Not sure who I want to play. I see Alabama as the more marquis matchup and a victory over that program would be a nice feather in our cap. However I actually think OU would be the easier foe.  Each team has seemingly been inconsistent this year.  OU losing Mateer for a couple of weeks may have been that reason for them?  And beating OU is not a bad win either.  I'm so confused

@hoosiers94 As the season progressed, and it became obvious this was the best IU team of all-time, I wanted to see them tested against the best and hoped for 3 things: 1) we'd get to play an undefeated OSU team in the B10. 2) We'd get to play and SEC team in the CFP, and 3) we'd get to see ND again in the CFP after they whooped us last year. Obviously 3 can't happen sadly, but 2 is going to happen, and no team epitomizes the SEC like Bama, so that's who I'd like to play. But, I think at home for OU, they probably get the W.

I think OU will win but I'd love to beat the shit out of Alabama.  

@auburnhoosier 

I'd love to smoke Alabama. For sure. But mostly I want to make it to the next round. So don't care about the vanity of it all. It seems to me we match up with OU better but I really haven't watched enough of either team the second half of the season to say I'm correct with that assessment. 

There are line out for both games.  IU is around -9.5 vs. OU and around -6.5 vs. Bama.

Bama is a tougher opponent, but would be a sweeter win. OU is still a big time program, and would probably be easier.

@tammany Kinda depends on if Bama got a little more healthy.  Maybe those lines reflect that?  But IU hasn't exactly thumped the teams that have elite level defenses, this year.  And OU's defense is certainly elite, and Bama's certainly isn't.  If Bama were to come out of that game still having injury concerns, I think we'd actually have a better chance to beat them.  They're a wildcard though, because if they do get a couple of their key injured players back, their ceiling is quite a lot higher than OU's.  Gonna be a tough matchup no matter what.  Hopefully the trend from last year with the bye teams not faring well, doesn't carry over to this year too.  A month is a LOOOONNNGGGG layoff.

@iunorth The lines reflect everything!  😉

Bama’s D is pretty darn good.  8th in SP+.

The layoff is worrisome.  While they were playing a buzzsaw, Oregon was flat last year.  

I think the layoff is absolutely perfect for us. We honestly didn't seem ready last year at Notre Dame.

We need to heal up. I'll trust the team leaders and coaches to be ready to bring it, layoff or not. 

I think Alabama has the POTENTIAL to be a more difficult matchup for us.  OU is SOOOOO bad on offense, that I just can't see them being able to beat us, even if it is another <30pt total.

@gros-louis They're better than Iowa on offense, probably better than a backup QB led PSU on offense too... just sayin.

I think Bama has the talent to play a lot better than OU but they're both banged up.

Posted by: @iunorth

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@gros-louis They're better than Iowa on offense, probably better than a backup QB led PSU on offense too... just sayin.

Not sure if I agree in either case. 

Posted by: @openwheel

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I think the layoff is absolutely perfect for us. We honestly didn't seem ready last year at Notre Dame.

We need to heal up. I'll trust the team leaders and coaches to be ready to bring it, layoff or not. 

I don’t think we beat ND last year with another week of rest / healing / prep. They were just better, especially at home.

Posted by: @jackskip23

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Posted by: @openwheel

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I think the layoff is absolutely perfect for us. We honestly didn't seem ready last year at Notre Dame.

We need to heal up. I'll trust the team leaders and coaches to be ready to bring it, layoff or not. 

I don’t think we beat ND last year with another week of rest / healing / prep. They were just better, especially at home.

 

A few weeks sure as hell wont harm us, this year.

Much better to be as healthy as possible and then kick ass.

Especially since its a gauntlet with more games.

,