So Indiana announced it had a schedule change for the 2027 season, and it went about how you’d think it would go.
Dropping UMass, adding Jacksonville State. One preseason game for another.
But before we get into the weeds of Indiana’s horrific nonconference scheduling philosophy, understand this: It won’t end until it becomes a problem.
And it only becomes a problem if the nonconference schedule prevents Indiana from reaching the College Football Playoff. Other than that, Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti just delivered another serving of shut your yap to all his detractors.
Because it doesn’t matter who Indiana plays in the nonconference schedule. Doesn’t matter that Ohio State had a home-and-home with Texas, and has futures with Alabama and Georgia.
Doesn’t matter that Michigan had Oklahoma, and will play the return game with Texas and has Notre Dame on the future docket. Doesn’t matter that Penn State has a similar, pathetic future steady diet of body-bag games.
All that matters is Indiana under Cignetti has won 20 of 21 Big Ten games, and no matter what happens outside that number, that's a direct ticket to the CFP.
What else is there?
Why bang your head against Alabama and Texas and Georgia and LSU if you don’t have to? Why jeopardize a won-loss record when the CFP selection committee has proven over and over that it values wins over strength of schedule?
That’s the problem, everyone. Not Indiana’s philosophy.
If the CFP selection committee announced it was placing significant weight on nonconference schedules, IU would add home-and-homes with LSU or Texas or Florida or whoever.
Show me the rules, I’ll follow them.
“That was a scheduling philosophy that began before I was hired,” Cignetti said last year while explaining Indiana’s nonconference schedule. “But I did sign off on it upon being hired.”
Why wouldn’t he?
I can promise you this: The only reason a majority of SEC schools schedule a 10th game against a Power conference opponent is because the presidents and chancellors of the schools said so. They kicked and screamed all the way to a nine-game SEC schedule, for the love of all things Roy Kramer.
That’s what makes the potential move to a 24-team CFP so intriguing. The SEC is the last holdout in moving to 24, and commissioner Greg Sankey says the conference won’t agree to expansion unless every Power conference team plays 10 games against Power conference opponents.
The 30-day negotiating window with ESPN to expand the playoff officially ends Thursday, and discussion will then more than likely move to the open market. More network television and streaming options, more billions.
But the SEC demand of 10 Power conference games won’t end. Any expansion will come with that, or the playoff will stay at 12 teams.
So if expansion arrives, and if Indiana is forced to add a Power conference opponent to its nonconference schedule, don’t be shocked if the philosophy stays closely aligned to its current trajectory.
Drop Jacksonville State, add Kansas.
Drop Austin Peay, add Syracuse.
Why would the Hoosiers change? When you can roll through the Big Ten like Indiana has, when you can name the score in a majority of games against the conference that has won the past three national titles, there’s your resume.
When you reach the CFP, and win the whole damn thing by beating Miami in its home stadium ― how's that for a nonconference game? ― there's your statement. Not a game in Death Valley or The Swamp or Bryant-Denny Stadium, or those same games in Bloomington.
Don’t blame Indiana. Blame the CFP selection committee.
It’s a tale as old as time: What’s allowed is what’s taken.
Until it becomes a problem.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. Listen to him daily, from 12-2 p.m., on 1010XL-Jacksonville.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Indiana isn’t ducking anybody. It’s following CFP's broken blueprint | Opinion
