Adedamola Ajani of the Indiana Hoosiers signs his autograph for a fan during media day activities prior to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship game between the Miami Hurricanes and the Indiana Hoosiers on January 17, 2026 in Miami Beach, Florida. The game is turning into a Hollywood proxy battle. Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment The screenwriter Angelo Pizzo was in an Uber from the Hard Rock Hotel to South Beach Sunday afternoon, on his way to a bar that would be swimming in Indiana University red. "It feels like we're taking over all of Miami," he mused as his car shot down Florida's Turnpike past Hard Rock Stadium. Pizzo, who wrote Rudy and Hoosiers, is the bard of Indiana sports movies - perhaps the bard of all sports movies. He sees in the college-football title game between long-neglected Indiana and once-great Miami a quintessential Hollywood tale. "We're the ultimate underdog story," said Pizzo, who lives in Bloomington. "The school nobody gave a chance to from the 'flyover' state against a powerhouse." Related Stories TV Shelved '60 Minutes' Segment on El Salvador Prison to Finally Air TV Trump Says He Will Sign Executive Order Giving Army-Navy Football Game an Exclusive TV Window On Monday night here, at the home of whatever is left of the Miami Dolphins, the Hoosiers will take on the Hurricanes in a game broadcast on ESPN and its slew of simulcasts. Never mind that Indiana is an 8.5-point favorite and hasn't lost a game all season. This is David vs. Goliath - or, in the movie Hoosiers terms, the college-football equivalent of tiny Hickory vs. mighty South Bend Central, only with 20 million more people watching. Around the city, you can feel the Indiana excitement. Miami anticipation you could already imagine, its 23-year-old quarterback Carson Beck (he was ten months from being born when the school last won a national title) looking to restore them to the greatness of five titles in 19 years. But the sight of swarms of people in Hoosier red marching down the South Florida streets, blowing whistles and taking over bars is another thing entirely. Even, perhaps, a Hollywood thing. Indiana football had never won a national championship - in fact it's been 34 years since it even won a bowl game. The team didn't have a single five-star recruit this season (Miami has two). And now, thanks to no-nonsense coach Curt Cignetti and QB transfer Fernando Mendoza, so overlooked he once had to commit to Yale, the program is one win away from the ultimate Hollywood ending. Yet standing in their way is a school with a Tinseltown pedigree of its own. The University of Miami has become a kind of factory for action-movie stars, with Dwayne Johnson, Sylvester Stallone and Ray Liotta all holding degrees from the school. In fact Johnson didn't just go to Miami but played on its 1991 national-championship football team. (He was a defensive tackle and a teammate of star offensive lineman and current coach Mario Cristobal.) For Johnson, this game is personal; he told Entertainment Tonight at the Golden Globes last week "I can't wait," adding that he was "so proud of Mario" and "so proud of my boys." Johnson is expected to be in attendance Monday night and possibly even on the field. The actor's presence will be felt regardless of where he is in the stadium. A $1 million donation a few years ago means the Hard Rock Stadium locker room is now branded as The "Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Locker Room," which might serve as a little bit of intimidation for IU players as they run past; who wants The Smashing Machine rooting against you? This is the puny underdogs against the musclebound action heroes, the working-class grinders vs. the well-oiled Ivan Dragos. In an era of big-time NIL money, when college football success is all about having the most flash and glam - Miami has a so-called "NIL King," the local mogul John Ruiz, who recently paid more than $20 million to players - Indiana remains a proletarian throwback, an evocation of time when college football success was more about work than money, however fleeting that image might be. (The donor money is starting to pour in.) Two of Florida's most famous part-time residents will even turn out to the game Monday, giving it an added cinematic weight, with both President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio expected to attend. And toss Stallone into the mix as someone with a stake in the outcome - he moved from Los Angeles to Palm Beach in 2024 and has lately been embracing his Florida side, saying the state "fits [his] personality better" than L.A. The University of Miami even already has some screen fame thanks to a hugely watched 30 for 30 about the program called The U back in 2009 and a sequel five years later. Packs of Hoo