After Indiana’s blowout loss vs. Ohio State, the College Football Playoff race became much more interesting. The recent expansion to the 12-team playoff has sparked heavy debate: Should a team with more wins be ranked higher? Or should a team with a harder strength of schedule be ranked higher? Indiana was undefeated before entering Columbus; however, they have no playoff-defining wins, making many people skeptical about whether they deserve to qualify for the CFP. They question if Indiana should qualify over a two-loss team such as Georgia or Tennessee with “better losses.”
In the new system, the conference winners from the Power Five automatically qualify for the playoffs. The CFP Committee then decides the remaining seven teams. With Indiana’s loss to Ohio State, their likelihood of winning the Big Ten is slim to none. It will be up to the committee to decide whether they qualify.
Although the majority of sports media and fans are against Indiana given their easy strength of schedule, this team deserves to make the playoffs. Historically, Indiana has been viewed as a basketball powerhouse with limited success in football. Bringing in Curt Cignetti immediately changed all of that as his coaching has been the key to their success both offensively and defensively. Cignetti was arguably the best coach in college football this year and leaving him out of the playoffs would be disrespectful to what he has accomplished. Cignetti reasoned that Indiana’s collapse was due to the stadium’s loudness and the opposing team’s pass rush, which they had not experienced before this game. Given a second chance against another powerhouse football team, expect Indiana to stand their ground much stronger.
It seems everyone is arguing that Indiana’s blowout loss to Ohio State, the number two-ranked team in the country, is enough to eliminate them from playoff contention. The popular opinion is to include two-loss SEC teams. This argument is completely unfair to Indiana because Georgia and Tennessee had much worse losses: Georgia was blown out by Ole Miss and Tennessee lost to Arkansas. Both these losses are to teams who would be happy to be ranked by the end of the season. Despite this, losing to Ohio State is somehow considered worse.
Let’s not forget that Indiana has a very talented roster to complement Cignetti’s coaching. Kurtis Rourke is the most underrated quarterback in the country and only struggles when his offensive line doesn’t give him time to pass the ball. With Rourke’s elite throwing, Indiana statistically has one of the best offenses in the country; they are averaging 41.3 points per game which is the second highest in all of college football.
Ultimately, the stats don’t lie, and neither do the wins. Curt Cignetti has turned around Indiana’s football reputation and deserves to be given a college football playoff spot as a result.
Third Down With Devin 