The Indiana Hoosiers took care of business in Week 14, handling Purdue amid snowy conditions. With the regular season in the background and an 11-1 record to show for it, the Hoosiers have earned the right to be an at-large team in the College Football Playoffs.
What exactly does their latest projection have in store for them?
Latest Indiana’s Playoff Projection
The updated playoff projection for Indiana is certainly promising for Hoosier fans. After dismantling Purdue, Indiana righted the ship at the exact right time.
Indiana missed out on the Big Ten Championship Game by a single game as they finished tie with Penn State for second place, but lost the tiebreaking scenarios by a mere three games in opponent combined record.
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And when you look at how Indiana has played in their wins, they’re absolutely a team that opponents should fear in the playoffs. Now, looking to the projections for the 12-team playoff field, Indiana is set to strike fear in a distinct path going forward.
In last week’s ranking, the Hoosiers landed at the No. 10 seed. However, that’s set to change after the events of Week 14.
With Miami — ranked No. 6 — losing to Syracuse, the Hurricanes may find themselves on the outs. At the very least, they’ll drop below Indiana at No. 10. Pencilling in the Hoosiers at least one spot up gives them the chance of potentially hosting a College Football Playoff first-round game.
If the season were to end with Miami missing the playoffs, here’s how the opening round would look:
- No. 5 Penn State hosting No. 12 Arizona State
- No. 6 Notre Dame hosting No. 11 Alabama
- No. 7 Georgia hosting No. 10 Ohio State
- No. 8 Tennessee hosting No. 9 Indiana
But, given the fact that these results almost certainly cannot hold true because of the conference championship games, Indiana could be sitting pretty to earn home-field advantage in the opening round.
Let’s break that down team by team.
Penn State will face Oregon in the Big Ten Championship. Our numbers make Oregon a pretty heavy favorite, so let’s project Penn State loses a game. In all likelihood, that drops them a bit further than No. 5 but probably not lower than No. 6 or 7.
Notre Dame’s season is done and they can only move up from here.
Georgia plays the winner of Texas vs. Texas A&M in the SEC Championship Game. With a loss to Texas, as our numbers project, the Bulldogs would have three losses and likely slide past that No. 7 spot.
If the Bulldogs were to win, it’s hard to fathom a team like Texas sliding down past the No. 5 or No. 6 spot in this scenario.
So for Indiana, to host an opening round playoff game, you’d want Texas to knock off Georgia and send the ‘Dawgs packing.
If all these results hold true, here’s what the opening rounds could look like:
- No. 5 Notre Dame hosting No. 12 Arizona State
- No. 6 Penn State hosting No. 11 Alabama
- No. 7 Tennessee hosting No. 10 Ohio State
- No. 8 Indiana hosting No. 9 Georgia
Now, that’s just a hypothetical viewpoint, as the college football playoff selection committee will ultimately make this call based on their own judgment. But in this hypothetical scenario, not only would Indiana host a playoff game, they’d take on a southern team in what would surely be frigid temperatures in Bloomington.
And that would certainly level the playing field.
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