COLUMBUS, Ohio – Curt Cignetti’s eyebrows lowered, his lips pursed and his head tilted back in disbelief and perhaps disgust.
Should Indiana be considered to make the College Football Playoff?
“Is that a serious question?” The Indiana coach stormed over to an inquisitive reporter after his team’s 23-point loss to No. 2 Ohio State. “I’m not even going to answer that. The answer is so obvious.”
Seconds later, Cignetti did indeed respond, in the form of a nod and a “well, sure, dude” expression.
After all, it is lobbying season for the playoffs. And although Cignetti sidestepped the original playoff question here on Saturday, he couldn’t resist commenting for a second time.
But for many across the country — especially those who live in a certain part of our great nation (ahem, the South) — Indiana’s candidacy isn’t so obvious. And it didn’t become any clearer for them after the 38-15 loss to the Buckeyes.
In fact, while writing this column, high above Ohio Stadium, this reporter received a few messages from those folks down south.
They didn’t beat anyone.
They are not allowed to be on the hunt.
Ah yes, it’s that time of year.
However, the SEC’s best argument for five teams is: five – to get into the field of twelve teams, it probably failed on Saturday afternoon. Just minutes after Ohio State beat Indiana, Florida upset Ole Miss, a bubble playoff team whose loss likely paves the way for the Hoosiers — and Tennessee, too — to get into the field.
Or is it?
Last week’s College Football Playoff committee rankings appeared to place any Big 12 or ACC second behind these programs. But we will know more on Tuesday evening when the committee announces its rankings.
Let politics continue for now.
At Ohio Stadium, Cignetti and the players met with reporters after Saturday’s game as the playoff cloud lingered over their heads.
QB Kurtis Rourke hopes for a rematch against Ohio State in the postseason, and linebacker Aiden Fisher says the Hoosiers — a team with 20 Group of Five transfers — showed their physicality against what is arguably the most talented roster in college football is.
“People are wondering, can this Group of Five team hold up? Watch the movie,” Fisher deadpanned.
In a sense he is right. This wasn’t too disastrous for the performance of Cignetti’s crew. Ohio State scored in the final seconds to extend the lead from 16 to 23, and the Buckeyes got 14 points on special teams miscues by the Hoosiers. Indiana allowed a 79-yard punt return from star Caleb Downs, and dropped a punt snap to give Ryan Day’s team seven more.
In fact, IU’s defense only allowed 316 yards.
But it’s a transgression, oh brother, it’s a transgression. The Hoosiers scored 15 points, 30 points below their average, and had 151 yards, more than 300 yards below their average.
After the game-opening 70-yard touchdown drive, Indiana gained 81 yards on 48 plays. It gave up five sacks, completed just eight passes and averaged 2.6 yards per play.
“Every time we dropped back to pass, something bad happened,” Cignetti said.
Cignetti pointed to a number of factors for the offensive performance: the noise and Ohio State’s talent.
The Buckeyes are “loaded,” he said, and the Hoosiers had to switch to a silent count because of the noise, something that threw the team into turmoil and resulted in miscommunication on the O-line.
“I didn’t think we played our best game today,” Cignetti said.
But did it show enough to be in the play-off?
“I don’t make those decisions,” Cignetti replied. “It is now more important that I concentrate on the next match. Great rival [Purdue]. That should be everyone’s focus.”
The focus for the masses was, is and will be Indiana’s schedule, which is ranked 106th out of the 137 FBS teams competing on Saturday. Their opponents have a cumulative record of 10 games under .500. They have played one ranked team (Ohio State). Before Saturday, they had defeated only one program with a winning record (Washington by 6-5).
Those are the negatives. There are also positive points. Indiana outscored nine of its 10 opponents by double digits, ranked in the top five in the country in both offensive and defensive scoring, and hung around – at least a quarter and a half! – with the Buckeyes.
Before kickoff Saturday, Cignetti, boastful and brash, made his feelings known in an interview on ESPN.
“We have the largest scoring margin in college football, right?” he said. “There is a story that created a new chip for us. People can hang that story in their you-know-what.”
Plenty of other bubble teams have their own problems as well.
Tennessee lost to Arkansas with five losses. Any ACC or Big 12 champion will likely suffer at least two losses. SEC teams Ole Miss and South Carolina have three losses, and Clemson lost at home to Louisville (not to mention the season opener against Georgia in Atlanta).
Even two-loss Georgia, despite playing the nation’s toughest ranked schedule, struggled for three quarters with UMass (the Bulldogs allowed a whopping 226 yards rushing).
Every team has one or two, three or four warts. It’s virtually impossible to separate the group of potential major squads, a thankless position for committee members and the poor sap (Michigan AD Warde Manuel) who unnecessarily challenges the CFP every week to explain the rankings.
Maybe that’s why professional football doesn’t have a committee. No big teams. No silly data-driven decisions and crazy statistics to separate playoff teams.
In the NFL, it’s literally settled on the field, with postseason berths tied to division and conference finishes.
Some want that model for this sport. One of them was here Saturday: Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, a man who proposed such a format to CFP leaders during meetings in the spring. The model would include three or four automatic qualifiers for both the SEC and Big Ten; two each for the ACC and Big 12; one automatic G5 bid; and then three to five major places in a further expanded field of 14 or 16 teams.
Is that the future?
Maybe.
Let the lobbying, the crazy figures and the impossible debates continue for now.
