What to watch as Indiana and Miami face off for college football's championship

Geoff Bennett:

This Monday, Miami and Indiana will fight it out for the college football national championship. It's a title game almost no one saw coming, featuring a punching bag turned unlikely powerhouse in the undefeated Hoosiers and a Miami Hurricanes team hoping to reclaim its former glory in front of its hometown fans.

Meantime, off the field, college football itself is facing enormous change, as star players and coaches now regularly swap teams and schools, shell out tens of millions of dollars to athletes directly.

To break down the storylines heading into Monday's matchup, we're joined now by Ralph Russo, senior college sports writer at "The Athletic."

Thanks for being with us.

Ralph Russo, Senior Writer, "The Athletic": You're very welcome. Good to be here.

Geoff Bennett:

So let's start with the storyline of the season, the meteoric rise of Indiana football. In just two years, this team has transformed from an afterthought to a juggernaut. How did it happen?

Ralph Russo:

Yes.

And to put it in perspective, coming into the season, Indiana, in its history, had lost 715 college football games. That's more than any other major college football program has ever lost. It was the losingest program in the history of major college football. Two years into Coach Curt Cignetti tenure, at the end of this season, they still have 715 losses.

They are undefeated. It's been a remarkable turnaround. As you said, they historically have been a punching bag in the Big Ten for schools like Ohio State. And this season, they beat Ohio State to win the Big Ten championship, blew out Alabama in the playoff, blew out Oregon in the playoff, and now stand one game away from maybe the most unlikely national title in the history of college football.

Geoff Bennett:

And on the other side of the field, we have got the University of Miami, a team that won five national championships between 1983 and 2001, but hasn't made it to the championship in more than two decades?

What should we know about Miami?

Ralph Russo:

Yes, in many ways, Miami has the legacy, but has been off the national stage for about 20 years. And -- but, in some ways, their recent rise is somewhat similar to Indiana.

As you said, players can be paid now. They can move around through the transfer portal as much as they like. So that's helped Miami construct a roster, along with the hiring of a former Miami a former Miami offensive lineman, Mario Cristobal, who was there during the glory days, now is the coach.

And between recruiting and bringing in some high-level transfers like Carson Beck, the quarterback from Georgia, the seventh-year quarterback from Georgia, again, much like Indiana, they have reconstructed their roster through the modern means, paying players, grabbing transfers.

And now they're on the verge of possibly a sixth national championship, but their first in more than 25 years, again, this reemergence of The U.

Geoff Bennett:

Let's talk about this period of transition for college football. As you mentioned, players can move from team to team. Some are paid millions of dollars now.

You recently called it a messy and at times excruciating evolution. What do you see as the pros and cons?

Ralph Russo:

So I do think the product in many ways on the field -- and it should be viewed as a product because it is worth billions and has fueled a billion-dollar operation that has been used to become major college football.

The product on the field is about as good as it's been, because schools like Indiana and Miami can change their fortunes. The talent is spread a little more thin and widely across the country, brings a certain level of parity. And I think that unpredictability has created in some ways a more exciting game on the field, while, off the field, there's a ton of stress.

The college sports leaders have been practically begging Congress to pass a law to help them regulate their sport. Right now, every time the NCAA or a conference tries to make a rule, inevitably, a judge shoots it down as an antitrust violation. So it's a tumultuous time off the field.

Exactly where all this is heading is hard to determine. And it seems a little lawless, the environment off the field in college sports. But, again, the irony is, I don't know if college football itself, the product on the field has ever been more healthy and exciting. And certainly the TV ratings and attendance at games backs that up.

Geoff Bennett:

Let's shift our focus in the time that remains to the other big story in college sports. And that's yesterday's indictment charging 26 people with allegedly fixing college basketball games.

What do we know about the allegations and what might this mean for the NCAA?

Ralph Russo:

So, what happened here was, basically, some folks who were looking to make a little extra money targeted players at smaller schools, not necessarily the North Carolinas and the Kentuckys and the powerhouses that we often see playing on national TV, but smaller programs, often struggling teams, players that necessarily don't make a whole lot of money, if any, through NIL.

And they were targeted to manipulate their performance to fix games, right, throw games, maybe throw the first half of a game. And huge bets were placed on these games. And I think, from the NCAA's point of view, they don't necessarily look at this as an NCAA problem.

They're trying their best to educate their athletes and they have -- they work with all these monitoring agencies to discover any discrepancies or possible nefarious behavior. But where they turn is to the system that has created, again, pervasive gambling, made it super easy to access for a lot of folks, and also the nature of the bets, bets where players can benefit from their own underperformance is the best way it's described.

Geoff Bennett:

Ralph Russo of "The Athletic," thanks again for joining us. We appreciate it.

Ralph Russo:

Thank you.