Le Journal

The 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship is headed to Indiana. Top-seeded Indiana won its first ever football championship on Monday, outlasting the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes 27-21 in a game that started murky but ended in a thriller. Things started relatively slow for both sides, as Indiana took just a 10-0 lead into halftime with Miami’s offense getting nothing going on the ground or over the top. But, as usual in low-scoring college first halves, the script flipped in the final two quarters. Miami woke up to put the pressure on the Hoosiers, but Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza stepped up and Hurricanes QB1 Carson Beck couldn’t. Beck had the chance to deliver a game-winning drive, but forced a deep pass that was picked off. Indiana held on 27-21, winning the program’s first ever football title in its debut appearance while Miami’s wait since 2001 persists, despite being at home in Hard Rock Stadium. Let’s analyze the game further with winners and losers: MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL COVERAGE College Football Dec 19, 2025 Who has the most College Football Playoff appearances, championships? NCAA football Dec 9, 2024 These schools have the most Heisman Trophy winners in college football history College Football Dec 6, 2025 Indiana had the most losses in college football history. Now it's a championship contender. WINNER: Fernando Mendoza, Indiana The Heisman winner and potential No. 1 pick had all the eyes on him tonight. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but he displayed the grit and poise needed at the next level. Mendoza threw for 186 yards on 16 of 27 completions, while also rushing for the key 12-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. He’ll still need to polish his game more to truly thrive in the NFL, especially if the Las Vegas Raiders believe he’s the QB1 that can elevate their trajectory. But for now, he can bask in the moment. LOSER: Carson Beck, Miami On the other hand, it was a slightly different story for Miami’s QB1. Carson Beck, 23, could’ve had his moment to change the narrative on his college career — and boost his potential draft odds in the process. He overcame a slow start and displayed much better command in the second half, finishing with 232 passing yards and a touchdown on 19 of 32 completions. But the lone pick might just summarize his five-year collegiate run best — a competitive college option but not at the level required to win the majors. WINNER: Mark Fletcher Jr., Miami Most eyes were on Mendoza’s legitimacy to go No. 1, but Miami had an opportunity to show off some of its skill players as well. Malachi Toney, a rising 18-year-old wideout, seized his moments and will be one to watch for the future. Junior running back Mark Fletcher Jr. also stood out, and he could even be NFL ready if he declared. Fletcher Jr. reflected Miami’s stagnant offense in the first half but helped open it up in the second, ending the game with 112 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries. He enjoyed a career-best 57-yard run, also the second-longest touchdown in a BCS final. LOSER: Third-down efficiency Indiana’s defense ranked among the top in several defensive statistics this season, and getting off the field on third downs was a major reason why. The Hoosiers at one point limited Miami to being 0-for-6 on third downs. Miami finished with a 3-for-11 rate, while Indiana went 6-for-15. Miami’s defense delivered an underrated performance, but Mendoza helped chip at the margins where Beck couldn’t. Had the Hurricanes improved their rate in the first half, apart from the doinked field-goal try, this could’ve been a different ball game. WINNER: Curt Cignetti, Indiana In an era where there’s a power vacuum at the college football summit, Indiana might have something brewing. The Hoosiers are far from a football powerhouse, but they’ve flipped from being terrible to national champs in two years under Curt Cignetti. The 64-year-old is revered by his players and has built a sturdy culture beyond Mendoza,…

VSCO filters, Kylie lip kits and the summer of Pokemon Go. The year 2016 is making a comeback in 2026 as people flood Instagram with throwback posts reminiscing about what they viewed as an iconic year for popular culture and the internet. In the past two weeks, many people online — from celebrities to regular Instagram users — dug through their camera rolls and Snapchat memories to unearth hyper-filtered photos of themselves a decade ago. Many of the photos share common themes now emblematic of the era: a matte lip and winged eyeliner, bold eyebrows and glamorous eye shadow. Acai bowls and boxed water. Chokers, aviator glasses and boho outfits made trendy by Coachella. “When I’m seeing people’s 2016 posts, even if they were in different states or slightly different ages, there’s all these similarities, like that dog filter or those chokers or The Chainsmokers,” said Katrina Yip, one of many people online who posted 2016 throwback photos. “It makes it so funny to realize that we were all part of this big movement that we didn’t really even know at the time was, like, just following the trend of that time.” The trend has become the latest example of people online romanticizing a different time as a form of escapism. Last year, Gen Zers, typically defined as those ages 14-29, posted videos expressing love for the charm and “cringe” of millennials. There has also been a recent surge in millennial-focused pop culture, which has been celebrated online. To many millennials and older Gen Z, 2016 was a year when community flourished on social media. People dumped their entire camera rolls into messy Facebook photo albums, sent each other silly Snapchat selfies and eagerly posted what they ate for brunch. “If you’re older, like maybe you were 50 in 2016 and you weren’t on Instagram or a heavy internet user, you might be like, ‘Why does everyone care about this random year?’” said Steffy Degreff, who shared her own throwback photos last week. Degreff, 38, said that for those who’ve been on social media for more than a decade, there’s nostalgia for the way social media used to function — with chronological feeds that focused only on the users people followed. There used to be an end to scrolling (specifically, when you ran out of updates from your friends). Platforms back then felt “a little bit less malicious” in their design, she said. “I do think that 2016 was the beginning of the end of a golden era of when people felt really good about the internet and social media and politics,” she added. “And then, obviously, the pandemic happened.” Many online who voiced their nostalgia described the overall energy of 2016 as “colorful” and “carefree.” Social media Jan 18 Social media addiction's surprising challenger? Anti-doomscrolling influencers Celebrity News Dec 28, 2025 Influencers reveal how much money they make Social media Dec 3, 2025 Is brain rot real? Researchers warn of emerging risks tied to short-form video People often went out in crop tops and jeans with a flannel tied around their waist. They’d snap pictures of an outfit laid out carefully on their bed or of a giant acai bowl. Then, they’d pore over VSCO (a popular photo editing app) filters with their friends, debating which preset to choose. “Now, we’ve gone very neutral-toned, like quiet luxury aesthetic, very minimal,” said Paige Lorentzen, who shared throwback photos featuring some of the trendiest brands of the time, such as Boxed Water Is Better and Triangl Swimwear. “Whereas back then, it was the brighter the saturation on your photos, the better. Everything felt like summer.” The new year marked exactly 10 years since 2016; therefore, many online began posting the phrase “2026 is the new 2016,” according to the database Know Your Meme. But “as the trend carried on, some social media users began posting videos denouncing the idea of making 2026 the new 2016, citing problems with living in the past and pointing out bad things that happened in 2016,” Know Your Meme…