This was never really about Indiana proving itself, never about reaching a specific bar or else.
The Hoosiers not embarrassing themselves in a 38-15 loss at Ohio State Saturday simply provided cover for the College Football Playoff.
Get used to the sound of it, people. Indiana is in the playoff.
It was three weeks ago when the first CFP poll had the unbeaten Hoosiers in the top 10, and it has been every poll since. It will be next week, and the week after the Hoosiers beat the brakes off rival Purdue in the season final.
And it will be in late December, when the Hoosiers may even host a playoff game in (likely) frigid Bloomington against (likely) an SEC team that hasn’t played in that weather in, I don’t know, ever.
The CFP selection committee dropped hints in the first three polls about what was important with Indiana, and we all ignored it. Just like we’ve ignored the makeup of the committee itself.
When you have four former head coaches and six current athletic directors on the committee, there’s nothing more important than wins. No matter the schedule.
An undefeated season, everyone, is the Holy Grail.
I mean, unless you’re Army.
We should’ve seen this coming, the committee leaving crumbs all along the way to the reality of Indiana. It came to a head earlier this week, when College Football Playoff committee chairman and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel was asked about the importance of strength of schedule, and how it fit in the evaluation of teams.
Manuel may as well have admitted it’s an eye test.
“We watch games and we see how teams are playing, and so we asses their body of work,” Manuel said. “Watching teams, watching the games, carries the day for most of us.”
Translation: boy, the Hoosiers sure do look good!
Forget about Ohio State exposing Indiana as anything but worthy for two quarters in the one game that mattered most. Forget about the undeniable cakewalk — the 10 wins against 10 nobodies — to the one-shot, prove-it game.
None of it matters.
This is an Indiana beauty pageant, not an SEC demolition derby.
While Indiana was lallygagging through a pitiful non-conference schedule and the dregs of the Big Ten, Ole Miss — which began the week as the hottest team in the SEC — was in a white-knuckle throw-down with a Florida team that struggled early in the season, then should’ve beaten both Tennessee and Georgia, and finally has put it all together in the month of November.
Florida’s win over Ole Miss in Gainesville knocks the Rebels out of the playoff, and further cements Indiana’s path to it. See the problem?
Then there’s Georgia, with three wins against teams 17th or higher ranked by the committee, and two losses against teams in the top nine, and like Ole Miss, was a long way from Indiana’s No. 5 ranking.
But no matter how fortunate the path, Indiana won those games and won them convincingly by a whopping 30-point average. Just like they’ll do next week against pitiful Purdue, a week after what was certainly an ugly 23-point loss to Ohio State.
I’m not sure what was more absurd: that Indiana was ranked in the top five with that schedule, or that Penn State — with an equally embarrassing schedule — was ranked one spot ahead of the Hoosiers with one loss.
I’m still trying to square this circle, this confounding idea that less losses is more in the eyes of the committee — unless it’s Penn State, which has one more loss. Because two losses, well, apparently that’s unforgivable.
Never mind that Georgia has wins over No. 3 Texas (on the road by 15 points), No.11 Tennessee and No.17 Clemson. It’s those two losses, on the road to No. 7 Alabama and No. 9 Ole Miss that has the Dawgs five spots behind Indiana.
All because Indiana ran through a schedule easier than New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street.
Look, Indiana deserves praise for a remarkable turnaround season under first-year coach Curt Cignetti. The Hoosiers were lost under former coach Tom Allen, who couldn’t multiply a breakout season in 2020 and was eventually given a fat buyout.
Cignetti took the core of his James Madison team from 2023 — which, ironically, won 10 consecutive games to begin last season before losing to Sun Belt heavyweight Appalachian State — and added a strong transfer portal class around them.
He then got Ohio transfer quarterback Kurtis Rourke to play the best season of his six years in college football, and the next thing you know, Indiana is punching out easy wins and the CFP eye test was eye candy.
That brought us to a rainy, chilly afternoon in Columbus where Indiana met reality. On the field, anyway.
Because this thing is far from over. The playoff rankings will arrive on Tuesday, and Indiana will still be in the top 12, will still be projected to reach the field and may eventually find its way to host a first-round game.
Ohio State’s easy win didn’t exclude Indiana from the party. It was the Hoosiers’ official golden ticket to what the committee decided weeks ago.
Get used to it, people. The Hoosiers are in the CFP.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.