A FRIGID NIGHT IN SOUTH BEND TAPS NEW THRILLS, AS TOUCHDOWN JESUS DANCES

Campus playoffs launch a month of unprecedented action, allowing college football to take over sports — why did Curt Cignetti punt? — with outcomes that could lead Oregon or Notre Dame to a title

Touchdown Jesus stuck in a polar freeze? Nick Saban wearing earmuffs and a hunter’s hat? What took so long to play a postseason game on the 20th of December, beyond the deep-pocketed concept of “college” being detached from football? In the newfangled era of NIL compensation and transfer portals, why wouldn’t Notre Dame delay final exams so kids could stand near snow and wave signs insulting Indiana?

“Rudy Would Have Started at IU,” said one, referring to the Fighting Irish walk-on, just five nights before Christmas.

“We want Georgia!” they chanted at enemy coach Kirby Smart during an interview.

What we have, finally, are four games this weekend that make the sport feel bigger than the regular-season NFL. Anyone complaining about changes — once-dirty rules are legal — should mope about the Supreme Court’s unanimous take on life and insert himself in the previous century. Never mind the health of young men and academics and thoughts about warm and sunny bowl climates. That was COLLEGE football, which wasn’t about billions in all directions.

This is football, with Kirk Herbstreit in a beanie, as Notre Dame advanced to the final eight in a 12-team field with a 27-17 victory over the Hoosiers. If we Google the Indiana coach, Curt Cignetti, he lost the first fresh playoff game ever. Meanwhile, the Irish try to win a national title for the first time since 1988.

Too bad Cignetti didn’t fight when he still had a chance. Before the game, he said on ESPN, “We don’t just beat Top 25 teams, we beat the s— out of them.” This was the bold way he coached all year. Surprisingly, he punted in the fourth quarter when trailing 20-3. What happened to the Cig Ten?

“I’m very surprised,” said play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough, calling it a “head-scratcher.”

“I don’t understand,” analyst Greg McElroy said.

Indiana scored twice in the final minutes. Um, don’t Google Cignetti after all.

“I didn’t want to punt. We were doing nothing on offense,” he said. “We had nothing to base it on to convert on fourth down.”

The students and persistent Domers packed the stadium, on a campus normally cold and lonely. Games would fall off a perceptive cliff in early December, after the conference championships and Heisman Trophy ceremony, and didn’t reawaken until most of us were locked into the January-primed NFL. Using campuses for first-round games — before the remainder of the schedule is played in regular sites — unwrapped the dogged thrill of the playoffs. Suddenly, we have Bill Belichick at North Carolina and a sense of ultimate glory meaning more. Picking four semifinalists, normally from the same pack of eight, no longer was enough. The final game won’t be played until Jan. 20, Inauguration Day in America.

“It’s crazy, this is such a special place,” quarterback Riley Leonard said. “This is why you come to play here.”

Prepare for Saturday games — two are in chilled places, State College and Columbus, with another in Austin — and anticipate a thrilling month. Oregon is the favorite, though anyone rallying a certain winner is a fool. We can complain about Boise State landing a bye week and Alabama being ousted for SMU, but those concerns beat the usual blather about Saban and Smart extending annual runs on top. Notre Dame, for one, might have the running game and defense to take a long ride, after handing coach Marcus Freeman a long-term extension that pays him among the top coaches. Not bad for a guy who lost a home game to Northern Illinois in early September. The rhythms tend to blur in 2024, when the NFL lured 38.5 million viewers for its first-round playoff games and hopes to keep colleges in lower TV territory. Roger Goodell counters with Chiefs-Texans and Steelers-Ravens, gulp. Still, people will watch great fun, regardless of status.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that we’re keeping our foot on the gas. Winning national championships is a priority,’’ said athletic director Pete Bevacqua, who arrived in South Bend after running NBC Sports. “I said this to Marcus and we both were laughing. We’re both kind of maniacally obsessed with winning a national championship.”

Said Leonard, who broke a school record with his 15th rushing touchdown: “The hardest thing throughout this whole process has probably been finals here at Notre Dame because that’s no joke. Otherwise, it’s like a couple of bye weeks for us. We handle it the same way. Practice has been the same, the same recipe for success.”

Cignetti became the star of the season after leading the Hoosiers, who’ve lost an all-time record of 714 games, to 11 wins. His defense couldn’t keep up with running back Jeremiyah Love, who rushed 98 yards for a touchdown when no one touched him past the scrimmage line. Cignetti showed up in Bloomington and said, “I’ve never taken a back seat to anybody and don't plan on starting now. Purdue sucks! But so does Michigan and Ohio State! Go IU!” He said nothing about Notre Dame.

Even before the game, which included temperatures in the 20s and winds of 11 mph, Cignetti pointed to Kurtis Rourke. “I hope it snows a foot and a half. We have a Canadian quarterback,” he said. “This guy grew up like in the frigid north.” He made mistakes and looked cold. Some were calling this one of the biggest games in Indiana history, but race drivers, Reggie Miller, Bob Knight and the 1954 Milan High team disagreed.

The Irish won their 960th game ever. Next comes a Jan. 1 clash in the Sugar Bowl against Smart and Georgia, which might not have quarterback Carson Beck. If the Irish win, they might play Penn State. "I've never been part of an environment like that," Freeman said. "Not many times in life you're the first to do something, and as I told the (team) in there, we were the first to win and play a playoff game in Notre Dame Stadium. That's historic. Something we'll cherish for the rest of our lives."

That’s why Touchdown Jesus was doing a funky dance, frostbitten but three victories away. Before long, Notre Dame will be joined by a big fan, Timothee Chalamet, who eventually might need more than Bob Dylan in his life.

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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.