Indiana remains No. 12 in latest CFP rankings despite win over Wisconsin

After taking down No. 16 Wisconsin on the road over the weekend, Indiana expected to be rewarded when the College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday.

Instead, the Hoosiers stayed put at No. 12.

As IU fans threw up their hands in disbelief, some of the players and coaches took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

Wowwwwwww👎🏽💯

— RT2 (@TheRealReese02) December 9, 2020

0 Respect https://t.co/mvayT0sJaF

— Kasey Teegardin (@CoachTee34) December 9, 2020

So what exactly was the Selection Committee’s rationale for not moving Indiana up?

Here is what Committee chair (and Iowa AD) Gary Barta said about the Hoosiers:

“Well, the committee has really thought highly of Indiana,” Barta said.  “They only have one loss, and that’s to Ohio State. They started off slow in that game but came back. Their defense has been strong. And then you always wonder when a team loses their leader, their quarterback, how will a team react to that, when they lost Michael Penix but Jack Tuttle came in and really did a nice job. The committee feels good about Indiana. They are 6-1 now.

“When you look at some of the people that we compare around them, they don’t have any top-25 wins and none of their wins are against a team with a winning record. So that certainly was considered as one of the variables.”

A couple of the more controversial teams in front of Indiana — two-loss Georgia, and non-power five conference Cincinnati also can claim no wins against teams in the CFP top-25.  Cincinnati has not played a power-five conference opponent this year.

There are three two-loss teams ahead of one-loss Indiana — Georgia, Oklahoma and Iowa State.  The Cyclones opened the season with a loss to the University of Louisiana (no, not LSU).

Indiana is the lowest ranked one-loss Big Ten team this late in the season ever since the CFP rankings started in 2014.  The previous low was No. 7 Ohio State in 2015.

Here is the latest CFP top-25:

College Football Playoff Rankings — Dec. 8
1. Alabama (9-0)
2. Notre Dame (10-0)
3. Clemson (9-1)
4. Ohio State (5-0)
5. Texas A&M (7-1)
6. Florida (8-1)
7. Iowa State (8-2)
8. Cincinnati (8-0)
9. Georgia (6-2)
10. Miami (8-1)
11. Oklahoma (7-2)
12. Indiana (6-1)
13. Coastal Carolina (10-0)
14. Northwestern (5-1)
15. USC (4-0)
16. Iowa (5-2)
17. North Carolina (7-3)
18. BYU (9-1)
19. Louisiana (9-1)
20. Texas (6-3)
21. Colorado (4-0)
22. Oklahoma State (6-3)
23. NC State (8-3)
24. Tulsa (6-1)
25. Missouri (5-3)

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