McClelland takes swipe at Indiana despite Hoosiers' recent national title

August 7, 2026 - 01:23

New Purdue athletic director Tommy McClelland made some headlines with a comment that seems to have overlooked a pretty big recent event in college sports. During his introductory remarks, McClelland said, "we are here to win championships. If you don't want to win championships, go to Indiana."

The problem? Indiana just won the College Football Playoff national championship back in January. That is not ancient history. It is the most recent title in the sport, and it belongs to the Hoosiers. So for McClelland to use Indiana as the punchline for a lack of ambition is, at best, poorly timed and, at worst, a complete miss on the current state of the rivalry.

McClelland's point was probably to fire up the Purdue fan base and set a high bar for his own programs. That is fine. Every new AD wants to sound aggressive and hungry. But you cannot just pretend the other school in the state did not just win the biggest trophy in college football. That is not a small detail. It is the defining fact of the last season.

Purdue has its own proud history, especially in basketball, but football has been a struggle for a while. The Boilermakers went 1-11 last year. So throwing shade at a team that just went 14-1 and won it all is a risky move. It might rally the faithful, but it also gives the Hoosiers a lot of bulletin board material for the next meeting between the two programs.

McClelland will have to back up his words with results. Right now, the only championship trophy in the state sits in Bloomington, not West Lafayette. If he wants to talk about winning, he should probably first acknowledge what the competition has already done. Otherwise, it just sounds like he is not paying attention.