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. 6-Banner Sunday is written by Ari Shifron.
Football continued its conference season with a Halloween showdown against Minnesota. IU won another ugly defensive battle where both offenses struggled mightily.
The hoops squad played another exhibition contest and opens regular-season play this week. Finally, IU Athletics announced a court branding sponsorship with Lilly. As usual, we will conclude with a look at the weekly shows and the rest of the Hoosier sports scene, led by men’s soccer, which won out west at UCLA and will play for a Big Ten title Wednesday.
Here is what is in this week’s edition:
• IU football beats Minnesota in another overtime thriller
• IU basketball edges Western Kentucky in exhibition finale
• IU basketball to open the 2026-27 regular season this week
• IU athletics announces court branding partnership with Lilly
• Podcast on the Brink and Back Home Network shows
• Hoosier Roundup
Banner #1 – IU football beats Minnesota in another overtime thriller
No. 4 IU played a tough game again in football and won another thriller. Once again, Indiana’s offense struggled for much of the game as quarterback Josh Hoover continued to throw inaccurately and have trouble processing the field, leading to him being benched in the second half. Also, IU’s defense played lights out as usual and bottled up Minnesota’s anemic offense to bail out the special teams as well.
This led to a low-scoring contest where every play could make all the difference. Fortunately, for the Hoosiers, they made a couple more and won 23-16 in a game that went to OT for the second straight week, with ESPN’s College GameDay making an appearance.
Afterwards, IU coach Curt Cignetti spoke, Inside the Hall had a photo gallery, Zach Horwitz wrote Five Takeaways and Ian Plaskoff put together a column about the victory.
Banner #2 – IU basketball edges Western Kentucky in exhibition finale
IU basketball fans got their third chance to see the squad last Sunday against in their final exhibition contest. Although the game wasn’t in Bloomington, it was still in Indiana, as the Hoosiers played Western Kentucky in Evansville.
Once again, if this result was any indication, IU will be much improved. Depth led the day and allowed the Hoosiers to edge the Hilltoppers 79-74.
After the game, Hoosier coach Darian DeVries spoke, Ryan Corazza wrote a Minute After as well as observations from Indiana’s exhibition slate as a whole, and Alex Bozich provided five takeaways.
Banner #3 – IU basketball to open the 2026-27 regular season this week
The Hoosiers will remain in Indiana and finally play a game in Assembly Hall this week, opening the regular season against Eastern Illinois on Monday and Bellarmine on Thursday. DeVries held a presser to preview the season last Wednesday.
The contests tip off at 7 pm on BIG+ against the Panthers and 6 pm on Peacock and NBC Sports Network against the Knights. IU is projected to finish around mid-pack in the Big Ten and likely return to the NCAA tournament.
Banner #4 – IU athletics announces court branding partnership with Lilly
As costs in College sports increase, athletic departments are increasingly looking for ways to add new revenue streams. One way to do this is to get sponsorships, and IU is taking advantage of this by partnering with Indiana pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly to add their logo to the Assembly Hall court.
Banner #5 – Podcast on the Brink and Back Home Network shows
Podcast on the Brink returned this week. On it, Assembly Call’s Jerod Morris crossed over to discuss IU’s upcoming basketball season.
The Back Home Network has many shows. As a result, it was on air several times this week with programming.
Banner #6 – Hoosier Roundup
• Men’s soccer beat UCLA and will play Michigan State for yet another Big Ten title on Wednesday.
• Women’s basketball dominated Marian in an exhibition game as they are also expected to return to the NCAA tournament following a one-year absence.
• Volleyball upset ranked Michigan State but fell to Penn State and Michigan.
• Field hockey lost to Maryland and was edged by Rutgers and will again play the Scarlet Knights in the Big Ten Tourney.
• Women’s soccer’s rough season mercifully concluded after losses to Rutgers and Penn State.
• Cross country competed at the Big Ten Championship.
• Women’s golf concluded its fall season at the Landfall Tradition.
• Wrestling competed at the Wrestle-Offs.
Thanks for your continued support of The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall. We’ll be back next weekend with a new roundup.
Now go enjoy yourself a 6-Banner Sunday.
Aaron (Ari) Shifron
Assembly Call Contributor
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