McClelland takes swipe at Indiana despite Hoosiers' recent national title - ESPN

New Purdue athletic director Tommy McClelland took a jab at rival Indiana during his introductory news conference Thursday, declaring, "If you don't want to win championships, go to Indiana."
The remark is striking given that Indiana captured college football's national championship only months earlier, finishing a perfect 16-0, while Purdue hasn't won an NCAA title in any sport since its women's golf team in 2010.
Under coach Curt Cignetti, the Hoosiers have gone 27-2 over the past two seasons, including a 56-3 rout of Purdue to close the regular season and a 66-0 win in 2024 that helped clinch a playoff spot.
Purdue's last Big Ten victory came at the end of the 2023 season with a 35-31 win over Indiana, after which the Hoosiers fired Tom Allen and hired Cignetti, who once quipped at a basketball game that "Purdue sucks! But so does Michigan and Ohio State."
Indiana has since beaten all three of those programs, including Ohio State in last year's Big Ten championship game, cementing a stark gap in the in-state rivalry.
McClelland, who previously served as athletic director at Rice, insisted "the future of Purdue athletics is incredibly bright," noting the Boilermakers reached the 2024 men's basketball national championship game, where they lost to UConn.