FOOTBALL

‘They’ve dominated everyone they’ve played’: Indiana football continues to impress College Football Playoff committee heading into final stretch

Indiana football continues to win and with each passing week, is impressing the CFP Committee. Tuesday’s rankings confirm it.

Published

7 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Alec Lasley

Indiana football continues to win and with each passing week, is impressing the CFP Committee. Tuesday's rankings confirm it. (Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images)

Indiana football is one of four programs that remain unbeaten this season — a feat that is difficult to come by 10 games into the season. But, there are still some doubters when it comes to Indiana’s season.

On Tuesday, Indiana moved up to No. 5 overall in the College Football Playoff rankings, landing as the 7-seed in the playoffs. So, how can they still be thought as ‘frauds’ by certain people? Well, the constant messaging of ‘who have they played’.

Indiana hasn’t played a ranked opponent yet this season — and its best win is likely that against Nebraska or Washington. Those two teams have combined to go 10-9 on the season, however.

Then on Saturday, despite a win over Michigan, the first real test for Indiana was on display. It was a 20-15 win for Indiana — its first single-digit victory of the season. However, the CFP Committee didn’t seem to take much offense to it, rather looking at the entire season as a whole.

“Indiana has been playing very well,” CFP Chair Wade Manuel said on Tuesday. “A close win against Michigan, but other than that, they’ve dominated everyone they’ve played.”

Through 10 games, Indiana’s margin of victory sits at 30.3 — a +303 scoring margin. A true ‘domination’ in every definition of the word.

While Indiana may not have the most difficult schedule, there’s another intriguing stat that the committee looks at and takes into account, sometimes more than the over schedule difficulty.

“We do have a metric that looks at each individual opponent, and so we do analyze every opponent that they play and their strength of record as it relates to that opponent,” Manuel said. “In terms of strength of schedule — we have overall strength of schedule but we also have individual strength of records for each team and that’s part of the analysis that we do and part of the discussion amongst the committee as we evaluate each team.”

So, where does Indiana rank in strength of record? Indiana football ranks sixth nationally. “reflecting chance that an average Top 25 team would have team’s record or better, given the schedule.”

Up next on IU’s radar, however, is a chance to silence all of the critics. Everyone.

It’s a road game against No. 2 Ohio State. Based on where Indiana is placed in the rankings, a loss wouldn’t — or definitely shouldn’t based on where other similar teams have been projected — put them out of the playoffs. But, it’s a chance to cement their spot atop the country’s best based on how they play.

And that’s exactly what the committee will be looking at — not necessarily the end result as a win or a loss. But, more along the lines of how Indiana looks.

“We also factor in wins and losses in terms of who you play and how you play in those particular games,” Manuel said. “A team with a weaker schedule, how they perform against the opponents that they play.

“So it’s an evaluation that takes into consideration strength of schedule but it also evaluates how you play against those teams that are on your schedule — whether it’s a strong schedule or a weak schedule and the performance of the teams on the field week to week and in totality when we look at what they have done over the season up until the point that we’re evaluating.”

There is never a ‘safe spot’ to be at when it comes to the CFP rankings, but based on the messaging from Manuel, and Indiana’s play thus far, it would seem there would have to be a major change in the evaluation over the next few weeks to derail Indiana football from competing for a chance at a National Championship this winter.