A 23-point loss at Ohio State was suboptimal when it comes to Indiana comfortably staying the College Football Playoff.
But was it enough to knock the Hoosiers out of the bracket?
Curt Cignetti said after the loss to the Buckeyes the answer to that question is obviously no.
But you can never be too sure with traditional powers like Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M breathing down your neck, especially when all three have a more difficult strength of schedule. While IU was No. 5 in the CFP rankings coming into the weekend, those three schools were No. 7, 9 and 15, respectively, and all in a position to pounce on an IU loss in Columbus.
As it turned out later in the day, all three of those SEC programs also lost, each picking up a third defeat on the season and putting all of their CFP hopes in serious jeopardy.
Also losing on Saturday were No. 14 BYU, No. 16 Colorado, and No. 19 Army, further clearing the field of teams who might potentially pass the Hoosiers.
Indiana’s strength of schedule improved considerably too after playing Ohio State, and former opponents like Washington, Nebraska and Michigan moved to 6-5 on the season. According to ESPN’s FPI, IU’s SOS went from 106 to 51, better than other potential at-large teams like Notre Dame, Penn State, SMU and Miami.
Some national outlets had already released new CFP projections Saturday evening with the Hoosiers still in the bracket.
NBC has IU as the No. 10 seed playing at Penn State.
ESPN has the Hoosiers as the No. 11 seed, also playing at Penn State.
The new CFP rankings and bracket will be released on Tuesday evening. IU was No. 5 in last week’s edition.
Indiana will obviously still need to defeat Purdue next weekend to remain in the CFP field. And it probably wouldn’t hurt if they did so in convincing fashion given how tenuous their place in the bracket appears to be.
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