Indiana Hoosiers head coach and former Nick Saban assistant Curt Cignetti made some headlines last week at Big Ten Media Days when he took some shots at the SEC, something he has made a habit of in the past.

Despite that though, Cignetti — who has often poked at the way the SEC schedules non-conference opponents — and the Hoosiers requested to get out of their upcoming home and home series with in-state rival Notre Dame.

Source confirms to @On3 that the Notre Dame-Indiana home-and-home scheduled for 2030/2031 is being canceled.https://t.co/665f8DYOyU https://t.co/pqvpNTUsag pic.twitter.com/o0gOEtcrKl

— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos) August 3, 2026

“The Indiana-Notre Dame series set for 2030/31 has been called off, according to sources. Indiana made the request to cancel, per a source. Notre Dame will be playing USC in both seasons,” reported Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.

It’s not hard to understand why Indiana would want out of this series. The Big Ten and SEC keep separating from the rest of college football, and in the 12-team playoff era, a 10-2 record in either conference is likely enough to make the field.

But it’s worth pointing out the problem with that logic: Cignetti and the Big Ten have spent the last couple of years taking shots at the SEC over its scheduling, accusing the conference of padding records and avoiding real competition. So when Cignetti’s program cancels a marquee non-conference series against a ranked opponent — a week after he criticized the SEC for doing much the same thing — it’s hard to call that anything other than hypocritical.

Regardless, it’s going to be a fun next couple of years of the budding rivalry between the SEC and Big 10 conferences.