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Indiana dominated Alabama 38-3. Rose Bowl Thursday will send the Hoosiers into the College Football Playoff semifinals.
It marked the team's most lopsided loss of the postseason. Crimson Tide in the history of the program. It was also Alabama's biggest loss in any game since a 42–6 loss to Arkansas on September 26, 1998.
Indiana hasn't won a bowl game since the Copper Bowl in 1991, but history has been no match for Curt Cignetti and his dominant Hoosiers during the coach's two outstanding seasons.
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Roman Hemby (1) of the Indiana Hoosiers runs with the ball in the fourth quarter against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at Rose Bowl Stadium on January 1, 2026 in Pasadena, California. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza passed for 192 yards and three touchdowns in his first game since. won the first one in my school Heisman Trophy.
Indiana scored the first 24 points of the game and then followed it up with rushing fourth-quarter touchdowns from Kalon Black and Roman Hemby to cap off the jubilant victory in the 112th edition of the Granddaddy of All.
Charlie Becker, Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Surratt caught touchdown passes, and Black rushed for 99 yards. Indiana beat Alabama 407-193, consistently delighting the decidedly pro-Indian crowd, which celebrated its long-struggling team's first Rose Bowl appearance since 1968 with chants of “Hoosier Daddy?” in the last minutes.
The Hoosiers will head to the Peach Bowl on Jan. 9 for a CFP semifinal rematch with fifth seeded Oregon, who crushed Texas Tech 23-0 earlier Thursday in the Orange Bowl. In October, Indiana beat the No. 3 Ducks 30-20 in Eugene, one of Cignetti's most impressive wins in the Big Ten.
Indiana is two wins away from its first national championship in school history, becoming the first team to advance since first round bye the current 12-team playoff format. The first six bye teams, including the first two this season, failed to come back strong after an extra-long layoff, but the Hoosiers took care of business, improving to 25-2 under Cignetti.
Roman Hemby (1) of the Indiana Hoosiers runs with the ball in the fourth quarter against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals at Rose Bowl Stadium on January 1, 2026 in Pasadena, California. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
The Crimson Tide's second season under Kalen DeBoer ended in the same place as its last season under Nick Saban two years ago. Alabama passed a week after impressive road victory over Oklahomapassing for just 151 yards in the meaningless final minutes of this game.
Ty Simpson completed a 67-yard pass before backup Austin Mack replaced him in the third quarter. Mack immediately forced the Tide to drive 65 yards, leading to a short field goal, but the Hoosiers responded with two touchdowns.
Indiana dominated the famous Rose Bowl turf, which remained untouched despite nearly 24 hours of continuous rain before kickoff. The storms died down as the Hoosiers took a first-half lead and blue skies emerged in the second half.
After the first scoreless first quarter in a Rose Bowl in 26 years, Indiana's second drive stretched 84 yards and 16 plays over nearly nine minutes before Nicholas Radicic kicked a 31-yard field goal on the first snap of the second quarter.
Indiana's defense then stopped Alabama on fourth-and-1 at the Tide 34, and Mendoza, four plays later, threw a long, high pass to a leaping Becker for a 21-yard touchdown.
Simpson fumbled in Indiana territory after a gutsy first-down scramble late in the first half, and the Hoosiers methodically picked up Mendoza's 1-yard pass with 17 seconds left to Cooper, the hero of Indiana's dramatic win over Penn State.
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Indiana Hoosiers defensive end D'Angelo Ponds (5) forces a fumble on Alabama Crimson Tide defensive end Ty Simpson (15) after a hit in the second quarter of the College Football Playoff Rose Bowl at the Rose Bowl on Thursday, January 1, 2026, in Pasadena, California. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
After halftime, Mendoza had a solid 79-yard run that culminated with his 24-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Surratt.
The win is the latest step in a two-season turnaround for a program that had the most losing record in college football history before Cingetti took over. After winning 11 games and reaching the CFP last season, the Hoosiers advanced their schedule this fall before victory over the current national champion Ohio State captured the Big Ten title and moved into first place in the AP Top 25 rankings for the first time.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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