Moving the Chains: The Tide is Turning

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here’s a new top dog in college football.  But one thing hasn’t changed: they’re still wearing the same color as they were before.  That, of course, would be crimson.  

Only it’s no longer the Crimson Tide of Alabama.  Rather, it’s the Indiana Hoosiers, fresh off a perfect 16 – 0 season and winning first National Championship in school history.  The icing on the cake was their first player to win the Heisman: Fernando Mendoza.

Yes, the tide – or maybe that should be Tide with a capital ‘T’ – has turned.  After winning half a dozen National Championship in 12 years, Alabama has now gone five seasons without one.  When Nick Saban was running the show in Tuscaloosa, five seasons without a title would constitute a light year.  

But now the fate of their fans lies in the hands of Kalen DeBoer.  And if he doesn’t win a title soon, his fate will be in their hands.    

The dominance of the Southeastern Conference is being challenged as well.  Prior to three seasons ago, teams from the SEC won 13 of the prior 17 National Championships.  But now the conference has taken a back seat to the Big Ten, which has produced the last three National Champions: Michigan in 2023, Ohio State in 2024, and Indiana in 2025.  

It was sort of poetic how one team in crimson eliminated another in this year’s playoffs.  Handily, in fact: Indiana – 38, Alabama – 3.     

Now that Saban is retired, the best coach in football may very well be the new kid on the block. In just two seasons with Curt Cignetti at the helm, the Hoosiers have won 27 games and lost just twice, and both losses were at the end of his first year: to #6 Ohio State in November and #5 Notre Dame in December.  

And they’ve been perfect ever since.       

***

Times are changing in college basketball as well.  The traditional Blue Bloods suddenly have developed serious chinks in their armor.    

But first, this: both John Calipari and Rick Pitino took their respective teams

 to the Sweet Sixteen.  Neither one was Kentucky, their former teams.  

 Instead, for Calipari it was Arkansas and for Pitino it was St. John’s.

Speaking of Kentucky, I’ve always believed Wildcat fans believe it’s their god given gift to win basketball games.  (Insert your thought balloons here.)  I have to believe Mark Pope, the current Kentucky coach, would back me up on that.  

Now in his third year, the Wildcats were blown out by Iowa State by 19 points in the second round of this year’s tournament.  The loss effectively put an exclamation point on what one media outlet in Lexington referred to as ‘the biggest failure of a season Kentucky has seen in decades.’  Another said the $22 million in NIL money that went into putting the team together (I’m paraphrasing here) should have resulted in a better product.     

And if you think the heat in Lexington is hot, it was even hotter in Chapel Hill, where North Carolina basketball coach Hubert Davis was fired after six seasons.  The final blow was a disappointing loss to VCU in the first round of the NCAA tournament, when the Tar Heels blew a 19-point lead in the second half and lost the game in overtime.   

The unexpected losses by Kentucky and North Carolina may well have been the biggest faceplants  of the tournament.  Fortunately for them, Duke was standing by to say ‘hold my beer.’

When the Blue Devils took a 17-point lead with less than 18 minutes left in the game, ESPN analytics indicated they had a 97.8% chance of winning the game.   However, Connecticut apparently didn’t put a lot of stock in analytics.  After a grueling, methodical, and somewhat miraculous second half comeback, the Huskies stuck a dagger in the hearts of Duke fans everywhere with a long three-pointer with under a second left on the clock, giving them the lead for the first time since the opening minute of the game.  

Final score: Connecticut – 73, Duke – 72.    

Coincidentally, all three Blue Bloods – Kentucky, North Carolina, and Duke – lost games in which they led by as many as 19 points.  

Dusty May, the coach for Michigan was, like Cignetti, in just his second year with the team.  In his first two years in Ann Arbor, May has posted a composite record of 64 – 13, following last season’s 27 – 10 with this year’s 37 – 3.  And, of course, this season ended with the Wolverines winning the National Championship – their second in school history and first since 1989.   

***

There was a time when Michigan and Indiana were two of the dominant teams in collegiate sports: Michigan in football, and Indiana in basketball.   

That time, of course, was towards the end of the 20^th century.

However, here in the 21^st century, it appears the tide may be turning.  

Because for the moment, it’s Indiana in football and Michigan in basketball who are ruling their respective roosts.