Purdue Football Was Caught Using AI in Hype Video To Make Their Stadium Look More Crowded (And Entirely Different) Than It Is
Come on, Purdue. They make it so easy sometimes. It's one thing to lose to a 16-seed in basketball – they weren't even the first 1-seed to do it. It's one thing to be located in West Lafayette, Indiana – it's probably in the top 50% of municipalities in the state. It's one thing to stink at football. Lots of schools stink at football. Indiana STANK at football for more than a century before making the best hire in the history of jobs and going on a magical run that cemented the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers as the greatest story in college football history. Not everybody can be the Hoosiers, but at least Purdue tries. Credit belongs to the man in the arena. Teddy Roosevelt said that.
Purdue, though... they do shit that puts a target on their back. Which, credit to them, isn't easy to do when you're Purdue. At least when it comes to football. The world wants nothing more than to ignore Purdue Football. But when their AD takes the podium and drops quotes like this immediately after their rival wins a National Championship...
Well then, the college football world has no choice but to point out the obvious.
But honestly, I didn't hate that for Purdue as much as quite literally EVERYBODY else did. Tommy McClelland clearly mixed up his words a bit. He was going for a Cignetti moment. He wanted to call out Indiana. I liked where his head was at. I appreciate the effort. It was just some all-time horrendous execution.
Since then, Purdue Football has actually been pretty good (by Purdue standards). They're only 3-4, but they took a now #17-ranked Wake Forest to 2OT in Week 2. They played UCLA close, putting up nearly 500 yards of offense. They've got two Big Ten wins over Illinois and Minnesota… and they ROLLED Minnesota.
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There's more reason to be optimistic about Purdue's football team than there has been in years. But in the year 2026, there is one cardinal sin you simply cannot commit. A sin that no one in the world would even attempt to defend. Purdue was caught using AI in a hype video to make their football stadium, Ross-Ade Stadium, look not only more crowded, but entirely different than it really looks.
One second it's this:
The next it's this:
And here's a full look at the real Ross-Ade Stadium:
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That's just not the same stadium. Whatever side of the stadium was supposed to be shown in the AI video (I believe it's the west side), it doesn't exist. It's an absurd use of AI. It's so unnecessary. Even if nobody caught it, at best it makes Ross-Ade Stadium look maybe 10% better? And to throw in a whole new scoreboard… it's just so obvious, guys. And yes. Since being caught, Purdue has deleted the tweet and replaced the AI video with the real video on YouTube.
The bar is so low for Purdue right now. It's so low that they could lose out, and their season might still be seen as a success. Using AI to fake a better stadium atmosphere is like the one thing they could do to make people think even less of their football program as a whole. Crazy move, Purdue. I hate to pile on, but if you're going to keep putting it on a tee for me… I have no choice.