2025 IU Football Postseason Projections

For fans of Indiana University football, postseason predictions have never been more fun. A season ago, the Hoosiers began the 2024 campaign as an afterthought but just kept on winning. At the end of the regular season, IU made the school’s first-ever College Football Playoff. The Hoosiers drew a first round matchup on the road against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend. Curt Cignetti and his staff assembled another strong roster but again, IU began the season rarely mentioned as a College Football Playoff contender.

Halfway into the 2025 campaign, the Hoosiers are 6-0 with a pair of top ten wins including a mammoth victory at previously unbeaten #3 Oregon in formidable Autzen Stadium. If Indiana continues to take care of business, a College Football Playoff bye is very much on the table.

The College Football Playoff will again consist of 12 teams this postseason but the format has been tweaked to strip away the automatic byes for conference champions. Instead, the byes will go to the four highest-ranked teams. The teams ranked numbers 5 through 12 will play in the CFP First Round wit the better seed hosting the worse seed. The four highest-ranked teams will be assigned to Playoff Quarterfinals bowls on Selection Day in ranking order and with consideration to current contract bowl relationships. The Quarterfinal games this season are as follows: Cotton Bowl (December 31), Orange Bowl (January 1), Rose Bowl (January 1) and Sugar Bowl (January 1). The Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl are the College Football Semifinals and the National Championship Game will be held in Miami on January 19.

This sport is so much greater and richer than just focusing on the College Football Playoff, though. Rivalries, the atmosphere on campus for a game, the passion and energy of each fan base and of course, bowl games. The Big Ten has several bowl affiliations but the expectation is that the conference will put several teams into the College Football Playoff and that will almost certainly make it nearly impossible to accurately predict how the bowl picture will play out. Nonetheless, it’s fun to prognosticate and think about potential matchups! A procedural note: The former PAC-12 bowl affiliations are still eligible to pull the four former PAC-12 teams (Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington) for one final season. That means these schools could be snagged by the Alamo, Independence, Holiday, LA, Las Vegas or Sun bowls. Sadly, the Big Ten still has no deal with the Pop Tarts Bowl.

College Football Playoff Bracket

12-seed: South Florida Bulls at 5-seed: Texas Tech Red Raiders

11-seed: Ole Miss Rebels at 6-seed: Texas A&M Aggies

10-seed: Oregon Ducks at 7-seed: Oklahoma Sooners

9-seed: Notre Dame Fighting Irish at 8-seed: Georgia Bulldogs

4-seed (bye): Indiana Hoosiers (Cotton Bowl)

3-seed (bye): Alabama Crimson Tide (Sugar Bowl)

2-seed (bye): Miami Hurricanes (Orange Bowl)

1-seed (bye): Ohio State Buckeyes (Rose Bowl)

Teams Projected to Miss a Bowl Game

I am projecting the following teams to miss a bowl game for the 2025-2026 season: Michigan State, Purdue, UCLA, Rutgers, Wisconsin and shockingly, Penn State.

Big Ten Bowl Matchups

Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (vs. SEC) – December 31

Nebraska Cornhuskers vs. Missouri Tigers

Guaranteed Rate Bowl (vs. Big 12) – December 26

Northwestern vs. Kansas Jayhawks

Las Vegas Bowl (vs. former PAC-12) – December 31

USC Trojans vs. Utah Utes

Holiday Bowl (vs. ACC) – January 2

Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Virginia Cavaliers

Alamo Bowl (vs. Big 12)

Washington Huskies vs. TCU Horned Frogs

Music City Bowl (vs. SEC) – December 30

Michigan Wolverines vs. Vanderbilt Commodores

Pinstripe Bowl (vs. ACC) – December 27

Maryland Terrapins vs. Duke Blue Devils

Reliaquest Bowl (vs. SEC) – December 31

Iowa Hawkeyes vs. LSU Tigers

GameAbove Sports Bowl (vs. MAC) – December 26

Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Miami (OH) RedHawks