The second-guessing of Indiana’s playoff appearance has already begun.
The No. 10 Hoosiers lost 27-17 at No. 7 Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Friday night. The score wasn't all that close. Notre Dame dominated the game and led 27-3 before the Hoosiers scored two late touchdowns to make it a two-score game.
On Saturday morning’s edition of “College GameDay,” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said that Indiana should not have been playing Notre Dame.
"I'm not going to sit here and say why was Indiana in, but Indiana with what you guys like to talk about, they have 11 wins, they gotta be one of the best teams," Herbstreit said. "Indiana was outclassed in that game … It was not a team that should have been on that field when you consider other teams that could have been there. It's no knock on Indiana, they had a great year. But we've got to move forward with the playoff and hope that the committee does a better job of weighing who the best 12 are vs. who's the most deserving, because by golly, they've got 11 wins, they didn't beat anybody but they've got 11 wins. That's a bunch of BS. We need to find the best teams. And last night it was incredibly evident just standing on that field and watching the game the way it played out."
Indiana went 11-1 in the regular season. The Hoosiers’ only regular-season loss was a 28-15 defeat at No. 8 Ohio State. Yes, it’s fair to say that Indiana played a schedule that didn’t include many top teams, but the Hoosiers weren’t gifted an easy schedule when it was revealed. In addition to Ohio State, Indiana also played (and beat) the two teams that played for the national title a season ago in Michigan and Washington. Yes, those teams were worse in 2024 than they were in 2023. But that’s not Indiana’s fault.
Indiana may not have been one of the very best teams in college football, but a team that goes 11-1 in a power conference was always going to be a foregone conclusion to make the 12-team College Football Playoff. Had Indiana not made the playoff when the field was selected in early December, reaction to the Hoosiers’ exclusion would have been uproarious and led to numerous calls for the playoff to be overhauled after just one year.
And besides, there’s not a good argument for who would have been in the playoff instead of Indiana. Miami finished 10-2 after it blew a 21-point lead at Syracuse in the final week of the season. The Hurricanes’ defense is far from title-caliber. Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina each had three losses.
Those losses didn’t stop Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin from complaining on social media about Indiana during the game either.
But Indiana took care of business against average and bad teams. Alabama and Ole Miss did not. The Crimson Tide lost two games to teams that finished 6-6. One of those defeats was a 24-3 loss to Oklahoma. Ole Miss beat Georgia, but the Rebels lost at home to a 4-8 Kentucky team. You can’t credibly claim you belong in the playoff when you have three losses and a home defeat to a team that didn’t sniff bowl eligibility.