IU did not deserve to be in CFP. Great article by USA Today
- Thread starter KentuckyBoiler
- Start date
18 team Big Ten. Not a 10, 11, 12 or even 14 team conference. When you don't play nearly half the conference, you have to consider the teams you played and beat.
Penn State 38, SMU 10,
Texas 38, Clemson 24
Ohio State 42, Tennessee 17
Notre Dame 27, Indiana 17
What's even more deserving of your ridicule than "total ridicule? The performance of every other team that lost in the first round, each by more than IU did.
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You played the worst opponent by far on that list, and unless you’re just lying to yourself only scored 3 points…face it, you wasted your only chance at the playoffs as I see 7 likely losses on your schedule next year with 2 toss ups, and 3 non conference jv games
Now there are more teams with a shot at a national championship in theory. Which ends spreading out talent. That's a good thing. You get more smaller brands like an Indiana who have a shot at a playoff spot. That's a good thing.
Did Indiana play the worst opponent? I mean they were ranked ahead of Ohio State.
Why is ND "the worst opponent by far?"
And IU "only scored three points;" are you proposing that the fourth quarter doesn't count? That teams that play hard until the final whistle are somehow inferior? Because if that's the case, under your theory SMU lost 35-3 and Tennessee lost 35-10. In fact, if you eliminate the fourth quarter IU/ND was still the closest first round playoff game.
Finally, you have IU most likely going 1-8 in conference next year (7 likely losses and two 50/50 games).
This IU staff took a team with an 0-9 conference record from the year before and went 8-1 with six months to put a program together. And now, with an established culture and roster returns three 1st team all-B1G defenders and already has another top 25 portal haul.
Hey... your subjective opinions are all yours to have.
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You’re right IU will likely lose a couple of the jv games too, so let’s say 2-10 as the high mark next year.
That ND ranking is another demo, like IU, that the committee did not truly account for strength of schedule. Pretty obvious.
Indinia fans in this thread (well, on this entire forum really):
This year that would have made sense as it would have effectively eliminated the 4 blowout teams if we said 4 beat conf champs plus 4 at-larges.
Don’t even start on that BS concept. Every conference, including the mighty SEC, has one-or-two teams at the top and then a bunch of MID. IU played in a Power 4 conference and the only game that they lost all season was at tO$U (same team that seal-clubbed Tennessee) and was within seconds of being tied at halftime. Notre Dame is a good team. That’s why they were favored to win. If you can get past the “Indiana” on the uniform and honestly tell me that if, say, a Michigan/Iowa/Wisconsin-type had played the same schedule and had the #2 scoring margin in the nation at over 23pts, you wouldn’t think they deserved to be in the CFP, then Herbstreet may as well get his dream of an All-SEC tournament, irregardless of struggling SEC teams losing games they weren’t supposed to by big margins…
I can honestly tell you that if a Mich/Iowa/Wisc/JMU type played the same schedule with the same results, they wouldn't belong in the playoff either.
IU would not have been in the playoff if they had played PSU or Oregon to add to the pounding from tosu. It was simply scheduling luck that they didn't - and that means strength of schedule.
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Or even road games against the likes of Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, or Minnesota.
Considering what's happened in the best... It wouldn't have eliminated any blowouts.
They beat tosu.
If IU had beaten tosu this year, instead of getting crushed, then they would have belonged.
Michigan beat two top ten teams in 2023 (@PSU and OSU). You can’t be seriously trying to equate IU’s resume this year to Michigan’s last year….
You keep saying that… but Michigan beat bama last year in Ot and Washington beat Texas by 6. They were both incredible games and the championship game was a 1 score game until the 4th quarter. The year before we’re 6 and 1 point games in semis including an upset. The year before had an upset in the semis and the 3 seed won it all.
You are cherry picking stats to try to justify indiana’s embarrassing loss and maybe make you feel better contrary to what all the experts are saying and also overlooking facts.
Also the tv viewers on these games were way more than what it would be for regular bowls. Last year after the two CFP semis the next 4 averaged about 4.4M viewers. The 4 first round games this year averaged almost 11m. Viewers clearly didn’t care about the blowouts.
Despite the good reviews, I wouldn’t mind seeing it dropped to 8 or 10 teams, preferably the latter with 2 first round byes to the SEC and B10 winners. The fact Arizona state and Boise state got a bye is ridiculous.
No one is cherry picking stats other than you. The average margin of victory in first round games for the 4 tea playoff was 17 points and 20 points in the championship. Blowouts were completely common. In fact, it was the most common outcome.
