Indiana
Hoosiers’ Cignetti named AP Coach of the Year
INDIANAPOLIS — When Curt Cignetti took the Indiana job last fall, he promised immediate success.
After daring doubters to Google his winning pedigree, the son of a Hall of Fame football coach delivered on his word by leading the Hoosiers to a school-record 11 wins, a top-10 ranking and an improbable first playoff berth that set up a Friday night game at No. 3 Notre Dame.
Cignetti was named the Associated Press Coach of the Year on Tuesday, collecting 30 of 45 votes from AP Top 25 voters. Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham finished second with eight votes, Oregon coach Dan Lanning received five and SMU coach Rhett Lashlee got two.
“Thank you to The Associated Press for this tremendous team honor,” Cignetti said. “Our program has had a great season and we look forward to opening the College Football Playoff against Notre Dame on Friday.”
Few thought such a season was possible at Indiana, much less in his first season. Cignetti, 60, authored an eight-win turnaround that captivated the nation at a school with the most losses in Football Bowl Subdivision history.
Then again, all Cignetti does is win.
He has never had a losing record in 14 seasons as a head coach and has a reputation for making quick turnarounds everywhere he goes: Alabama, where he served as Nick Saban’s first recruiting coordinator and won a national title, following his father to Indiana University of Pennsylvania or at FCS school Elon and James Madison, where he presided over the most successful transition from the FCS to the FBS in NCAA history.
Cignetti won conference coach of the year awards at IUP, Elon, James Madison and now in the Big Ten with Indiana. Cignetti brought most of his coaching staff and 13 players from the Dukes to Indiana and the results were as surprising as they were at any of his previous stops.
Even Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman took note.
“I didn’t know much about him, so I took a minute and Googled him and looked at some of the things he’s done in the past at his other places,” Freeman said Sunday, a week after the playoff pairings were announced. “He’s won everywhere he’s been. He’s done a great job.”
The winner of seventh-seeded Notre Dame (11-1) and 10th-seeded Indiana advances to the quarterfinal round against second-seeded Georgia (11-2).
Cignetti is the first Indiana coach to win the award since its inception in 1998. His predecessor, Tom Allen, finished second in 2020 after leading the Hoosiers to a 6-2 mark, a second straight January bowl game and a final ranking of No. 12.
But this has been a historic season for the Hoosiers (11-1) and Cignetti, who became the first Indiana coach to start 10-0 — or even post double-digit wins in season.
Indiana produced its largest margin of victory in school history, 77-3 over Western Illinois, in September and two of its three largest victory margins in Big Ten play, 56-7 over Nebraska in October and 66-0 over rival Purdue in its regular-season finale.
Ten of the 11 wins were by margins of 14 or more points and the Hoosiers only trailed in the second half of one game, a loss at then-No. 2 Ohio State. And Indiana isn’t just the highest scoring team in the playoff at 43.3 points per game; it also has the No. 6 scoring defense (14.67 points) and the No. 1 run defense (70.8 yards per game) in the FBS.
It’s not a surprise to anyone in the program, least of all Cignetti.
“This team’s accomplished a lot, I’m proud of what they’ve accomplished,” Cignetti said. “I think the coaches have done a great job, players have done a great job. But in saying that, no one’s satisfied. The players are hungry for more, the coaches are hungry for more.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says Bears need stadium site soon
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters at the NFL’s annual meeting that the Chicago Bears need resolution on a stadium site soon.
The saga of the Chicago Bears and their potential move to Indiana continues as Illinois lawmakers unveil amended legislation aimed at keeping the team in the state, Illinois Capital News reported.
Seemingly still a minor step in the right direction, the legislation is a prerequisite for the team to build a new domed stadium in suburban Arlington Heights. Here’s what happened in Illinois this week.
What does the amended bill mean for the Chicago Bears?
The Illinois House unveiled a new version of property tax legislation aimed at winning over lawmakers concerned about the move.
More specifically, the changes target worries about shifted property tax burdens to local residents and the team’s departure from Chicago’s Soldier Field, which still has nearly $500 in unpaid bonds.
While the original bill would allow the Bears or other “megaproject” developers to negotiate a payment in lieu of taxes, the amended version would contribute 50% of such payments to property tax relief. Of that amount, 60% would go to property tax rebates for homeowners residing in megaproject districts, while 40% would be deposited into the state’s existing property tax relief fund.
This incentive plan would end in five years, at which time lawmakers would revisit its effectiveness.
Will amended legislation pass in Illinois?
The legislation was discussed at length in the Illinois House Tuesday, but still has a far way to go before it makes its way to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.
Illinois Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, the lead House negotiator on the megaprojects bill, said he plans to file the amended legislation with the intention of it being heard in committee on Wednesday. If it passes there, the full House could vote on the measure this week.
But importantly, it still must be approved by the Illinois Senate, which returns to Springfield on April 28. Only then would it be sent to Pritzker.
Is the measure likely to pass in Illinois?
Buckner appeared optimistic about the changes, while Pritzker’s office said they’re still “reviewing the draft amendment.”
Illinois Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, said the latest version is a step in the right direction, saying the “forthcoming amendment” addressed lawmakers’ concerns “in a really thoughtful way.”
What’s going on in Indiana?
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed a bill into law in February creating a northwest Indiana stadium authority that would be in charge of financing a new stadium for the Bears in Hammond.
As recently as April 16, Indiana lawmakers renegotiated the Indiana Toll Road lease to further appeal to the Chicago football team, according to the IndyStar. The new agreement would allow $700 million to be put toward infrastructure or transportation projects in seven Indiana counties near the proposed stadium site in exchange for more frequently increased toll prices on the Indiana Toll Road.
CONTRIBUTING: Kayla Dwyer, Indianapolis Star; Brenden Moore, Illinois Capital News
PLAINFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — Suspects fled a Plainfield bank after it was robbed Tuesday afternoon, police say.
Plainfield Police Department was called at 2:10 p.m. Tuesday to the robbery of a bank in progress at Chase Bank, 807 Southfield Drive. That’s southwest of the intersection of Quaker Boulevard and Stafford Road/East County Road 450 South in the Hendricks County town.
Deputy Chief Ryan Salisbury of the Plainfield Police Department said detectives were working on the case.
The police department posted on social media on Tuesday night that no one was hurt in the robbery, and the suspects, who were not in custody, fled prior to the arrival of first responders.
INDIANAPOLIS — Sophie Cunningham wants to emphasize she’s perfectly happy with the Indiana Fever. She just wishes she could be locked down longer.
Cunningham, who signed a one-year, $665,000 deal with the Indiana Fever for 2026, said on her podcast, “Show Me Something,” on Tuesday night that she was frustrated with the free agency process in the condensed offseason.
She shook her head vehemently when her co-host West Wilson asked if the contract was better than she thought it would be, then said in part, “It’s tough because I came off an injury … I’m not even going to lie to you, that’s a little, kind of, frustrating.”
Fans on social media largely took that as she did not get interest from other teams, she didn’t want to return to the Fever, or she was unhappy with the salary she got.
She shut those thoughts down on social media Monday night, then expounded on her frustrations with local media at Fever training camp on Tuesday morning.
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“I think Twitter kind of blew up last night about a comment I made on my podcast. But that wasn’t what I meant at all,” Cunningham said. “I think if you listen to the full clip, you really understand that I just wanted to be somewhere for more than one year. I’m almost 30 years old. I want to have a home. I want to get established. And I would love to get established in a place like Indiana.”
The Fever prioritized as much financial flexibility as possible this offseason because of the new EPIC clause, which allows both Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark to renegotiate their fourth-year salaries up to the max with an extension. Boston’s salary was bumped to $1 million in 2025, and she will make the supermax from 2027-29. Clark is eligible to negotiate up to the max in 2027, and both Clark and Boston could be making the supermax starting in 2028.
Only Lexie Hull and Monique Billings got major multi-year deals with the Fever out of free agency. Hull signed for $765,000 in 2026 and $803,250 in 2027, per Her Hoop Stats, while Billings got $800,000 for both 2026 and 2027. Damiris Dantas is the only other player that got a multi-year deal out of free agency, but that was for the minimum cap hit of $277,500.
Kelsey Mitchell signed a one-year, $1.4 million supermax, Cunningham returned on a one-year deal, and Myisha Hines-Allen and Tyasha Harris each signed one-year deals.
Cunningham added that she got multi-year offers from other teams, but chose to stay with Indiana on a one-year deal.
She wanted to return to Indiana, she said, because of friendships she created with her teammates and the potential they showed, even after six separate season-ending injuries on the roster. She is also closer to her hometown of Columbia, Missouri.
“When you find a group of girls who really make you fall in love with basketball games and you enjoy it, you enjoy them, not only on the court, but off the court, like, you want to hold on to that,” Cunningham said. “ … it was never about the money, it was just about the years, because I wanted to be with them. And God forbid a girl loves her teammates, you know what I mean?”
Cunningham is also coming off a major knee injury after she tore her MCL in August 2025. She was ruled out for the rest of the 2025 season and got surgery in Indianapolis, then had a six-month rehab process before she was cleared in February.
Since then, she has been ramping back up as much as possible, including playing one-on-one, three-on-three, plyometrics, and everything she does to get ready for a regular season.
Still, she said, she’ll need to actually play to get back into full basketball shape.
“Basketball shape is just different,” Cunningham said. “You can run as many suicides as you want, you can get your butt kicked however you want, but until you’re out here playing, you’re never fully going to be in game shape until you’re playing games.”
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at chloe.peterson@indystar.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar TV: Fever for in-depth analysis, behind-the-scenes coverage and more.
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