6-Banner Sunday: IU football set for CFP national championship game against Miami (FL)

IU football practices in Miami (FL).

Welcome to another edition of 6-Banner Sunday, a joint production between The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall, where we highlight the five most essential IU sports stories of the past week.

Football’s run in the College Football Playoff will come to an end tomorrow night. All eyes will be on Miami as the Hoosiers take on the Miami Hurricanes.

Also, men’s and women’s basketball continued Big Ten play with struggles. We will conclude with weekly shows from Podcast on the Brink and the Back Home Network and look at the rest of the Indiana sports in action, which was led by water polo pulling a huge upset in their season opener.

Here is what is in this week’s edition:

• IU football set to face Miami (FL) for national championship
• IU basketball dominated at Michigan State
• IU basketball suffers second home loss, falls to Iowa
• Struggles continue for IU women’s basketball
• Podcast on the Brink and Back Home Network shows
• Hoosier Roundup

Banner #1 – IU football set to face Miami (FL) for national championship

The No. 1 football Hoosiers will play for the national championship tomorrow. IU fans will pack Miami as Indiana looks to take down the hometown Hurricanes and be crowned the best in college football.

IU is 15-0 overall and will play at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN on Monday. IU is one victory away from its first national title in the program’s history and is looking to be the first college football squad ever to go a perfect 16-0 in the modern era.

Under head coach Curt Cignetti the team has pulled the greatest turnaround in sports history. For those who were unable to make it down to South Florida, a sold out watch party is happening in Assembly Hall as many will hope to celebrate back in Bloomington.

This success has also led to multiple recruiting victories for 2026. IU got big-time commitments from the portal this week.

Banner #2 – IU basketball dominated at Michigan State

IU basketball continued conference play as red flags are increasingly appearing. This week started with a blowout to Michigan State in East Lansing.

The Hoosiers hung tough for most of the night and were tied midway through the second half. However, Indiana fell apart from there and lost by a huge 81-60 margin.

Afterwards, IU coach Darian DeVries spoke, Ryan Corazza wrote The Minute After and Film Session, Alex Bozich penned Five Takeaways and Josh Pos wrote a column about the teams woes late in games.

Banner #3 – IU basketball suffers second home loss, falls to Iowa

The Hoosiers sank even lower on Saturday. Against a solid but rebuilt Iowa squad at home, Indiana was barely in the game all afternoon.

While a few runs were made, IU got behind early and stayed there for most of the contest. In the end the season hit a low point in a 74-57 defeat against the Hawkeyes.

Afterwards, DeVries spoke, Ryan Corazza wrote The Minute After and Alex Bozich penned Five Takeaways.

At 12-6 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten, the Hoosiers continue to sit near the NCAA tournament bubble. They have a solid record but are in the midst of a tough stretch with ranked teams, and they face elite Michigan on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET on Peacock) before a winnable road matchup at struggling Rutgers on Friday (6 p.m. ET on FS1).

Their NET sits around 40 overall. While they have few, if any, bad losses, they lack the critical signature victories needed on an NCAA tournament resume. However, how they perform in the rest of conference play will decide if they make their first March Madness since 2023 or sink well out of the postseason picture.

Banner #4 – Struggles continue for IU women’s basketball

Things have gone worse on the women’s side. While reinforcements appear to be on the way for a better future with a new recruiting coordinator and the best recruiting class in program history for 2026-2027, the interim has been a massive struggle.

Currently, the team is paying for its previous recruiting issues while winning, which has all come to a head this season. The squad sits at 11-8 overall and 0-7 in the league.

This week saw a couple of steps forward early on with a near-miss against an elite Iowa squad at home. However, several of those same forward steps went backwards a few days later. This was due to getting blown out by an up-and-down Washington squad, who lost to basement dweller Purdue a few days earlier.

IU’s first conference win is unlikely to come this week. This is because they head to top-notch Ohio State at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on Peacock.

Banner #5 – Podcast on the Brink and Back Home Network shows

Podcast on the Brink published two episodes this week. On them, Alex Bozich was joined by the Des Moines Register’s Tyler Tachman for the first episode before Rick Bozich came on later in the week.

Also, the Back Home Network has several shows. As a result, it was on air many times this week with programming.

Banner #6 – Hoosier Roundup

• Water Polo upset top-10 Fresno State in their season opener.

• Volleyball signed a player from the transfer portal.

• Men’s soccer hired a new assistant coach.

• Softball had several players on preseason watch lists.

• Wrestling lost to Ohio State.

• Track and field took part in the Indiana Invitational.

Now go enjoy yourself a 6-Banner Sunday.

Aaron (Ari) Shifron
Assembly Call Contributor

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(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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