Yeah, it's ridiculous that Missouri loses at home by 8 and falls just one spot, as a 3-loss team. Mind you, Mizzou is no longer even in honorable mention in the AP or coach's poll. They have given teams a boost in rankings most of the season for a "ranked" win over Florida.....who is longer ranked. They won't walk back on those massive ranking boosts they got at the time they beat them, they are simply just that good of a team, regardless.
What about LSU? They have no ranked wins and 3 losses, yet they are still ranked? Why? Because pundits had Texas A&M ranked when LSU beat them 35-6 (now TAM is not ranked). Then they had Mississippi St ranked 16 when they beat them 31-0 (Miss St is not ranked). Based on these types of outcomes, LSU made their way into the top 10. It's this type of bias that is so much worse in the SEC because they start with 9 or 10 teams ranked every year. It's a never-ending cycle of BS that has an end result of Big Ten teams not playing as tough of a schedule.
Either way, just win. I figured we were going to need to win the last 3 games to make the playoffs anyway so although this is ridiculous, we likely never had that additional loss cushion. At this point, we still control our destiny, and we will 100% get a bye if we win our next 4 games. The top teams are not separated enough to allow a 2nd place SEC team ahead of the first place B1G team.
Kentucky has two 28 point losses and only a couple slots behind our Hoosiers.
Iowa, Oregon, Ohio St., and USC would all be a 10 pt favorite against those SEC UK chumps.
I'm not sure Ohio St. would be a ten point favorite over anyone! 🤣Kentucky has two 28 point losses and only a couple slots behind our Hoosiers.
Iowa, Oregon, Ohio St., and USC would all be a 10 pt favorite against those SEC UK chumps.
There's literally zero evidence of this. What there is evidence of is that all 8 of our B1G opponents this year LOST last weekend.Bingo. Their opinions matter....they shouldn't but they always do.
Yeah, we had a couple people scoffing that the media heads such as Heather Dinich spewing vitriol toward Indiana incessantly, doesn't affect the CFP rankings.
Wrong.
Look folks, we're a good team, but our schedule hasn't been good to us this year. Our non-con is obviously not super strong, though UNT isn't bad. All of the B1G teams we have who were supposed to be good have been mediocre or worse, since conference play started. And our loss is losing luster as OSU falls to shit. We have a handful of good wins. We don't have any really good wins on our resume.
No, we didn't play, but the other teams did and the ones that jumped us had far better wins over the weekend than we've had all year:
-Bama thumped LSU
-UCLA, still undefeated and fared better vs Minny than we did...and they were on the road. Much easier to make a head to head comparison after that game.
-ND. Beat #1
-Texas is maybe a little questionable, I'll grant you.
-Tennessee has now whipped 2 teams currently in the field.
What's our best win? Northwestern, probably, and now that Chiles is out and their schedule has toughened, that's not going to be that strong of a win.
So, we have ranked USC coming to our place for a chance at our best win of the season. But if we don't get it, then Northwestern will continue to be our best win of the season and that's not super impactful.
@gros-louis Yep. The metrics took a hge hit, which is why doing this ranking show weekly is silly. It's basing everything off an incomplete resume. two of Ohio State, Northwestern, Rutgers and Nebraska are going to win this weekend. It'd be nice if the Gophers could beat Penn State too. But ultimately, just win.
Thank you for reading Hoosier Huddle
Lots of football left. Excited for USC. "Keep the main thing the main thing." Sticking w coach. Go Hoosiers!
Don't disagree our SoS took a big hit. But when it's weighed as overall SoS it didn't change dramatically from where it was. Or our SofR.
Last week the rankings tracked ESPN's SP+ quite closely. Which I believe is a better metric then a bunch of people in a smoke filled room making a list of who they want, and then inventing talking points to support it. Who took by far the biggest drop and is not closely tracked by Sp+? Indiana.
The one good thing about the lack of respect toward 8-1 Indiana, is the team sees it. Without Cig needing to say anything.
Win, and in.
Heather Dinich HA!!!
There's literally zero evidence of this. What there is evidence of is that all 8 of our B1G opponents this year LOST last weekend.Bingo. Their opinions matter....they shouldn't but they always do.
Yeah, we had a couple people scoffing that the media heads such as Heather Dinich spewing vitriol toward Indiana incessantly, doesn't affect the CFP rankings.
Wrong.
Look folks, we're a good team, but our schedule hasn't been good to us this year. Our non-con is obviously not super strong, though UNT isn't bad. All of the B1G teams we have who were supposed to be good have been mediocre or worse, since conference play started. And our loss is losing luster as OSU falls to shit. We have a handful of good wins. We don't have any really good wins on our resume.
No, we didn't play, but the other teams did and the ones that jumped us had far better wins over the weekend than we've had all year:
-Bama thumped LSU
-UCLA, still undefeated and fared better vs Minny than we did...and they were on the road. Much easier to make a head to head comparison after that game.
-ND. Beat #1
-Texas is maybe a little questionable, I'll grant you.
-Tennessee has now whipped 2 teams currently in the field.What's our best win? Northwestern, probably, and now that Chiles is out and their schedule has toughened, that's not going to be that strong of a win.
So, we have ranked USC coming to our place for a chance at our best win of the season. But if we don't get it, then Northwestern will continue to be our best win of the season and that's not super impactful.
LOL You can't give it a rest, can you? The whole premise is SEC is overrated and its creating your skewed perspective, yet you dont get it. LSU, Missouri, South Carolina.......none should be ranked. Mizzou isn't even in honorable mention on the coaches poll, yet 22nd in the CFP rankings. I believe Northwestern would beat those teams. So the logic you have that builds up these SEC teams SOS are what we are saying is flawed. You are unable to wrap your mind around the idea that those teams aren't as good as they prop them up to be so this logic is not connecting with you.
Calm down, chief.There's literally zero evidence of this. What there is evidence of is that all 8 of our B1G opponents this year LOST last weekend.Bingo. Their opinions matter....they shouldn't but they always do.
Yeah, we had a couple people scoffing that the media heads such as Heather Dinich spewing vitriol toward Indiana incessantly, doesn't affect the CFP rankings.
Wrong.
Look folks, we're a good team, but our schedule hasn't been good to us this year. Our non-con is obviously not super strong, though UNT isn't bad. All of the B1G teams we have who were supposed to be good have been mediocre or worse, since conference play started. And our loss is losing luster as OSU falls to shit. We have a handful of good wins. We don't have any really good wins on our resume.
No, we didn't play, but the other teams did and the ones that jumped us had far better wins over the weekend than we've had all year:
-Bama thumped LSU
-UCLA, still undefeated and fared better vs Minny than we did...and they were on the road. Much easier to make a head to head comparison after that game.
-ND. Beat #1
-Texas is maybe a little questionable, I'll grant you.
-Tennessee has now whipped 2 teams currently in the field.What's our best win? Northwestern, probably, and now that Chiles is out and their schedule has toughened, that's not going to be that strong of a win.
So, we have ranked USC coming to our place for a chance at our best win of the season. But if we don't get it, then Northwestern will continue to be our best win of the season and that's not super impactful.
LOL You can't give it a rest, can you? The whole premise is SEC is overrated and its creating your skewed perspective, yet you dont get it. LSU, Missouri, South Carolina.......none should be ranked. Mizzou isn't even in honorable mention on the coaches poll, yet 22nd in the CFP rankings. I believe Northwestern would beat those teams. So the logic you have that builds up these SEC teams SOS are what we are saying is flawed. You are unable to wrap your mind around the idea that those teams aren't as good as they prop them up to be so this logic is not connecting with you.
Your belief that Northwestern would beat LSU, Mizzou and SoCar is just an opinion based on nothing. Feelings? Good JuJu?
I agree LSU shouldn't be ranked. That has nothing to do with Indiana dropping 5 spots. And whether LSU is ranked or not, they're a talented team and going to Baton Rouge and not just winning but beating their ass is far better than any win we have this season. Far better. Because even our wins...none have been dominant/convincing against a decent/good team.
Mizzou and So Car both also have better wins than we have this year. And they're behind us, as they should be, because of their losses. Again, I don't know what those teams have to do with us dropping 5 spots.
https://twitter.com/JoelKlattShow/status/2120515014423646260?a=GBkhPCcGCg6fi53pIPA&s=20
"It doesn't matter who you lost to" 🤣 🤣
@gros-louis - All of the rankings are based purely on personal belief, that's the point. Why do the pundits believe those teams are better? Clearly, it's not because the B1G has continually showed them they aren't better over the last 3 years. It's the same song and dance. The SEC is over hyped all season, then they fall flat. At some point, the over hyping of that middle to bottom half of the SEC teams, needs to stop. When you rank 10 teams in a conference, you are going to see a ton of ranked wins and perpetually inflate other bad teams to replace them in the rankings and overinflate the top half of the teams. It's a never-ending cycle that creates what looks like a robust SOS, when really, it's just their own bias "eye test" that makes it that way.
To put it another way, if the B1G were given 9 or 10 ranked teams to start the season, we would still have 9 or 10 ranked teams, and our SOS would be much better. We look at the SEC as we did a decade ago and think, they look faster. Then we play them and beat the snot out of them. That's because it's always a mirage all season, propped up by the pundits. You just happen to take them at their word.
@yothn The current version of NW would not likely beat those teams. NW with Chiles, good chance. But that's not what they're ranking any more. I do agree with the overall premise, though. Why are all the various 2 loss SEC teams being lauded, when their "big" wins are nearly all against other SEC teams? When teams like IU, USC, Iowa "haven't beaten anyone"?
Also, we're hearing more and more and more, from the media talking heads, that who you lose to matters a lot less than who you beat. Why? Because that line of thought makes the SEC look better. That's the answer. Georgia losing at home against a bad Auburn team... doesn't really matter. Bama losing at home, AND getting destroyed on the road to Tennessee, evidently matters a lot less than beating Kentucky and whoever else they've beaten.
But in this situation, I think two things can be true. The rankings are BS with all the SEC bias... but IU, if we're all being honest with ourselves, is probably ranked about where it should be. Heck, they might even be overrated a little bit, versus how good they've actually played. The team we've seen the last month or so, isn't a top 10 team. It has some top ten components, for sure... but overall, they just haven't been all that good.
Show me where the CFP uses AP or Coach's rankings in their evaluation of wins and losses.@gros-louis - All of the rankings are based purely on personal belief, that's the point. Why do the pundits believe those teams are better? Clearly, it's not because the B1G has continually showed them they aren't better over the last 3 years. It's the same song and dance. The SEC is over hyped all season, then they fall flat. At some point, the over hyping of that middle to bottom half of the SEC teams, needs to stop. When you rank 10 teams in a conference, you are going to see a ton of ranked wins and perpetually inflate other bad teams to replace them in the rankings and overinflate the top half of the teams. It's a never-ending cycle that creates what looks like a robust SOS, when really, it's just their own bias "eye test" that makes it that way.
To put it another way, if the B1G were given 9 or 10 ranked teams to start the season, we would still have 9 or 10 ranked teams, and our SOS would be much better. We look at the SEC as we did a decade ago and think, they look faster. Then we play them and beat the snot out of them. That's because it's always a mirage all season, propped up by the pundits. You just happen to take them at their word.
The whole reason they don't release their rankings until November is so that they can evaluate teams through the better part of the season before ranking them and nowhere in the data they use is AP rankings or Coach's poll rankings used.
The B1G had a hell of a lot better argument over being the best conference the past 3 years than they have this year. You might not believe this, but I would have supported your argument in those years. The SEC does have a tendency to be overrated by the AP and Coach's (which don't matter), but this is a different year and the B1G isn't very good. Not better at the top. Not better in the middle. Possibly better at the bottom.