SOUTH BEND and BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- In the main thoroughfare area of the Indianapolis airport, there is a large sign reminding travelers in all caps:

The state that recently hosted the men's Final Four and prides itself on its rich basketball history and tradition feels a little ... different these days. The IU men's basketball team missed the NCAA tournament for the third straight season and has advanced past the first round just once in a decade. The Notre Dame men's basketball team didn't even qualify for the ACC tournament after winning just four games in conference play.

But as you exit toward baggage claim, there's a can't-miss, floor-to-ceiling advertisement for Indiana football, with the IU logo and a NATIONAL CHAMPIONS sign next to a picture of receiver Charlie Becker and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, their hands locked in a celebration.

"Nowadays you've got to be good in football," Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said. "I'd like to think we're a football state now."

There's certainly evidence of it in a three-hour radius of Indianapolis, as both the Hoosiers and Notre Dame have become an unlikely duo of blue blood and new blood with a common goal of competing for the national title (again) this fall. Their head coaches have starkly different personalities (one is modeling Louis Vuitton Men's in the most recent Esquire magazine, the other is covering what not to wear -- gold cleats -- at practice). They have different recruiting strategies (Indiana recruits a four-hour radius; Notre Dame recruits nationally). Indiana has one national title in football; Notre Dame has 11.

The Irish won 10 straight games last year to rebound from an 0-2 start but missed the 12-team College Football Playoff a year after playing for the national title. Indiana, which lost to Notre Dame in the first round of the 2024 CFP, won the school's first national title in football -- fittingly 50 years after former IU basketball coach Bob Knight went 32-0 to win it all.

"Sometimes you've got to sit back and think what Cignetti did," Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. "I mean, it's absolutely amazing ... and they did it at Indiana, which many people didn't view as a football school until the last two years. I think it's awesome, I do. It's awesome for college football as a fan -- not as the head coach of Notre Dame. More teams can win it than you probably think going into a season."

ESPN visited both campuses this spring to better understand what they're doing to be one of those teams this fall.

Curt Cignetti and Marcus Freeman. AP Photo

WHEN CIGNETTI MOVED into his office in 2024, the priority was finding the right spot for his film projector. He wanted the screen to drop down smack in front of his face right over his desk, but some staff members politely pointed out it would block his stunning view of the Memorial Stadium field and the daylight that came with it.

So the projector was installed in the ceiling to the left of his desk, and the screen takes up most of the wall next to his door.

On this particular April day, the image frozen on the screen was the scoreboard at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with 11:41 left in the fourth quarter of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: IU 42, Oregon 15. The Hoosiers had the ball on the 3-yard line at third-and-3.

"He's always watching film," redshirt senior left tackle Carter Smith said. "He's always dissecting the next game plan. He's fanatical about it."

As one of the many disciples of former Alabama coach Nick Saban, Cignetti is as process-driven as they come. His father, Frank Cignetti, hired Saban while Frank was head coach at West Virginia. Saban then hired the younger Cignetti as his wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator during his first season at Alabama. Cignetti helped lure in the nation's No. 1 recruiting class in 2008 and the Crimson Tide went 12-2, followed by an undefeated national championship season in 2009.

"We've got a way of doing things," Cignetti said. "How you do something is how you do everything. Consistency, performance is the key to the drill. So right now we're teaching guys not only scheme, but standards, expectations, and how we want to play the game between the white lines, and I see us making progress."

With nearly 40 freshmen and transfers, these Hoosiers look significantly different from the group that went 16-0, but winning the national championship hasn't changed anything about Cignetti's blueprint. It only codified it. Practices are short and efficient -- usually about 90 minutes, never longer than two hours -- and are still run without music and without a clock. There's no need for the players to know how much time is left in each period -- it's in Cignetti's head -- and he doesn't want them determining their effort based on how much time might be left.

"For Cig, everything has to be the exact same," Becker said. "I don't think he's gotten a different Chipotle order since he's been here. It's unbelievable. Like, it's the same thing every single day. He gets here before everybody and leaves after everybody. He watches so much film. He has his schedule and that's the way it's going to go no matter what happens."

The process is so ingrained into his players' heads that even after beating Miami to win the national championship, they were all ready to play the next opponent.

"It was almost weird after the national championship," linebacker Isaiah Jones said. "Like, what's next? We don't know what to do now. There's no one else. We've got a team that's so eager to get onto the next opponent and not just linger on past victories."

The next opponent is now Sept. 5 against North Texas. The defending national champions open with four straight home games, and the only Power 4 opponent is Sept. 26 against Northwestern. On paper, the Hoosiers should be undefeated heading into their Oct. 17 home game against Ohio State.

"I can tell you guys in our locker room aren't thinking about winning a national championship," Jones said. "We're thinking about winning the day, stacking three practices this week ... we can't be looking all the way to Jan. 27 now. It's tonight. What can I do tonight? Heal my body. Rest. Hydrate. Friday film. Keep stacking days like that."

Cignetti told both of his bosses -- athletic director Scott Dolson and IU president Pamela Whitten -- to turn down all external requests and speaking engagements so he could continue to focus on football.

"I'm 95% football," Cignetti said. "We've said no to everything except for the Indy 500."

(Cignetti, who will drive the honorary pace car for the 110th Indianapolis 500, is doing a test drive on April 30.)

"I've got to be able to do my job," he said. "These things pull you out of the office and they take up your time. I mean, I have a job to do. Believe it or not, I'm busy."

Film study is how Cignetti said he zeroed in on TCU transfer quarterback Josh Hoover. Cignetti had 18 days before IU played Alabama, which gave him a window to evaluate transfer portal quarterbacks. Cignetti said he spent a lot of time looking at "four or five of them."