Nate Feltman: Roots of championship run begin at IU president’s desk

Hoosier fans and the entire sports world have just witnessed one of the most remarkable championship runs in the history of sports. Much has been and will be written about how Indiana University engineered a football national championship after more than a century of mostly losing seasons. Naturally, coach Curt Cignetti and the football players will get the credit for the historic turnaround that ended in an undefeated season and Indiana University’s first football national championship.

But the roots of Indiana’s national championship run deeper. Indiana’s football success over the past two years and a national championship do not happen without Indiana University President Pam Whitten’s leadership, plain and simple.

Whitten previously served as provost at the University of Georgia and witnessed firsthand how a winning football program can uplift an entire university. She embraced a student-first approach, knowing that collegiate athletics can help drive student engagement and super-charge the student experience. Immediately upon her arrival at Indiana University five years ago, she began prioritizing and investing in the football program. She developed a plan with Athletic Director Scott Dolson that included dedicating the necessary resources to compete.

Appearing on the set of “The Pat McAfee Show” on national championship game day in Miami, Whitten recounted meeting with Dolson soon after her arrival. She recalled her exact words to him: “We can’t treat football like an intramural sport anymore. Let’s get serious about it.”

Building a successful football program fit squarely in her long-term strategic priorities that she developed as part of her IU 2030 strategy, which includes three pillars: student success, transformational research and service to the state and beyond. She understood that success on the field could and would uplift the school’s efforts in all three of these areas. With the largest living alumni base in the country, raising money from a fanbase that just experienced the unthinkable just got a little easier.

Whitten understood the changing landscape of college sports and that football revenue (and football success) was the key to unlocking a successful overall university athletics program. Today, college football revenue makes up 75%-80% of a university’s athletic department budget. Whitten also recognized that the rules of the road had changed for college football due to the transfer portal and the ability of collegiate athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, or NIL. This new landscape provided Whitten and her team an opportunity to leapfrog the traditional route to building a football powerhouse.

Indiana moved more aggressively than most in forming one of the nation’s early NIL collectives with the help of Indiana business leader Pete Yonkman, president of Bloomington-based Cook Medical. Thousands of donors began to support IU athletics in a new and more direct way. This early fundraising success helped set the stage for hiring Cignetti, who would bring over a dozen of his experienced players from James Madison University. Whitten had laid the groundwork for portal and NIL success.

She is quick to give credit to others. But those closest to the program know that without Pam Whitten’s leadership and commitment to football, Indiana University would not be national champions.

Cignetti summed up the point at the post-game press conference following the national championship game: “I know Indiana’s football history has been pretty poor, with some good years sprinkled in there. It was because there wasn’t an emphasis on football, plain and simple. … We’ve got a president who comes from the South who loves football.”•

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Feltman is CEO of IBJ Media and publisher of IBJ.