The 2026 NCAA Tournament started in March. It ended in April. It belonged to Dusty May. Michigan completed the journey and stopped the UConn dynasty to win the 2026 national championship in men’s college basketball. This is Michigan’s second national title, its first since 1989. Dusty May has how fully earned all the comparisons connected to Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti. Let’s share the parallels between the best coaches in their respective college sports:
Year 1
Dusty May and Curt Cignetti finished between ninth and 16th in their sport in Year 1. Cignetti’s Indiana football team was a No. 10 seed which lost in the first round (pre-quarterfinals) of the 12-team College Football Playoff. May’s Year 1 Michigan team reached the Sweet 16 and lost to Auburn.
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Year 2
Curt Cignetti and Dusty May both went from good to great in Year 2, winning the national championship at their respective programs.
Total overhaul
2023 Indiana football, in the final season before Cignetti’s arrival, went 3-9, a .250 winning percentage.
2024 Michigan basketball, in the final season before May’s arrival, went 8-24, a .250 winning percentage.
Key transfers
Indiana under Cignetti and Michigan under May both grabbed quality transfers who were acknowledged as very good players, but not necessarily superstars. Yaxel Lendeborg was very good at UAB, but Dusty May unlocked a whole new level of production from him at Michigan. Similarly, Fernando Mendoza was viewed as a very good quarterback at Cal, but Cignetti transformed him into a Heisman Trophy winner and national champion, something the vast majority of pundits did not expect going into the 2025 college football season.
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Michigan basketball and Indiana football
Both Michigan hoops and Indiana football spent competitively in the transfer portal, but they were not the very biggest spenders — not even close. Other programs spent more, but UM and IU simply spent money wisely and created great roster fits with depth and versatility.
Indiana adversity
Indiana was without two of its best defensive linemen in the College Football Playoff due to injury, and it still won it all.
Michigan’s uncertainty
Yaxel Lendeborg’s injuries rendered him less than fully effective in the national title game against UConn. Yet, Michigan was still able to grind out a win despite scoring under 70 points. Both Indiana football and Michigan basketball had to deal with notable hardships on their championship paths.
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Indiana football before the national championship game
Indiana crushed Alabama by 35 in the Rose Bowl, the CFP quarterfinals, and beat Oregon by a similarly large margin in the Peach Bowl semifinal round.
Michigan basketball before the title game
Michigan won all five NCAA Tournament games before the national championship game by double-digit margins, scoring at least 90 points in each game. Michigan basketball was every bit the steamroller Indiana football was in the postseason rounds before the national title game.
Similar national championship games
Indiana football and Michigan basketball had very similar championship games. They outplayed the opposition most of the game but could not fully pull away and had to sweat it out late. Indiana took a strong punch from Miami and survived to win by six points, 27-21. Michigan fought UConn in a true battle but managed to win by six points, 69-63. Both teams were tested but prevailed by the same number of points.
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Mid-major success
Curt Cignetti and Dusty May are also linked in their mid-major success before arriving in the Big Ten. Cignetti won at James Madison while Dusty May won at Florida Atlantic.
Best of the best
Without question, Curt Cignetti and Dusty May did the best coaching jobs in their sports this season. They both beat hot coaches — Dan Lanning of Oregon and Tommy Lloyd of Arizona — in the semifinal round before prevailing in national championship games. Indiana won the title game in Miami’s home stadium. Michigan won its title game against a true college basketball dynasty from UConn.
Curt Cignetti and Dusty May are both national champions, and yet the similarities between them and their teams’ runs to glory go far beyond the trophies themselves.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: Dusty May and Curt Cignetti followed similar paths to national titles
