The Indiana Hoosiers may be the undefeated Big Ten Champions and the No. 1 team in the country. Alabama may already have three losses and had to win a first-round road game to get to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. But Indiana is still Indiana and Alabama is still Alabama. At least that’s how many Crimson Tide fans see it heading into Thursday’s Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
That has been felt since Alabama downed Oklahoma in Norman to advance to the quarterfinals, but Nick Saban was the one to finally say it out loud on the ESPN College GameDay set from Pasadena.
“The amazing thing about this is how much respect we have for Indiana internally. But I go play with my golfing buddies in Alabama, and they're all on the first tee saying, 'we should kick the shit out of Indiana.”
Nick Saban on Alabama-Indiana: "The amazing thing about this is how much respect we have for Indiana internally. But I go play with my golfing buddies in Alabama, and they're all on the first tee saying, 'we should kick the shit out of Indiana.'" pic.twitter.com/TlpbiQdQpb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 1, 2026
Nick Saban thinks Alabama fans may be overconfident heading into the Rose Bowl
Former Saban assistant Curt Cignetti has authored one of the most impressive turnarounds in the sport’s history. Check that, it’s the most impressive. Cignetti left James Madison to take over the losingest program in college football history two years ago and has now led the Hoosiers to back-to-back College Football Playoffs.
Last season, Indiana was one-and-done in the CFP and written off as a team that took advantage of a soft schedule. However, the Hoosiers’ two losses came to Ohio State in the regular season and Notre Dame in South Bend in the first round of the CFP. Then, the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish met in the national championship game.
This year, Cignetti and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza have two of the most impressive wins all season, beating Oregon on the road and taking down Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship. Both of those wins rival Alabama’s road win at Georgia, and Indiana, unlike Alabama, is unblemished.
Ahead of kickoff, Alabama is a 7.5-point underdog to Indiana, so the confidence in Tuscaloosa isn’t shared by the bookmakers in Vegas.
There is a significant trend, though, that works in Alabama’s favor. Through the first two games of this year’s CFP semifinals, teams with a first-round bye in the 12-team CFP format are 0-6. All four teams that received a bye last year lost their first-round game, and now both Ohio State and Texas Tech got upended in this year’s CFP.