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Indiana dominated Alabama 38-3 in the Rose Bowl on Thursday to send the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff semifinals.
It marked the lopsided postseason loss for the Crimson Tide in program history. It was also Alabama’s largest margin of defeat in any game since a 42-6 loss to Arkansas on September 26, 1998.
Indiana hadn’t won a bowl game since the 1991 Copper Bowl, but history has been no match for Curt Cignetti and his dominant Hoosiers in the coach’s two transcendent 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 a College Football Playoff quarterfinal 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 winning his school’s first Heisman Trophy.
Indiana scored the game’s first 24 points before tacking on fourth-quarter rushing TDs from Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby, capping a jubilant victory in the 112th edition of the “Granddaddy of Them All.”
Charlie Becker, Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt caught TD passes while Black rushed for 99 yards. Indiana outgained Alabama 407-193, steadily delighting a decidedly pro-Indiana crowd that celebrated its long-struggling team’s first Rose Bowl appearance since 1968 with chants of “Hoosier Daddy?” in the last minutes.
The Hoosiers head to the Peach Bowl on Jan. 9 for a CFP semifinal rematch with fifth-seeded Oregon, which dispatched Texas Tech 23-0 in the Orange Bowl earlier Thursday. Indiana beat No. 3 Ducks 30-20 in Eugene in October in one of Cignetti’s most impressive Big Ten victories.
Indiana is two wins away from the first national championship in school history after becoming the first team to advance after a first-round bye in the current 12-team playoff format. The first six bye teams – including the first two this season – couldn’t come back strong from an extra-long layoff, but the Hoosiers took care of business while improving to 25-2 under Cignetti.
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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 a College Football Playoff quarterfinal 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 finished in the same spot as its final season under Nick Saban two years ago. Alabama was outclassed a week after an impressive road win over Oklahoma, managing just 151 yards before the meaningless final minutes of that blowout.
Ty Simpson passed for 67 yards before backup Austin Mack replaced him in the third quarter. Mack immediately got the tide rolling on a 65-yard drive that led to a short field goal, but the Hoosiers responded with two touchdown drives.
Indiana dominated the famed Rose Bowl turf, which remained untouched despite nearly 24 hours of steady rain before kickoff. The storms dissipated as the Hoosiers took their lead in the first half, and blue skies appeared 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 Nicolas Radicic’s 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 fired a long, high pass to the leaping Becker four plays later 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 drove after Mendoza’s 1-yard TD pass with 17 seconds left to Cooper, the hero of Indiana’s dramatic win over Penn State.
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Indiana Hoosiers defensive back D’Angelo Ponds (5) forces a fumble by Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson (15) after a hit during the second quarter of the College Football Playoff Rose Bowl at the Rose Bowl, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in Pasadena, California. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
After halftime, Mendoza led a steady 79-yard drive that ended with his 24-yard TD pass to a leaping Sarratt.
The win is the latest step in the two-season turnaround of a program that had the most losses in college football history before Cignetti took over. After winning 11 games and reaching the CFP last season, the Hoosiers steamrolled through their schedule this fall before beating defending national champion Ohio State for the Big Ten title and rising to the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 for the first time.
