Mellencamp filmed on Kirkwood for ‘60 Minutes’ segment as No. 1 vs. No. 2 IU–Ohio State football showdown nears

Staff report

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — December 3, 2025

As snow piled in slushy ridges along Kirkwood Avenue on Tuesday afternoon, John Mellencamp walked past the restaurants with a small film crew at his side and a TV camera rolling.

The Bloomington resident, musician and visual artist was being filmed for a segment of CBS’s “60 Minutes” tied to Indiana University football’s run to the top of the college game. A “60 Minutes” crew has been in Bloomington in recent weeks, including at IU’s home win over Wisconsin, gathering material for a piece on the Hoosiers’ historic season.

On Tuesday, the production moved to Kirkwood.

Mellencamp and a CBS reporter walked east on the brick sidewalk, passing under security cameras and a sign that warned cyclists it was a “sidewalk dismount zone.” Behind them, cameramen and audio techs tracked the walk-and-talk.

After the production, Mellencamp exchanged fist bumps with people on the sidewalk and parted ways with the crew.

Mellencamp, who has long made his home in Bloomington and is an IU football fan, hasn’t publicly discussed the content of the “60 Minutes” piece. But the timing of the visit lines up with the biggest week in program history.

Indiana, ranked No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings for the fifth straight week, will face No. 1 Ohio State in the Discover Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Both teams are 12-0 overall and 9-0 in the Big Ten.

It is Indiana’s first appearance in the Big Ten Championship Game and comes on the heels of the program’s first perfect regular season. The Hoosiers also claimed a share of the Big Ten regular season title for the first time since 1967.

Saturday’s matchup is one of the rarest kinds of games in college football: a meeting of the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the Associated Press poll. According to IU game notes, it will be just the 52nd No. 1 vs. No. 2 game since the poll began in 1936, and only the third time such a showdown has taken place in a conference championship game.

Since the start of the 2024 season, Indiana has won 23 games, the most in any two-year span in school history. The Hoosiers finished 5-0 on the road this fall and did not lose at Memorial Stadium for the second straight season. Head coach Curt Cignetti’s 23 victories in his first two years at IU are the second-most by any Big Ten coach in his first two seasons at a school.

Cignetti on Monday called Ohio State “a great football team” with dominant units on both sides of the ball, but said his team has earned the right to be on the sport’s biggest stage.

“We’ve met every challenge up to this point because we prepare consistently the way you need to prepare,” he told reporters, adding that the goal this week is to “stack days” of meetings and practices to give IU its best chance on Saturday.

The Buckeyes lead the all-time series 81-12-5 and beat the Hoosiers 38-15 last season in Columbus. Indiana is seeking its first win over Ohio State since 1988.
No. 2 Indiana and No. 1 Ohio State kick off at 8 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis. The game will be televised on FOX.

The post Mellencamp filmed on Kirkwood for ‘60 Minutes’ segment as No. 1 vs. No. 2 IU–Ohio State football showdown nears first appeared on The Bloomingtonian.