Indiana football earned its first selection to the College Football Playoff on Sunday as the bracket was revealed on ESPN’s CFP selection show. The Hoosiers are seeded No. 10, setting the stage for a first round matchup with the University of Notre Dame at 8 p.m. Dec. 20 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
The winner of the matchup will then face off against the University of Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans at 8:45 p.m. Jan. 1 inside Caesars Superdome.
The Fighting Irish (11-1) are coming off a 14-point victory over USC on Nov. 30, cementing its CFP berth. Led by senior quarterback Riley Leonard, who transferred from Duke University in the offseason, Notre Dame is in the midst of a 10-game winning streak after falling to Northern Illinois University on Sept. 7 in its lone regular season loss.
Sunday’s selection marks the Fighting Irish’s third playoff appearance — the first in 2018 and the second in 2020. They are 0-2 all-time, however, as they fell to Clemson University and the University of Alabama by a combined score of 61-17.
In his third season at the helm, head coach Marcus Freeman led his squad to three ranked wins throughout the season — then-No. 20 Texas A&M University, then-No. 15 University of Louisville and then-No. 19 Army West Point.
Notre Dame leads the all-time series between the two squads, 23-5-1, with the last meeting coming in 1991. The Hoosiers haven’t beat the Fighting Irish since 1950 and have won just once in South Bend — in 1898.
But perhaps no Indiana squad has a better chance of beating Notre Dame than this season's squad. The Hoosiers (11-1) capped off their best regular season in program history with a 66-0 drubbing of Purdue on Nov. 30. Led by first-year head coach Curt Cignetti, the Cream and Crimson’s only loss during the regular season came to No. 8 Ohio State on Nov. 23 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.
Ahead of the Big Ten Championship on Dec. 7, Cignetti joined the CBS pregame show and expressed his displeasure with Indiana’s standing in the rankings ahead of Sunday’s bracket reveal.
“How are we not, right now, seeded for a home game? That’s what I want to know,” Cignetti said. “We got the largest margin of victory in the country. Take out the FCS and the G5, P4 only, we’re outscoring people 40-17 — second in the country.”
Cignetti went on to claim that if Indiana had a different name such as Michigan, it would be ranked higher.
But despite Cignetti’s pleas for a home game, the Hoosiers are now set to hit the road to take on the Fighting Irish.
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and columnist Jhett Garrett (@jhettgarrett) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
