Here’s What Purdue Athletic Director Tommy McClelland Should’ve Said to Jab at Indiana

If new Purdue athletic director Tommy McClelland wanted to make a splash in his opening press conference, mission accomplished.

If he wanted to take a page out of the Curt Cignetti book and fire up the masses, well, mission aborted.

McClelland fired up the internet by saying, “We’re here to win championships … If you don’t want to win championships, go to Indiana.”

Already less than impressed with Purdue’s new athletic director hire.

Why????

Why in god’s name would you say this?

Do you realize how dumb this makes you look??? pic.twitter.com/UAcyiXwZ9I

— Nick Yeoman (@NYeoman) August 6, 2026

Let’s help out Tommy with some words he should’ve said

Clearly, the delivery of that message was off.

There’s simply no way that McClelland or whoever wrote that statement meant for it to be communicated in that way after Indiana won a national championship in college football a mere 6.5 months ago.

And yeah, it probably would’ve taken a quick hop on the old Google machine to see that Indiana now holds a 24-4 advantage in overall national titles compared to Purdue, who was outscored 122-3 in its first two years of the Cignetti era.

That would’ve been a tough look, but in McClelland’s mind, that’s just history that predated him.

If McClelland had chosen his words better, he could’ve won that press conference.

When Cignetti said, “I win, Google me,” he did so with the intent of distancing himself from the history that he inherited as the worst power conference program in America. It’s not ignoring history to say that; it’s saying his history matters more than IU’s history.

If McClelland had said something like this, it would’ve been received in an entirely different way, like “I know that there are plenty of people in this state who celebrated Indiana winning a national championship. I hope they celebrated enough because that’s history.

Now, it’s our time to win championships, and that’s exactly what I came here to do.”

Does that type of message acknowledge the elephant in the room while projecting confidence in a much more concise way? Absolutely.

Does that also probably serve as some future bulletin board material for Cignetti by the time the Bucket Game rolls around? Sure, but if the entire goal is to open up those wallets, the best way to do that in West Lafayette is to take aim at IU.

Whether Barry Odom and Co. can hold up their end of the bargain is a future problem.

It’s up to McClelland to fundraise — that’s the skill that got him the job in the first place after helping Vanderbilt sign off on its first major football stadium renovation in four decades — and make sure that IU doesn’t continue to widen the financial gap after that whole “national championship” thing that may or may not have happened in January.

And what if he was asked about how he plans to combat IU’s national brand under Cignetti?

“By beating them. I’ll do everything in my power to make that a reality.”

Boom. (PR) crisis averted if he had just said that. There’s the type of boldness that position demands in the current NIL climate.

Alternatively, McClelland could’ve made a joke about how he vowed to turn around the fortunes of the basketball program as it tries to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 2002 then paused and gone, “wait, my bad. That’s another school in this state.”

Again, the opportunities were there. He just swung and whiffed.

Also, I know this wasn’t the main takeaway from McClelland’s viral fumble, but it just sounds lame to say, “don’t go to (rival school).” It’s clunky. It’s borderline desperate.

Something like “if you want to win national championships, Purdue is about to do that better than Indiana,” is much cleaner.

And yeah, outsiders could’ve clapped back and said, “how about you focus on just scoring a touchdown against Indiana first?”

It still would’ve been viewed as an optimistic glimpse into the potential future instead of a clumsy disregard of the recent past.

As it stands, though, Purdue just earned the right to be the butt of the joke, and not just from the largest living alumni base in America. The entire college football community raised an eyebrow at the new leader in West Lafayette.

Time will tell if McClelland’s attempted jab at IU will age like milk …

(Unless it becomes Purdue’s “Google me” moment.)