One of the biggest drops in the latest College Football Playoff rankings happened to a team that didn't even play this past week.
Indiana went from a first-round bye to not even hosting a first-round game, dropping from No. 4 to No. 9 in the rankings, despite being off in Week 10.
It's another controversial spot for the Hoosiers after there was a large consensus they were slotted too high in the first batch of rankings, and while the drop of five spots seems like a course correction, it's still is a drastic drop off for not playing a game. Indiana still remains in the playoff picture, but it went from being projected to having an automatic spot in the quarterfinals to now having to play a first round game on the road if the season ended on Tuesday,
Nov. 10.
So what happened with the Hoosiers?
Playoff committee chair Hunter Yurachek explains Indiana football's CFP rankings drop
CFP selection committee chair Hunter Yurachek said even though Indiana didn't play, it was "probably the victim of having a bye week at the wrong time."
"There were seven games within our top 25, and some of those big wins occurred right around where they were," he told reporters. "Starting with Notre Dame's big win over Miami, Texas over Missouri, UCLA went on the road and beat a Minnesota team that had gone to Indiana the week prior. Indiana needed a 60-yard field goal as time expired to send that game into overtime and win that game.
"The committee is really impressed with what UCLA, Texas and Notre Dame did, as well as Alabama obviously with their big win at LSU, and then every team that Indiana had played to date in the Big Ten, they all lost, so they had six losses that went against their record strength as well as their strength of schedule, and those metrics affected the committee's review of Indiana this week as well," Yuracheck added.
Indiana also struggled on offense, notably at the quarterback position with Josh Hoover's injury forcing a move to backup Grant Wilson. When asked if the quarterback uncertainty played a role in the ranking, Yuracheck responded "the offensive play in general is a discussion point for Indiana."
"They're a dominant defensive team, one of the best — if not the best — defensive teams statistically in the country. They have won games because of their defense, not because of their offense, and so that that is a point of discussion in the room when we're comparing them to other teams."
Indiana will have a chance to improve its ranking when it hosts USC (No. 18 in CFP rankings) in Week 11.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Indiana didn’t even play. So why did Hoosiers plummet in CFP rankings?
