‘You can build such a strong argument for Indiana’: National analyst believes in IU football, puts Playoff Committee on notice ahead of rankings reveal

Undefeated. Never trailed this season. Haven’t given up a first quarter point. The list goes on and on for this IU football team and where it ranks nationally among numerous metrics and key stats. But, there still seem to be doubters.

Ranked 13th in the country, is Indiana still underrated? There seems to be a tilting scale amongst people nationally that believe the rankings continue to be skewed against the Hoosiers. Why? Solely based on the preseason rankings and projections.

“This is why the AP poll is such trash,” FOX Sports national analyst Joel Klatt said. ” … the AP poll is like a nascar race — it matters where you quailed. So, it matters where you started. What the Playoff Committee is supposed to do, is come in as if they did not see the rankings to begin the year and take a snapshot of what’s going on after this week in our sport. And, they need to say — who are the best — the best 25 teams in college football? And they aren’t supposed to care where people started.

“If you actually look at the way teams have performed — you will look at a team like, let’s take a team like Miami and look at a team like Indiana … Indiana should be ranked higher than Miami based on how they’ve played, their dominance, all those different factors. But because Miami started up in the pack in the AP, they (IU football) haven’t been able to overtake them.”

While the AP rankings are notable at this point — next week, they won’t be.

The College Football Playoff rankings will be released next Tuesday night and showcase the first snapshot of what the first 12-team playoff could look like.

Will it stay that why? No, it never has. But, it holds a lot of weight, especially if you’re right on the edge.

And for Klatt, Indiana is the team he’s most interested in seeing where they land.

“The team I’m most interested for next week’s playoff rankings, if they can take care of Michigan State on the road, would be the Indiana Hoosiers,” Klatt said. ” … Let’s say for the sake of argument the Playoff Committee has a similar feeling as the AP about Indiana. Brand biased, whatever you want to call it … to me, they have to go a minimum 11-1 to get it, because I don’t think they would be afforded a 10-2 record and get in like some of these other teams absolutely would … they still haven’t trailed in a game and have been totally dominant. beating teams by two, three, four scores.”

Indiana’s final four games are Michigan State, at home against Michigan, on the road against Ohio State and then a home-finale against Purdue.

At 8-0, even if IU football goes 11-1 to finish the season, there is real potential that they are left out. Why? No conference championship unless Oregon, Ohio State or Penn State falter late. That could be the last straw for an IU football team that has been one of the best teams in the country up to this point.

And Klatt believes just that.

“You can build such a strong argument for Indiana … This team is much better than 13th in the country. They just are. if you put them at 13, it puts them behind the eight-ball and I think they have to go 11-1 and we’ll see exactly how that happens.”

SEE ALSO: IU football had its ‘most inconsistent performance’ on Saturday. Now, it travels to Michigan State preparing for a team that will ‘smack you in the mouth’

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