After Indiana, who could be college football's next first-time national champion - ESPN

Indiana's 2025 national title was jarring in about 100 different ways. That the losingest major program in the sport could win it all meant that in this new era of college football, possibilities are endless for a program that can hire well and invest properly.

Sure, it helps quite a bit if you're in one of the nation's two richest conferences. And it certainly doesn't hurt to have a spectacularly huge alumni base just waiting to be inspired enough to spend lots of money, as Indiana's evidently was. For all of the extreme losses in the Hoosiers' history, there was a sleeping giant element here that not too many other programs can match.

Still, when Curt Cignetti lifted the national title trophy and cracked a beer, it signaled a moment of hope for a number of programs. College football's ruling class is a pretty exclusive party, and the Hoosiers were the first first-time national champs since Steve Spurrier's 1996 Florida barged through the door almost three decades earlier.

There's nothing saying we're going to have a flood of first-time titles moving forward, but it's fair to wonder what school might next join the exclusive Champions Club. Looking at a variety of metrics — historical poll finishes, recent SP+ rankings and averages (and recent max ratings, which can tell us about ceilings), Adam Rittenberg's most recent Future Power Rankings for power-conference teams, and revenue data from the last relevant fiscal year, posted by USA Today — let's take a stab at who's most likely to break through.

The first team on the list is extremely obvious. Things get interesting after that.

(Note: There are lots of ways to suss out who does or doesn't have a ring in college football. It can make you crazy, so I'm going to keep