Metaphorically speaking, Indiana football has walked on the moon this season. Defying all odds against them, the Hoosiers have started 2025 14-0 and won the Big Ten title and Rose Bowl in one of North American sports' great storybook campaigns.
It's the kind of accomplishment that merits purple prose and upper-class adulation—and billionaire businessman Mark Cuban is providing the latter. On Wednesday, Cuban indicated to Alex Schiffer of Front Office Sports that he had upped his donation to Indiana's athletic department; the Hoosier alum donated to the athletic department for the first time last year.
“Already committed for this portal," Cuban told Schiffer. “Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year."
Indiana has, accordingly, enjoyed a fertile transfer cycle. The Hoosiers landed one of the top quarterbacks in the portal in Josh Hoover—a four-year veteran of TCU—along with highly touted Michigan State wide receiver Nick Marsh. Each of the team's previous two starting quarterbacks—Kurtis Rourke and Fernando Mendoza—finished in the Heisman Top 10, with Mendoza winning the award in '25.
Cuban graduated from Indiana's Kelley School of Business in 1981, having transferred from Pittsburgh. Like Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti, Cuban is a Pittsburgh native.
Cignetti and Indiana will lock horns with Oregon in the Peach Bowl Friday, with both schools eyeing their first-ever national championship.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mark Cuban Says He Upped Donation to Indiana Athletic Department Amid Football Run.
