Indiana’s rise in sports is out of the ordinary; there have been notable rises in Boston and Washington, D.C., but Indiana has statistically performed better: the Indianapolis Colts are 6-1, the Hoosiers are 7-0, as the Indiana Fever return to form. Furthermore, the Indiana NCAA basketball teams are all predicted to be playoff-caliber teams.
Before 2024, none of these teams had sniffed the playoffs in the 20th Century. The Indiana Hoosiers Football team has even had the most losses by a Power Four school ever.
Senior Shreyas Ganesaan said that his favorite professional sports team is Chelsea FC. However, even though Indiana doesn’t have a professional football team specifically in the league that his team is in, he can still admit to having heard about the state of Indiana’s rise in sports. Ganesaan said, “I think it’s pretty impressive. It might be a long time coming. Indiana hasn’t really been great in a while.”
Ganesaan shows how crazy this Indiana rise to fame has been: Someone who doesn’t follow any of the sports the state of Indiana participates in knows about how successful their professional teams have been recently.
Jonathan Greenberg (this writer’s father), an Indiana University alum, said that before the past five years, Indiana’s college football was terrible and that he would never have expected the team he experienced to turn into the team Indiana has today. Greenberg said, “Indiana football was pretty bad. It was pretty bad. And yeah, they had to bribe us with snacks and would have food for anyone who showed up.”
Freshman Dylan Holt said he’s been a sports fan his entire life, but he didn’t see any Indiana sports as a threat. He grew up a Dallas fan, so on Sundays when his team played an Indiana sports team, he didn’t see Indiana as a real opponent. Holt said, “Indiana is an irrelevant state.”
Freshman Vir Shukla doesn’t believe in Indiana, as well; he grew up a San Francisco sports fan. Indiana is playing at an incredible standard, with the Indianapolis Colts being 7-1 and the Indiana Hoosiers being 8-0. Sports analysts like Stephen A Smith are saying this won’t last forever. Shukla said, “Indiana will not continue winning.”
Indiana football is being discussed right now, but what people are not discussing is Indiana basketball. The Pacers, before last season when they made the NBA finals, hadn’t made the finals since 1999.
The Indiana Fever drafted Caitlin Clark, heavily increasing viewership and also skyrocketing them to the playoffs. When star player Clark was sidelined, viewership in the whole WNBA declined by 55%.
The Indiana Hoosiers basketball team hasn’t been good in a while, not winning an NCAA championship since 1980; however, Purdue University picked up the slack, making the tournament’s final four and being ranked number one in this season’s rankings. Greenberg, an Indiana alum, said, “Indiana basketball has had a great run, but it’s been a long, long time.”
All in all, Indiana isn’t going to stop until they win it all. Miles Cross, Indiana football wide receiver, said when he posted on X, “We’re gonna keep our foot on the gas, we’re looking to dominate whenever we can.”
