Indiana coach Curt Cignetti takes shot at SEC scheduling in Big Ten media days speech

USA Today

3 days ago

Tuesday marked the start of 2025 Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas. While USC head coach Lincoln Riley will not speak until Thursday, several other head coaches spoke on Thursday, including Indiana's Curt Cignetti.
Recently, Cignetti has come under fire for his program's conservative approach with regard to scheduling nonconference games. When asked about that on Tuesday, Cignetti did not hold back, taking a shot at the SEC in the process.
"That was a scheduling philosophy that began before I was hired. But I did sign off on it upon being hired, before our first season,' Cignetti said, via On3. 'Look, here's the bottom line. We picked up an extra home game and we play nine conference games. The two best conferences in college football – any football guy that's objective will tell you – [are] the Big Ten and the SEC. Twelve of the 16 SEC teams play three G5 or an FCS game. Twelve of those teams play 36 games – 29 G5 games and seven FCS games, and one less conference game. So we figured we'd just adopt [an] SEC scheduling philosophy. Some people don't like it. I'm more focused in on those nine conference games.'
Certainly, Cignetti's comments will not be well received in the South. However, while criticism of Indiana's nonconference schedule is warranted, the head coach does make a valid point. The fact that the Big Ten and SEC do not play the same number of conference games makes zero sense.
At some point, the two conferences need to figure out a way to get on the same page, whether by the SEC adding a conference game or the Big Ten dropping one. Hopefully, that day will come sooner rather than later, and college football's two premier conferences will truly be on equal footing.