Indiana

Takeaways From 2025 Indiana Football Schedule

Published

1 year ago

December 11, 2024

Takeaways From 2025 Indiana Football Schedule

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana’s 2025 opponents were already known, but on Wednesday the Big Ten officially released football schedules for next season.

They follow the same format of nine Big Ten games and three nonconference games. In the second year in the expanded 18-team Big Ten, Indiana will face reigning Big Ten champion Oregon for the first time as a conference opponent. However, Indiana’s first Big Ten matchup against USC will have to wait until 2026.

Rosters will certainly undergo many changes from now until Week 1 of next season, and Indiana is no exception. That makes some factors in the 2025 schedule unknown, but there are still a few key takeaways to be made.

Here’s a look at Indiana’s full 2025 schedule.

Smooth runway, again

Indiana opens the season with three nonconference games that it should handle without much resistance. Old Dominion went 5-7 this year and has won more than six games just once since it became an FBS program. Kennesaw State went 2-10 in its first season in the FBS. And Indiana State went 4-8 at the FCS level. Similar to opening the 2024 season with FIU and Western Illinois, this gives Indiana a chance to establish itself and gain some confidence before Big Ten play begins.

Indiana could also benefit from opening Big Ten play with a home game rather than facing its first big challenge of the season in a daunting road environment. The Hoosiers host Illinois on Sept. 20, which shouldn’t be a pushover after going 9-3 this season. But it’s more favorable than some of the away games that lie ahead.

Challenging road trips

Indiana didn’t face the two teams that reached the Big Ten championship this season, Oregon and Penn State. That’s just the nature of the expanded conference, where no team plays more than half of the 18-team Big Ten in a season now.

But in 2025, Indiana will have two road games that could be as difficult as any. On Oct. 11, the Hoosiers travel to Oregon, which is the No. 1 seed in this year’s College Football Playoff. That will be just the fourth time the Hoosiers and Ducks have met, with previous matchups coming in 2004, 1964 and 1963. Oregon won two of those three games. One positive is Indiana will have a bye week to prepare for the Ducks, following its road game at Iowa.

Just under a month later, the Hoosiers head east to Penn State, which is the No. 6 seed in this year’s College Football Playoff. Indiana has never won a game at Beaver Stadium and has a 2-25 all-time record against the Nittany Lions. Beyond trips to Oregon and Penn State, Indiana finishes the season with road games in three of its final four games, which makes winning early in the season even more important.

Familiar face comes to Bloomington

Indiana co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri officially announced Wednesday that he has accepted the UCLA offensive coordinator position for next season. Sunseri had success with Indiana’s second-team All-Big Ten quarterback Kurtis Rourke in 2024, and he coached three conference player-of-the-year quarterbacks at James Madison from 2021-23.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti retained the nine other assistants from his 2024 staff, thanks to an increased assistant salary pool of $11 million in his new contract. But on Oct. 25, Sunseri will be on the opposing sidelines of Memorial Stadium calling plays for the UCLA offense. It’ll be an interesting matchup against Cignetti and Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, who obviously know Sunseri well from their time together at Indiana and James Madison.

No Ohio State, Michigan

In some ways, the 2024 Indiana football season still felt like playing in the old Big Ten conference. Indiana played traditional opponents like Purdue and Michigan State, winning the Old Oaken Bucket and Old Brass Spittoon rivalry trophies. The Hoosiers also tested themselves against traditional powers like Ohio State and Michigan.

But games against UCLA and Washington brought the unfamiliar reality of conference expansion, and that sentiment may be even more prominent in 2025. Indiana has played Ohio State and Michigan 70-plus times each in program history, but it won’t face either program next season. That will mark the first time since the 2008 season that neither team is on the Hoosiers’ schedule.

Indiana’s 2025 slate is full of non-traditional Big Ten teams, including Oregon (2024), UCLA (2024), Maryland (2014) and Penn State (1990).

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Indiana

Indiana ethics panel approves Jennifer-Ruth Green settlement; possible criminal charges pending

Published

11 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Indiana ethics panel approves Jennifer-Ruth Green settlement; possible criminal charges pending

The Indiana State Ethics Commission on Thursday approved a settlement requiring former Public Safety Secretary Jennifer-Ruth Green to pay a $10,000 civil fine, closing the ethics case against her — but potential criminal charges remain under review by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. The bipartisan, five-member commission voted unanimously to accept the agreement during its […]

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Bears consider move to Indiana with effort to secure public funding for stadium in Illinois stalled

Published

23 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Bears consider move to Indiana with effort to secure public funding for stadium in Illinois stalled

CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears say they’re mulling a move to Northwest Indiana with their efforts to secure public funding they say they need to build an enclosed stadium in Illinois stalled.

Team president Kevin Warren insisted Wednesday in an open letter to fans that the team still prefers to build a new home on a tract of land it owns in suburban Arlington Heights, Illinois. He also said the Bears are not using the threat to cross state lines as leverage.

“This is not about leverage,” Warren said. “We spent years trying to build a new home in Cook County. We invested significant time and resources evaluating multiple sites and rationally decided on Arlington Heights. Our fans deserve a world-class stadium. Our players and coaches deserve a venue that matches the championship standard they strive for every day.”

Warren did not say where in Northwest Indiana the Bears would look to move.

The letter comes just days before Chicago hosts rival Green Bay in a game with heavy playoff implications. The Bears (10-4) hold a slim lead over the Packers (9-4-1) in the NFC North. In their first season under coach Ben Johnson, they are trying to secure their first postseason appearance since 2020.

“The Bears have called Chicago home for more than a century,” Warren said. “One certainty is that our commitment to this city will not change. We will continue to provide unwavering support to the community. We need to secure a world-class venue for our passionate fanbase and honor the energy you bring every week.”

The Bears’ focus for a new home has fluctuated between a tract of land they own in Arlington Heights to the Chicago lakefront, and then back to the suburb. They have said they plan to pay for the stadium construction on the site of a former racetrack about 30 miles northwest of their longtime home at Soldier Field, though they would need assistance to complete the project.

According to a team consultant report released in September, they are seeking $855 million in public funding for infrastructure in order to build a stadium in Arlington Heights that could host Final Fours and Super Bowls. The Bears were also hoping the Illinois legislature would pass a bill in October that would freeze property taxes for large-scale construction projects such as the stadium, allowing them to begin construction this year. But that didn’t happen.

“For a project of this scale, uncertainty has significant consequences,” Warren said. “Stable timelines are critical, as are predictable processes and elected leaders, who share a sense of urgency and appreciation for public partnership that projects with this level of impact require. We have not received that sense of urgency or appreciation to date. We have been told directly by State leadership, our project will not be a priority in 2026, despite the benefits it will bring to Illinois.”

In September 2022, the Bears unveiled a nearly $5 billion plan for Arlington Heights that also called for restaurants, retail and more, when they were finalizing the purchase of that site 30 miles from Soldier Field. Their focus moved toward building a new stadium next to Soldier Field after Warren was hired as president two years ago to replace the retiring Ted Phillips. The plan to transform Chicago’s Museum Campus got an enthusiastic endorsement from Mayor Brandon Johnson but a tepid reception from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and state legislators when it was announced in April 2024.

Last spring, the team announced it was turning its attention back to Arlington Heights, citing “significant progress” with local leaders.

Since moving to Chicago in 1921, the Bears have never owned their stadium, whether playing at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970 or Soldier Field since then.

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Slim chances for a white Christmas in Lafayette area and in Indiana

Published

1 day ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Slim chances for a white Christmas in Lafayette area and in Indiana

Indiana is unlikely to have a white Christmas because of forecasted warmer-than-normal temperatures.
Temperatures on Christmas Day are expected to be in the 40s or 50s, possibly reaching the 60s.
The normal high temperature for the Lafayette area this time of year is 36 degrees.

LAFAYETTE, IN — Hopes for a white Christmas are fading quickly in Indiana.

“I know earlier in the month we were thinking we might have a higher chance of a white Christmas,” National Weather Service meteorologist Cody Moore said, “but unfortunately, I have some bad news for you. A lot of long-range guidance has been consistent showing a pattern on Christmas Day featuring much warmer than normal temperatures for the region and the chance for some rainfall.

“It does look like we’ll be above average, temperatures at least in the 40s, maybe 50s,” Moore said on Wednesday, just three days after subzero temperatures pummeled the area.

With still eight days until Christmas, the forecasts closer to Dec. 25 might bump the expected high temps up even into the 60s, Moore said.

Normal temperatures this time of year for Lafayette are 36 for a high and 22 for a low.

“It looks like you might be able to keep your heavy winter jackets in the closet for now,” Moore said.

How will a Christmas with temperatures in the 40s, 50s or even 60s compare to Christmases past?

In 1982, Lafayette’s record-warm Christmas was 64 degrees. Its record cold temperature was 12 below zero in 2000.

So now that the dreams of a white Christmas appear dashed, what about January or February?

The Climate Prediction Center published a three-month forecast in November, and an update is expected in the next couple of days.

But last month, center’s forecast for January, February and March was for Hoosiers to have an equal chance of above and/or below average temperatures.

“We’ll see how that translates with the storm track,” Moore said.

The Climate Prediction Center forecasts warmer than normal temperatures in the southern United States and below normal temperatures in the Northern Plains.

“That puts the storm track right through Indiana, which makes sense because the Climate Prediction Center has Indiana as a bullseye for a pattern favoring above-normal precipitation,” Moore said. Temperatures will decide whether that precipitation falls as rain or snow — or ice or freezing rain.

Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.

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