Indiana football checked in at No. 8 in the College Football Playoff rankings show on ESPN on Tuesday.
Despite being ranked No. 8, the Hoosiers are seeded No. 9 because Brigham Young University, which is ranked No. 9, is seeded No. 4 because it's atop the Big 12 standings.
Indiana is projected to travel to Neyland Stadium to take on the University of Tennessee.
The Hoosiers last made the CFP top 25 in 2020, as they finished the regular season 6-1.
Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti often stresses ignoring the outside noise, wanting his team to focus on the task at hand: winning.
“I'll see the rankings, but the only thing that really matters is you get the result when you play,” Cignetti said in a press conference Monday. “And to do that, you've got to keep the main thing the main thing and eliminate the noise and the clutter and stay focused on what's going to help you play your best on Saturday to give you the best chance to get the result.”
The Hoosiers are 9-0 for the first time in program history. Not only are they winning, but they are also dominating their opponents. They’ve won every game by at least 14 points.
Indiana hosted Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff on Oct. 19 ahead of its 56-7 drubbing of Nebraska. A week later, ESPN’s College GameDay came to Bloomington for the Hoosiers’ eventual 31-17 victory over Washington.
The national attention around the program is growing substantially, but Cignetti wants his team to stay focused and not let it affect them.
“Every week presents its own new set of circumstances, and so there's a lot of that going on this week,” Cignetti said. “I'm aware of it. But to get kind of caught up on that and lose your focus would be the kiss of death.”
College football brand bias plaguing Indiana
Joel Klatt, a former University of Colorado quarterback and now Fox’s lead color commentator, said on his show Monday that Indiana isn’t being respected.
“Indiana is, without question, the most underrated team in America,” Klatt said. “Without question.”
The Hoosiers checked in at No. 8 in The Associated Press’ poll Sunday, but Klatt didn’t think they were high enough. They are ranked the same by the CFP.
“I hope that they’re higher than eight,” Klatt said. “I think that they should be higher than eight. I think this is a team that has an argument to be the fifth best team in the country, certainly the sixth best team in the country, because that’s the way that they have played.”
Despite Indiana winning by at least 14 points in every game and not trailing until its ninth game of the season against Michigan State on Nov. 2, there’s a narrative around its schedule: the Hoosiers haven’t played any good teams.
“I hate that argument,” Klatt said. “You have no control over the schedule you play as a player. The only thing you have control over is what you do to that schedule, and right now, nobody has done to their schedule what Indiana has done to its schedule. Period.”
Klatt outlined a possible reason as to why the Hoosiers, in his eyes, haven’t been respected: Indiana is a perennial losing football program. In 2022, it became the first Division I school to lose 700 games.
But now, Indiana isn’t just the same old Indiana.
“If they had any other logo on the side of their helmet, they’d be No. 2 or No. 3 in the country at a minimum,” Klatt said. He went on to say that he implores the CFP committee to rank the Hoosiers’ by their resume instead of their logo. By Klatt's logic, the Hoosiers weren't ranked by their resume Tuesday.
About the CFP
The four highest-ranked conference champions will earn a first-round bye. The fifth conference champion and the remaining seven teams will be seeded 5-12 based on their final ranking.
Playoff First Round games will be played at the the schools seeded No. 5-8 on-campus stadiums Dec. 20 and 21.
The top four seeds will be assigned to the Playoff Quarterfinals on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, which are hosted by four of the six New Year’s Six bowls –– the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Chick Fil-A Peach Bowl and the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Those four seeds will play the winners of the Playoff First Round games.
The winning squads will then move on to the Playoff Semifinals on Jan. 9 and 10. The Capital One Orange Bowl and the Goodyear Cotton Bowl will host each of those contests.
The national championship is slated for Jan. 20 inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Saturday
The Hoosiers host the reigning national champions in Michigan (5-4, 3-3 Big Ten) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday inside Memorial Stadium. The contest will broadcast on CBS as its B1G TIME game with Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jenny Dell on the call.
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and columnist Jhett Garrett (@jhettgarrett) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
