Hey TOC Nation, the college football season is down to this one last game. The Indiana Hoosiers and the Miami Hurricanes will meet Monday night at 7:30 PM ET. The game is being played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, where the Canes play their home games, giving a potential home field advantage to the lower ranked team. The game will air on ESPN.
Indiana was the lone team to make it out of the regular season with an unblemished record, winning the Big Ten Championship over Ohio State to earn the #1
seed in the playoffs. Their two playoff wins have been absolute beatdowns, first dispatching Alabama, 38-3, before pummeling Oregon by an almost identical margin, 56-22, in the semifinals.
Miami has had a tougher route. After losing a pair of conference games, to Louisville and at SMU, the Hurricanes did not even qualify for the ACC Championship. Instead, they had to wait for the selection show to see if they would make the field; there was a strong debate between them and Notre Dame for that last at-large spot. In the playoffs, Miami got by Texas A&M, 10-3, in College Station to get things going. Then they knocked off defending champions Ohio State, 24-14. And last week, they prevailed in an instant-classic semifinal over Ole Miss, 31-27.
Indiana comes into this game as the betting favorite. FanDuel has them as the favorites by 8.5. SB Nation’s national surveys show that the vast majority of the betting public is putting their cash on the Hoosiers to cover.
An even larger majority of fans polled say they are cheering for Indiana.
What side are you on, TOC Nation? Are you pulling for the Cinderella from the Big Ten? Or are you hoping to see the trophy go to a historical power? And does Indiana’s rise to prominence give you hope as an MSU fan or does it make you feel like there is an even taller mountain for MSU to climb now?
