Consider Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti one of the people buying into the idea of a conspiracy between ESPN and the SEC over the College Football Playoff rankings.
There's been plenty of controversy over the first set of rankings released by the selection committee on Tuesday, Nov. 4, namely regarding how the SEC appeared to get favorable spots compared to other teams and leagues, like two-loss Alabama at No. 5 and two-loss Texas at No. 7 over undefeated UCLA (No. 8) and one-loss BYU (No. 9). In total, the SEC had more positive gains when comparing the CFP rankings to the US LBM Coaches Poll.
The "conspiracy" about how this happened focuses on the SEC's TV deal with ESPN, which also owns the rights to the CFP. That's apparently enough for
Cignetti, who pointed out the connections during his radio show on Wednesday, Nov. 5.
"These people, and there are a whole bunch of them, they march out of the tent, and they're given instructions on what to say, and they follow the company line, right? I don't need to go any further," he said.
Evidently, he did have more to say, connecting the dots between the SEC and ESPN while advocating for Big Ten teams with the same records. While the SEC has two-loss teams in the top 10, two-loss Big Ten teams are outside with Ohio State at No. 12, Iowa at No. 19 and USC at No. 20.
"SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN and all their writers that they don't technically pay, but march to their drum," Cignetti said. "That's why you see all these SEC teams up there, and some good two-loss teams from the Big Ten, not quite as high. But like I said, it's all going to be played out on the field."
"SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN, you know, and all their writers that they don't technically pay but march to their drum... That's why you see all these SEC teams up there." - Indiana HC Curt Cignetti on the CFP rankings
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 5, 2026
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Cignetti was advocating for the Big Ten ... but there's also been criticism of where his team is slotted. The Hoosiers are at No. 4 despite no ranked wins and close victories against unranked teams. He defended where his team is at.
"One other thing I'd like to say, because a lot of people are bashing our rating, we lost to Ohio State, but people fail to mention that they were at full strength, we knocked the quarterback out, and we missed a layup at the end of the game by four inches," he said, referring to a missed, would-be go-ahead touchdown pass from Josh Hoover to Nick Marsh in the final minutes.
Consider this all more fuel added to the fire in the debate over the 12-team field.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Curt Cignetti takes shot at CFP rankings: 'SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN'
