If Indiana University wins the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, fans will have billionaire Mark Cuban, one of the football program’s biggest donors, to thank.
Mr. Cuban, whose net worth is estimated at $9.6 billion by Bloomberg, graduated from IU in 1981 with a degree in business administration. He has been a longtime donor to his alma mater, donating $5 million to the sports media center in 2015 and $6 million to IU’s rugby team in 2024.
Cuban hasn’t disclosed the amount of his recent donation to IU’s athletic department, but it was a “big number,” the billionaire told CBS in October 2025. The team’s recent success under head coach Curt Chinetti, hired in 2024, has inspired Cuban to open the checkbook again: After his latest donation, the school is “happier this year than we were last year,” Cuban told Front Office Sports on Jan. 7.
Currently, Cininetti’s team is one win away from the University of Miami and one win away from a national championship, and Cuban says that’s because the coach understands the most important aspect of a successful organization.
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“I’m part of a championship organization, and it’s not easy to put a team together,” Cuban told the Bloomington, Ind., Herald-Times on Jan. 10. The billionaire was the majority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks when they won the NBA championship in 2011, and remains a minority owner of the team.
Cuban discussed team-building strategies with Cininetti and came away impressed, he said. According to Cuban, the coach promised him that the team would use the donations to build a balanced roster, rather than spending money chasing a few high-profile players.
“It’s important to get players who understand their roles, work as a team, continue to improve and work within the system,” Cuban told the paper. “When you have coaches and organizations that understand that, that’s how championship teams and organizations are built. That’s why I’m so excited to support them.”
culture and ability
Mr. Cuban previously spoke about how great leaders build successful businesses by hiring the right people. “Leaders should avoid hiring people who don’t fit into their culture because there shouldn’t be any conflict about what the company’s vision is,” he said on a March 2021 episode of the Starting Greatness podcast. “You have to hire the right people for the right roles.”
Every winning team, or successful business, needs employees who excel in specific roles, like the “glue” of a basketball team. “It’s off to a great start,” Cuban added. In a masterclass course published in February 2024, Cuban said the two biggest factors leaders should consider when building a team are culture and competency.
Mr. Cuban chose to attend IU because, at the time, the university had the lowest tuition among the top 10 business education programs in the country, he said. He credits his time at the school with exposing him to “all kinds of people (and) ideas” while developing his early entrepreneurial skills. Cuban opened and ran a local bar during his undergraduate years and earned extra money by teaching dance lessons.
“Just watching the team that I grew up with since I was 18 years old, it’s amazing to be a part of this team,” Cuban told the Herald Times. “What it gives me is so much more than what I can give to IU. Without Indiana University, no one would have known who the hell I was.”
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