college football national championship, that team was Notre Dame. Some continued to believe that to be the only plausible scenario when the Irish defeated Indiana 27-17 in the first round of the 2024 College Football Playoff. But Curt Cignetti has flipped the college football world upside down, with ramifications that have reshaped the power structure within the Hoosier State. And as it turned out, it was IU that won the first national title by a team from Indiana since 1988. The exclamation point came this summer, when an IU football bus rolled through South Bend to display the national championship trophy at the school’s satellite campus.
IU and Cignetti’s influence on the sport is omnipresent, both nationally and locally. Even in the last week, two highly coveted Notre Dame recruiting targets have committed to the Hoosiers — in-state 5-star wide receiver Monshun Sales, and 2028 4-star quarterback Lukas Prock. Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman is the most promising leader the Irish have had since Lou Holtz. He’s already reached a national title game and has his team positioned in the 2026 preseason top-5. But despite that early success, he finds himself inexplicably operating in the shadows of IU football. And he knows it. “I don’t love that being up the road like four hours,” Freeman said on ESPN’s First Take this week. “I mean, we got to make sure that we’re putting our program in position to do that.”
Indiana has become the inspirational model throughout the college football landscape. If it can happen at IU, it can happen anywhere. For generations it was more than just Notre Dame that loomed large over IU, keeping the Hoosiers buried in the depths of college football irrelevancy. Freeman, a product of Ohio who played at Ohio State, knows that as well as anyone. Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan. The regional power structure was too much for Indiana to overcome. Or so it seemed. “Indiana’s a national champion. Like, think about what we’re saying. Indiana football is a national champion of college football,” Freeman said. “That program. Like, nobody would have said that two years ago. Nobody would have thought about it. And it doesn’t happen by luck. It’s work that’s put in. “You got to take your hat off and give credit where credit’s due. And a lot of credit is owed to that program.”
Bloomington’s Musa Jallow rekindles his Pro Basketball dreams in Malta Musa Jallow and a former UNC-Charlotte basketball teammate were lounging on the beach in Malta when a thought hit him like a screen someone didn’t call out. They shared an apartment just 30 yards from the Mediterranean Sea. When they weren’t busy at practice or playing a game for the Starlites professional basketball team in Naaxar, they usually were looking for a good restaurant or sunning on the sand. “We were lying on the beach and we just looked at each other and started laughing,” Jallow said. “What is going on? How did we end up here? We were just saying that the whole time.
“Every time I was in a layup line, ‘How did this happen?’ I was working in an ICU a couple months ago. It’s surreal. That’s the only word for it.” The surreal only doubled when this out-of-the-blue pipe dream started with a win in the Super Cup Final and ended up with Jallow as the championship series MVP. A few years ago, Jallow was a former college athlete, repairing his body from several debilitating injuries. He was planning a new career in medicine.
Now, he’s a legitimate professional basketball prospect, spending a summer of training in Bloomington with plans to head back overseas to a more competitive league. “Good luck putting all that into a concise story for the paper!” Jallow said after a thorough interview. Like Jallow, we’ll give it a shot. Here we go. Angelo Pizzo, take note.
Jallow left Bloomington North a year early to enroll at Ohio State in 2017, coming off a junior year in which he averaged 24.1 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.8 steals. Then new Buckeye coach Chris Holtmann was in need of players for his rebuild and asked the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Jallow if he wanted to jump right in. Jallow had done the work to earn enough credits to graduate early and did so. “I’ve been preparing for this since I started playing basketball. I knew what I wanted to do,” Jallow said at the time. His freshman year went well, starting his career with a 13-point, six-rebound game against Texas Southern. As a sophomore, he played 35 games with 13 starts. But then the injuries started to manifest themselves.
Jallow lost his junior year due to surgery to fix bone spurs in his right ankle. He then had surgery on his right hand ahead of his senior campaign. “It was time to move on,” Jallow said. While there were on-court struggles, what he gained by being at Ohio State off the court was invaluable. “I don’t know if there’s enough paper and ink to say all I took away,” Jallow said. “I learned a lot. It was definitely a challenge, and I got to see a different side of myself and the world. It was a great experience and made lifetime friends and great connections.”
After four years in Columbus, Jallow needed a fresh start. Charlotte was the place to do it. “I knew the coach (Ron Sanchez) and he allowed me the time and space to get healthy and try to contribute,” Jallow said. Neither ankle was doing well, though. He finally debuted in December, playing 10 games before tearing his ACL. More surgery. More doubt. A third surgery on his right ankle in May. Fixing a ligament on his left ankle next. Three total surgeries in a 100-day span. As much as Jallow loved basketball, it sure felt like it wasn’t loving him back. “It was extremely tough,” Jallow said. “Basketball, since I started playing, it was my No. 1 dream. I definitely idolized being successful in basketball. … It was kind of like a mountain had broken down for me. I had to re-evaluate things. What is my purpose?”
That question lingered for a bit, and it appeared he had found his answer. “What are the things I care about outside of the game?” Jallow asked himself. “What really matters in life? I had to pick myself back up from rock bottom with a support group and things I did outside of basketball. I was rock bottom, but it was a good place to be in terms of opportunities I still had at my fingertips.” Over Christmas break, Jallow was playing some 1-on-1. Five minutes after, he could hardly walk. He ended up not being able to fly home to see his family, which still resides in Bloomington. He couldn’t get through the airport. “Coach told me it was time to move on,” Jallow said. “Hang it up and go be a doctor.”
Upon returning to Columbus, Jallow was sure his days in a uniform were done. He took a job at Ohio State University Hospital, doing rehab with cardiac pulmonary patients. A different ex-teammate with the 49ers had helped him come to peace with his decision to move on from the game he loves. “He was in the ministry and had been witness to me for two years,” Jallow said. “I got involved in the church and decided to pick up a Bible and read it for myself. I talked to God a whole lot and came to terms.”
There were things he couldn’t control, but even the things he could wouldn’t guarantee anything. “My faith was a huge grounding point to even have that perspective,” Jallow said. “Before that, my thinking was you put in the work, extra work and more work and get the results. It seemed like a simple math problem: work harder than the next guy and you’re going to win. That’s not necessarily how the Lord works.” A lot physical healing took place, too.
His first year back in Columbus, he hit the weight room, avoiding any running and jumping. A few days working out with the current OSU team reminded him he wasn’t used to lifting like a D-I athlete anymore. “It was a definite wake-up call,” Jallow said. There was a pro-am Kingdom League in Columbus that summer, and he felt well enough to play. He also jumped into pickup games once a week with old college players and high school coaches from the area. He also helped coach a high school team and would scrimmage with the players “I did alright, health-wise,” Jallow said. “I was just playing the game for fun at that point.” No, it wasn’t high level ball, but there were reminders he still had it.
“Every time I’d play pickup, someone would say, ‘You need to still be playing,’” Jallow said. “It is what it is. Even in the hospital, co-workers would look at me and tell me I should be a professional athlete, not a rehab guy. That hurt the ego, for sure, but at the time, it was not up to me. “I definitely had a lot of ego checks the last couple of years.” But the compliments, even backhanded, were reassurances. So was the fact his body was finally holding up. As “delusional” as he had been when he was younger about how far he could go in basketball, at 26, there was a glimmer of hope. The plan was to work at the hospital for two years, then apply to medical school. Then, one Facetime call changed everything.
A trip to Europe was in the back of Jallow’s mind. He was considering taking a couple months off from work and school to travel and take a break before diving into medical school. Then came the call from former Charlotte teammate Jackson Threadgill, who happened to play for the Starlites in Malta. They needed another player. Was he interested? “‘Sure, I’ll play,’ I said, not thinking much about it,” Jallow said. The Starlites coach called the next morning and offered Jallow a spot. At first, he said no. Then Jallow reached out to a few friends who set him straight. “You’re an idiot. You worked 20 years to get to this point. Take that spot!” Jallow recalls them saying.
Jallow called the coach back, and the flight was booked. The next week, he packed up and informed his boss at the hospital he was leaving. The plane landed, the coach picked him up. Jallow shoved down some coffee and something to eat and was at practice a couple hours later after 15 hours of travel. Three days later, on Sept. 28, 2025, he was recording 17 points, five rebounds and six steals as Starlite won the Super Cup Final for the third year in a row. Two weeks later, the regular season got under way. “I had no expectations,” Jallow said. ” … For me, probably the best-case scenario was I’d take it all in, play for a year, six months, and enjoy it as a gift from the Lord. And that’s exactly what I did.”
After a two-week break in the season, Jallow resumed playing for the Starlites. Malta was the perfect place to dip his toe into the waters of pro basketball. Beautiful island, diverse culture, great food and a team that went 15-0 in the regular season. Plus, English was a second language behind Maltese, so communication was easy. “I got extremely lucky,” Jallow said. “All the people were extremely nice and supportive. It was a fun environment. It was almost like an AAU or college team.”
The team played once a week in a league with six teams, each one with two or three American imports as allowed by rule. It allowed his body to ease back into it, which was a concern from the start. “Oh, 100%,” Jallow said. “At that level, we didn’t have great medical supervision, so this was a test, if I was ordained by the Lord to see it through. I worked with a (physical therapist), just basic stuff to keep me up. No tape or braces, just ibuprofen before games. “I missed one game when the coach wanted to rest me against the worst team in the league. Other than that, I played every single game and averaged (30.5) minutes. I was hanging in there.”
There were some adjustments, such as having to pay attention again when a coach was drawing up plays or a defensive scheme and picking up the terminology. But it was all second nature by that point. He ended up averaging 18 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.3 blocks per game and shot 57% from the field and 72% at the line as Starlight rolled into the Super League finals against Hibernian. Starlite swept the first three games as Jallow went 18-of-25 from the field, scoring 46 points and grabbing 24 rebounds. Starlite dropped Game 4 but bounced back in a big way to clinch the title, 98-77, as Jallow exploded for 25 points (going 11-of-16) with nine rebounds, five assists and four steals. Jallow was named the finals MVP.
After thinking this would be a summer to get ready to attend medical school in Arizona, Jallow is thinking one thing: how good can I be with a full summer of training? All of a sudden, he’s come full circle. Back in the summer of 2017, he was sweating through workouts at Teamwork Bloomington to meet the challenge of the jump from high school to college as a junior. Now, he’s back in town doing the same thing, only this time to rise higher in the pro ranks.“I’ve signed with an agent and I’m working on finding teams in Europe or Asia, wherever,” Jallow said. “I’ve got film and tape and highlight reels and videos I’m putting out there, but mostly letting my agent take care of it. “At this point, the thing I can control best is what I did last season. What I did was leaving everything up to God.” At the same time, he’s held up his part of the bargain. That is how he got here. Leaning on his faith and family who never stopped believing, either. “At face value, it was not a logical decision,” Jallow said. “(My family) also saw that my whole entire life was dedicated to this sport. … They saw all the sacrifice and now, I’m living the dream, just a smaller version of it.”
Fernando Mendoza’s Parents return to Indiana for the Brickyard 400 Part of the Mendoza family returned to Indiana this weekend, with Fernando Mendoza’s parents and his younger brother Max going to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400. Max Mendoza was invited by NASCAR to interview drivers and report on the race, as he is pursuing a career in journalism. Fernando Mendoza’s parents, Fernando Mendoza Sr. and Elsa Mendoza, made their first-ever trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway and got to meet Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Boles. “It’s pretty impressive,” Fernando Mendoza Sr. said about IMS. “It’s something you see on TV growing up as a kid and your whole life, the Indy 500, all the other big races here, the Brickyard, you see it in person, it’s massive.”
Fernando Mendoza officially signed with the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday on a four-year, $57 million deal after being selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. Fernando’s parents reflected on his journey to that moment. “We’re so grateful to Indianapolis and IU because he would have never had this opportunity without this city and without the coaches and without IU,” Elsa said. “So we’re so grateful, we’re so happy, and IU will always be part of us.”
“He’s excited. It’s kind of a sense of relief just to get it out of the way,” Fernando Mendoza Sr. said. “We knew it was going to happen, but it’s nice to get to work and understand that now he’s got a few weeks before the season starts and focus on what is important, which is his job.” Fernando Mendoza Sr. added that Indiana is like a second family to them. Fernando Mendoza and the Raiders start their season at home against the Miami Dolphins on September 13.
Indiana Girls’ Flag Football moves closer to official IHSAA Sanctioning Girls’ Flag Football is one step closer to becoming a sanctioned high school sport in the Hoosier State. The Indianapolis Colts announced Sunday its completion of the “Road to 100,” campaign, an effort to recruit 100 Indiana high school girls flag football teams and develop girls’ flag as a fully sanctioned Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) sport. The announcement was made on the final day of the 2026 NFL Flag Football Championships at Grand Park in Westfield. The Colts have led the charge to develop girls’ flag as a sanctioned sport in Indiana. It started in 2023 with just eight teams. The Colts have recruited 108 Indiana high school teams to date.
As excitement surrounding flag football only continues to grow, Colts owner and Chief Brand Officer Kalen Jackson is excited to face the next hurdle. “This is not a flash in the pan moment.,” she said. “You know this is, we built it this way and we built it right. I think the IHSAA has always done an incredible job. Every state is different in terms of rules and I think although 100 was a big number to get to, I think that’s smart the way they do that because it creates stability and I think that that’s what we hope to see across the country, in the world that this isn’t going anywhere.”
Brian Flinn, NFL Senior Vice President for Global Flag Football, shared just how critical sanctioned status is for the sport. “We want coaching institutions,” he said. “We want funding from institutions and the state. And if we want statistics, so that there are verifiable ways that colleges can come and recruit young women for scholarships they can play at the next level.” While the “Road to 100″may be over, the next chapter in high school girls flag football has only just begun.
“We’re going to continue to promote, push, twist arms, beg, do whatever it takes to have more schools to offer an opportunity to play girls’ flag football in the state of Indiana,” IHSAA Commissioner Paul Neidig said. Right now, 40 states have high school girls flag football programs, about half of which are sanctioned. 15-year-old Ryleigh Ramm, who plays for the Omaha Jr. Stockmen, is excited about what today’s announcement means for girls flag football. “Very proud of this sport,” she said. “Happy that it is finally growing so more girls can move on higher up and there’ll be more competition.” The IHSAA may vote to officially sanction the sport as early as next May.
Corey Heim wins Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway In his first career start in the race, Corey Heim won the Brickyard 400. It is Heim’s second career NASCAR win in just his 15th career start. “It’s a surreal feeling, and just so blessed to be in this position right now and have the opportunity to race here at the Brickyard,” Heim said. “There’s so many occasions where I’ve grown up watching with my dad, whether it’s the Indy 500 or the Brickyard 400, and to be here, to even race it is amazing and to win is just unbelievable… This is seriously a dream come true, so I’m just so grateful.”
Heim passed Denny Hamlin on Lap 125 on a restart and held on to the lead for the remainder of the race. Heim drives for 23XI Racing, and Hamlin is a co-owner of the team. This is the second straight year that a 23XI driver has won the Brickyard 400 (Bubba Wallace). “I honestly talked to him a good bit this week and what his mindset was going into the weekend and just how to execute,” Heim said about Wallace. “Obviously, with them winning the race last year, I had a good guy talking to me. He’s a standup guy, standup teammate, and I’m very grateful to have him with me.” Heim is the youngest driver (24 years old) to win the Brickyard 400 since Jeff Gordon won the inaugural race in 1994. Christopher Bell finished second, Joey Logano finished third, Chase Briscoe finished fourth, and Denny Hamlin finished fifth.
Todd Gilliland competes surprising In-Season Challenge run by collecting $1 million paycheck Todd Gilliland reached the final round of NASCAR’s second In-Season Challenge by taking advantage of all the right breaks. Daniel Suarez suffered an early tire problem in Round 1 at Sonoma and finished 31st. Carson Hocevar crashed early at Chicago in Round 2. Alex Bowman finished two laps behind the leaders at Atlanta in Round 3, then made a pit lane mistake at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, that helped eliminate Chase Elliott and put Gilliland in Sunday’s finale at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
So, naturally, the self-described underdog persevered again. He sifted his way through traffic, avoided trouble and took advantage of Ryan Blaney’s late crash to collect the $1 million prize, earning the right to suddenly be called a champion. “It was a tough day for us to be honest with you,” he said after finishing 24th, two spots ahead of Blaney to claim the title. “But I thought that was kind of our whole M.O. right through this whole thing. We were just barely scraping by and even today, it definitely took a little bit of bad luck clearly from the (No.) 12 (Blaney).” While most NASCAR fans were watching Corey Heim speed past team co-owner Denny Hamlin on a late restart and into history with his first Brickyard 400 victory, Gilliland and Blaney continued to battle for the race inside the race with Gilliland seemingly one of the most unlikely winners in the challenge’s field.
The 26-year-old driver from Front Row Motorsports began the five-round, single-elimination tournament seeded 25th and a resume that appeared less than daunting. In five Cup seasons, he has never won a race or a pole and he has produced just 17 top-10 finishes in 164 career starts. So winning seemed almost unfathomable. “We’ve caught a lot of lucky breaks. We’ve barely been skating by all these rounds,” Gilliland said Friday. “But now that we’re here, yeah, it feels a bit more real and you never know, right? Four hundred miles, anything can happen. So we’re just going to go give our best effort and try not to think about what it would be like if we won.”
The weekend sure didn’t start well for Gilliland, who qualified 36th — 23 spots behind Blaney. And aside from a pit cycle that helped him finish second in Sunday’s second stage, Gilliland always seemed to be in Blaney’s rearview mirror, until destiny intervened with 41 laps to go. This time, Blaney appeared to be perfectly positioned for a 12th consecutive top-11 finish and claiming one of the titles team owner Roger Penske hasn’t held. That’s when John Hunter Nemechek tapped Blaney’s car, sending him hard into the wall, causing a nine-car crash that damaged the right side of Blaney’s car. “That 42 guy, it’s every week with him,” Gilliland radioed in, referring to Nemechek. Blaney’s crew members scrambled to get the No. 12 Ford back on the track and Blaney methodically got his car within striking distance of Gilliland.
But Gilliland, who luckily managed to navigate his way cleanly through the debris and cars involved in the crash, stayed in front and barely finished ahead of Blaney to be crowned champion. “I think when you’re the 25th seed, looking up at that mountain of ‘We have beat this guy or this guy,’ it seems like a very tall task,” Gilliland said. “So yeah, maybe for myself, I never really thought this was a realistic goal. But when you get a little closer, you get past one round, two rounds and then you’re in the final eight, final four and then you’re in the in the finale, it ramps up a lot. So, yeah, it’s cool, and I think you kind of saw that with my team.”
Indianapolis Indians’ Late Barrage Falls Short for Series Split with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs The Indianapolis Indians tallied seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, but the rally fell just short as they lost to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 9-8, on Sunday afternoon at Victory Field. Termarr Johnson, Duce Gourson and Mitch Jebb each hit home runs for Indy. Trailing, 9-1, the Indians (17-10, 48-54) reached on an error, logged five extra-base hits and had two walks to nearly close the gap in the final frame. Duce Gourson hit his second home run of the season and with two outs, Mitch Jebb launched a three-run home run to cut the deficit to one. With Ronny Simon on second base as the tying run, Enmanuel Valdez grounded out to end the contest. The IronPigs (13-14, 48-54) scored eight unanswered runs to begin the game, with five of those coming in the fourth inning on four Indianapolis errors in the frame. They tallied three more scores in the sixth with a two-run double from former Indians player Liover Peguero and a sacrifice fly by Carter Kieboom. The IronPigs added a final run on another sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Connor Wietgrefe (L, 3-3) tossed 5.0 innings and allowed all five runs in the fourth frame, but only two were earned runs. IronPigs starter Andrew Painter (W, 1-2) tossed 6.0 innings of one-run ball. After Andrew Bechtold allowed seven runs (5er) in the bottom of the ninth, Nolan Hoffman (S, 5) relieved him for the game’s final out. Indianapolis had an off-day on Monday before beginning a six-game series at the Louisville Bats this evening at 6:35 PM ET. A starter has not yet been named for the Indians. RHP Jose Franco (3-3, 3.72) is scheduled to pitch for the Bats.