This story is part of FanSided’s Fandoms of the Year, a series spotlighting the teams, athletes and cultures that defined sports fandom in 2025.
Indiana didn't win a championship in any major professional sport this year, although the Hoosiers football team may have the chance to change that early in 2026. But a largely trophy-less season isn't a failure by any means. Across the state, teams — men's, women's, basketball, football, pro, college and amateur — gave fans plenty of reasons to cheer. Here are the brightest bright spots from what was an incredible year for Indiana sports, and why their teams earned a spot as one of our fandoms of the year.
The Pacers come up one win short
"In 49 other states, it's just basketball. But this is Indiana."
That may be true, but those 49 other states have won 78 NBA Championships combined, while the Pacers are still looking for their first. And 2025 brought them as close as they've ever been.
They knocked out Giannis and the Bucks in the first round, for the second year in a row. They pulled off a gentleman's sweep of the Cavs, who came into the playoffs with the No. 1 seed and finished 14 games ahead of Indiana in the regular season standings. They beat New York in six games, exorcizing demons and ensuring that they would haunt the dreams of a new generation of Knick fans. Then they pushed the dominant Thunder to seven games in the Finals.
Tyrese Haliburton hit four unbelievable buzzer beaters to win or tie games during that postseason run, placing himself beside Reggie Miller in franchise mythology. If he hadn't torn his Achilles in Game 7 against the Thunder, who knows how it all would have ended. I've been a Pacers fan for more than three decades and, by any measure — results, magic, joy — this was the greatest season I've ever seen. Collectively, we shed cautious pragmatism and embraced reckless optimism, a decidedly un-midwestern mindset that doesn't seem to be fading.
This new season feels like a gap year, while we all wait for Haliburton to get healthy. But while we're waiting, Bennedict Mathurin is taking the leap, plus a potential top-three pick in a historically good draft is waiting. 2025 was a banner year for the Pacers, and 2026 could be even better. — Ian Levy
Indiana Hoosiers are on top of the world
How does one put the Indiana Hoosiers 2025-26 football season into perspective? Indiana is the losing-est football program in major college football. That’s 139 seasons of mediocrity with a winning record a measly 21 times. Now, they’re undefeated Big Ten Champions and the No. 1 seed going into the College Football Playoff with the Heisman Trophy winner leading the charge. Coming off a 3-9 season in 2023, no one — no one — in or outside the state of Indiana would have predicted this.
But let’s put to the side the fact that Indiana is in the middle of perhaps the most shocking turnaround in college football history. Their 2025 season has been exceptional even against the best that powerhouses like Georgia, Ohio State and Alabama have managed this century. They’re one of only six teams since 2007 with an FEI rating of 1.70 or better. (The Fremeau Efficiency Index measures a team’s efficiency while adjusting for opponent, garbage time, field position and more. Basically, it’s a measure of how good a team really is.) They’ve outscored opponents by an average of 31.1 points. They’ve allowed more than 20 points just three times. They’ve played and beaten two other playoff teams.
And even if the Hoosiers weren’t one of the most impressive teams of the century on paper, they’re on one of the most magical rides college football has ever seen. They thrilled the country by going into Autzen and shutting up a raucous Oregon Ducks crowd. The Hoosiers were 1-72 all-time against top five teams going into that game. Now they have two such wins this season alone. The second was in the Big Ten Championship Game against Ohio State.
You know that quote from Hoosiers? “Let’s win this one for all the small schools who never had a chance to get here.” It was exactly like that.
The Buckeyes had been there before. The Hoosiers never had. Fernando Mendoza took a devastating blow on the first play from scrimmage, Ohio State’s icy welcome to a party Indiana had never been invited to before. The future Heisman winner writhed on the turf in pain. Then he got up and went to work. It still wasn’t pretty. The quarterback had a pass intercepted, leading to the Buckeye’s first touchdown. Indiana missed a field goal before Ohio State tacked on another field goal. From there, the Hoosiers defense let nothing through.
Charlie Becker, whose father played at Ohio State, caught two deep balls to move his team down the field on their two most critical drives. Elijah Sarratt, an FCS product who followed Curt Cignetti from JMU, hauled in a touchdown to put the Hoosiers on top by three. Rolijah Hardy, an unrated high school prospect, broke up a third down pass to force the Buckeyes into a game-tying kick, which they missed. Indiana players and fans lost their minds with joy as the final seconds ticked down, and the trophy became theirs.
It could get better. The national title is still on the table. Even if the fairytale season ends without it, the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers are already legendary. — Alicia de Artola
The Indiana Fever made the most of what they had
Caitlin Clark played just 13 games in 2025, including missing the WNBA All-Star game festivities held in Indianapolis for the first time ever. She wasn't the only Fever player who struggled through injuries, and every time the team seemed to have found an answer with a shred fill-in or hardship signing, another injury would pop up. And somehow, it wasn't a catastrophe. The Fever, collectively, turned all that bad luck into an incredibly successful season.
"No matter what, no matter who came into the locker room," Aliyah Boston told FanSided, "our thing was, we are going to be friends. We are going to be friends in the way that you're genuinely just happy, because that helps, that grows your chemistry off the court. Because in the midst of hard moments, you trust every single person to step up, you just every single person to take the shot."
They didn't have their star player on the court, or even a consistent rotation most nights with so many players in and out of the lineup. But the Fever gave their fans a group to fall in love with, a versatile group of friends who played hard and player for each other. And despite running shorthanded, the results followed.
Boston's game took a huge leap as she had to become more of an offensive creator. Kelsey Mitchell made herself an MVP candidate. They rolled into the playoffs having won five of their last seven games, upset the Atlanta Dream and pushed the eventual champion Aces to five games in the second round.
This was not the season the Fever nor the fans were hoping for. But it wasn't a lost season either. Their core players improved. They built confidence and chemistry and won their first playoff since 2015. They showed that the future is bright and that it can still feel like winning, even when you don't win it all.
Indiana repping Team USA at the Special Olympics Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup
The names Kaley Carpenter, Alexandra Kelley, Abbigale Richardson, Brooke Sullivan and Kitti Vancott, aren't as well known as Tyrese Haliburton or Caitlin Clark. But basketballers are a global tribe and this quintet aren't just members, they're proud representatives of the Indiana basketball legacy. They represented the USA at the Special Olympics Unified 3x3 Basketball World Cup in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the beginning of December, beating Jamaica to win Division 4.
Unified sports bring together athletes with and without intellectual disabilities, promoting inclusion without sacrificing competition. This group had been playing together since September, preparing for the tournament. Two had played together at the Special Olympics North America 3x3 women’s basketball tournament in September, the others were brought in from a 5x5 unified team for this event.
"It's really cool to be part of a team from Indiana representing the same thing," said Carpenter. "It's super cool to all come together for the same common goal and represent a state that has so much support behind you."
Although they'd only been playing together for a few months, Richardson said a strong bond and active communication were the foundation of their success: "Having the practices and having a coach who was hard on us, but focused on getting us to do really good things, and just the great communication throughout everyone in the team."
"A big thing for our team is communication," added Carpenter. "So saying what we want to happen as a team, making sure it gets on the court. If someone's confused on the court, not in the right spot, making sure, you can tell them in a good way — here's the spot to go to, here's what you need to do."
This team wasn't on the national radar (although they should be) and even plenty of basketball fans in Indiana may have missed their accomplishments. But they are just as important as the professionals at the top of the state's pyramid of hoops. They're making sure there is a strong foundation, a grassroots basketball movement making sure everyone gets the opportunity — not just to play, but to shine.
Indianapolis Colts are on the comeback trail
This is not where the Colts wanted to be in mid-December — outside the playoff picture, on a four-game losing streak with a 44-year-old starting quarterback signed as an emergency fill-in. But this season has absolutely not been the worst-case scenario.
Almost no one thought the Colts would be in the mix for the playoffs, let alone be just a game out of the wild card this deep into the season. Or that they would have started 8-2 with reclamation project Daniel Jones playing like an MVP — throwing for 3,000 yards and 19 touchdowns in just 13 games before an Achilles tear ended his season.
This is a team with just two playoff appearances and four winning seasons in the past decade. Mediocrity personified. And that may be the message their final record sends at the end of the season — 9-8 and missing the postseason feels very realistic. But that would absolutely be missing the forest for the trees.
The Colts had juice this year. They were exciting. Jones was legitimately a revelation and may be back next season to help this team take another leap. Jonathan Taylor has been the best running back in the league by a good margin, and has at least an outside chance of being the first non-QB MVP since 2012.
When the Colts have fizzled out in recent years, it has felt like a fine roster bumping up against its own ceiling, undone by a talent deficit. But this roster is different, it was the sting of bad luck and circumstance. Even in their disastrous unraveling the past few weeks, they were a must-watch and inspired hope that this is a team finally ready to break through ... and soon.