What should it take for a player or a coach to claim the top spot in their respective sports? At any given time, we rank them based on their achievements. For a quarterback, the stats should be backed by the eye test. For a head coach, though, winning the ultimate glory should do it. Not for Curt Cignetti, according to Josh Pate. The analyst took to his show to rank the top coaches, and the Indiana head coach didn’t get the top spot.

“Ryan Day is my number one head coach in the country right now. There is an 11-win season, a 14-win national title season, and a 12-win season over the past three years. He has averaged a top-five signing class, and they’ve had staff churn. I mean, losing the coordinators that they’ve lost and then backfilling the way they have—unbelievable,” he said on the February 23 episode of his podcast.

Pate built his rankings using four essential pillars. First, he prioritized on-field results, considering championship success. Second, he evaluated talent acquisition. Third, he looked at the culture and overall strength. Finally, he added a predictive element, focusing on which coaches are best positioned to dominate the sport’s future.

We’re not saying there isn’t a case to be made for Ryan Day. The Buckeye head coach has consistently recruited at the top of the board. Over the last three years, he had to see a number of his coaches leave. When Bill O’Brien left, he hired Chip Kelly as his OC from UCLA. Together, they won the national championship with Jim Knowles as the DC. At the end of the season, both Kelly and Knowles left.

Day reacted by promoting Brian Hartline to the OC position and hiring Matt Patricia to coach the defense. The team just carried on seamlessly, as if they hadn’t lost two key coordinators. At the end of the 2025 season, the head coach again lost his OC. But everyone in college football knows that when the Buckeyes take to the field next time, they’ll be far more prepared than their opponents. Pate believes Day has silenced critics who doubted his ability to win “the big one” by maintaining a “gold standard” organization.

However, the issue with Ryan Day’s No. 1 ranking isn’t that he isn’t a good leader. No one would have doubted it had the question been asked last season. But Indiana’s run to the national championship was a rare achievement. It’s hard to draw historical parallels for what Cignetti achieved at Bloomington. Not only did Pate ignore the Hoosiers’ head coach for the top spot, but he also ranked him third after Kirby Smart and Ryan Day.

Curt Cignetti deserves the top spot

The discourse around Indiana changed in the playoffs. For over two years, analysts like Paul Finebaum were calling the Hoosiers’ success a fluke. Even the B1G Championship game win over the Buckeyes was a close encounter. However, it all shifted when they played and dismantled Alabama in a game that looked like men were playing against boys. Then they did the same to Oregon before beating Miami to win their first-ever national championship.

In just two years, Curt Cignetti has turned the sport upside down, finishing a perfect 16-0 season and proving he belongs at the very top. Experts are now split on who is actually number one. Joel Klatt recently stated that Curt Cignetti is the best head coach in the sport, period. He argued that this isn’t just an opinion anymore; it’s a fact based on what Cignetti has actually done on the field. With a 27-2 record over two seasons and a nearly perfect 17-1 record in conference play, Cignetti has shown that his success at smaller schools like IUP, Elon, and James Madison was just the beginning.

And if you hear Josh Pate, he lists all these things. Two playoff appearances for a team that had a combined nine wins over three seasons before Cignetti. Pate credits him for building an A+ culture and organizational structure. He also mentions Cignetti’s victories over Dan Lanning and Ryan Day. But that wasn’t enough for the top spot.