Disregard whispers of cheating. Indiana deserves to be here

An athletic director at one college this week was searching for any troubling ticket purchases that might signal another Connor Stalions-style advanced scouting operation. At another school, a program reviewed its headset communication protocols. Plenty of others across college athletics, from administrators to gossipy coaches, are comparing notes, anecdotes and conspiracy theories. Computer hacking? Military-grade listening devices? College football has paid Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers the ultimate compliment by digging into the question that was already being bantered about on social media. Are they cheating? No one is going on the record with their suspicions, and no one, it seems, has any evidence, nor even anything that might signal actual proof. No one even has a good angle to work. The aforementioned reviews yielded nothing. There are no threads to even pull here. Paranoia runs deep among the coaching ranks, though. Egos, too. This is a sport that abhors upstarts and casts a wary eye at newcomers. Historically, it has accepted success only by the same teams from the same places. The Hoosiers of Bloomington aren't one of them. They were once the losingest program in Power 4 football. Then they hired a coach with a background of Division II, FCS and Sun Belt football. They have promptly gone 27-2. That includes a 15-0 run this year heading into Monday's national championship game against Miami , where they are an 8.5-point betting favorite. Indiana isn't just good, it is dominant, winning its two playoff games over Alabama and Oregon by a combined 69 points. And so ... here comes the suspicion, the cynicism, the mistrust. Here come the crosshairs that are wholly unfair and incredibly flattering. Indiana should use both of them as further fuel -- part motivation, part confidence. "It's just wild how some of that stuff comes up," tight end Riley Nowakowski told "Big Ten This Morning" on Sirius/XM Wednesday. "But we'll take it. ... If people are saying you're cheating, then you're probably doing something pretty well." College athletics only tries to tear down what it fears, and Cignetti's team has inspired plenty of that. There have been a few close moments this year, namely at Penn State and against Ohio State in the Big Ten title game. The Hoosiers passed those tests though. They've mostly steamrolled everyone else. IU has outscored opponents 639 to 166. It has rung up over five times as many touchdowns as opponents (84-16) and nearly three times as many rushing yards (3,275-1,125). It has produced 30 turnovers, including two pick-sixes. The Hoosiers rank first in the country in third-down conversion percentage, first in red zone defense, fifth in penalties per game and second in penalty yards per game. We could go on. This is normally the sign of an exceptionally well-coached team. The 64-year-old Cignetti, a former Nick Saban assistant, is experienced and energized, a demanding and relentless coach focused on process and standards. He never cared that Indiana hadn't won before he got there. He coached from day...

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