I'm not sure there are many places other than IU he could have gone and done this. What sort of brings this on is the thought we all have of "why not us?" For us it's timing. But also think about the absolute rage we would have as a fanbase if we had hired JMU's head coach. All the "We're so small time" crowd would be post-coital. Luckily, or unluckily, we were never an option simply because of timing.

Just looking at what jobs were open in the 2024 carousel. There were 5 jobs in the B1G that year alone, but I think only MSU was another viable alternative to IU. If I'm a Spartan fan, I'm way more upset. SEC jobs, Alabama was open but there's no way on earth Alabama his hiring Cignetti, unless their AD has a time machine. Yes, I know he was on Saban's staff... they were only ever going to hire a top-shelf guy, and the guy they selected had just played in the national title game. Maybe Mississippi State? That feels like it could have been a viable option. That's a fan base that supports their team despite no real reason to do so. Then you look at ACC and Big 12 jobs, I have to imagine at Cignetti's age he didn't want to go to an ACC school. He's a smart guy, he can read the tea leaves on the ACC being flawed. Maybe if he's in his early 50s and has one more move in him, but in his mid-60s if he was gonna do this, it really had to be B1G or SEC, with maybe a Big 12 move. Realistically he needed a flawed Big Ten or SEC school for his last stop. Realistically I think we're talking about this crazy story that will end up a movie being set in Bloomington, East Lansing, or Starkville.