Curt Cignetti Has Shifted Indiana's Recruiting Pace

Under Cignetti, Indiana has earned more pre-July commitments than it earned in Tom Allen's final five recruiting classes.

As I write this on the morning of June 30, Indiana is tied for 23rd nationally in number of commitments to its 2026 recruiting class, with 19, tied with Ohio State, Miami, SMU, and Kansas.

Number of commitments doesn’t necessarily mean a quality class, as South Florida leads the FBS with 32 commitments and is ranked 45th, and, in fact, Indiana is ranked lower than all of those other classes with 19 commitments currently (32nd). But it does indicate a change in the way IU recruits, which is a very significant change brought by Curt Cignetti – one that should’ve happened years ago.

In Cignetti’s first two full recruiting cycles at Indiana he has earned 36 commitments before July 1 — a good measure for pre-Dead Period commitments (read more on the Dead Period here) — which is more than Allen’s final five recruiting classes combined (35) and 68% of all pre-July commitments Allen received during his tenure.

The chart below shows commitment rates during three windows of time – 1.) since the beginning of the December Early Signing Period (2017), 2.) during the Tom Allen Era, and 3.) during the short Curt Cignetti Era. For the purpose of this exercise, I credited the 2017 class to Kevin Wilson and the 2024 class to Allen, even though the new coaches technically signed those classes. We’re discussing full-cycle efforts, so that seemed appropriate.

Note: June 3 is the date used for the blue bar because I wrote this summer about the number of commitments Cignetti and his staff had earned by that date (read here).

Another Note: I’ve projected Indiana’s 2026 class to eventually be around 25 signings.