The first set of College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night and boy oh boy are they generating some discussions.
There isn’t really an unstoppable-looking juggernaut in the sport this season, with a few teams sitting with undefeated records but just two of said teams in the top-4. They aren’t even 1-2! Then, of course, there’s Indiana sitting at No. 4, which is higher than I and several others expected them to be.
Let’s dig into that.
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Indiana’s strength of record is stronger than most think
Indiana owns no ranked wins on the season at this point. To a casual observer, this is a glaring sign of schedule weakness. That’s not the case though.
The Hoosiers have beaten six opponents with a winning record this season, five of which came in Big Ten play. Indiana’s Big Ten wins, in schedule order, rank in at No. 23, No. 96, No. 26, No. 29 and No. 59 in SP+. It’s prevailed over SP+‘s No. 10, No. 4 and No. 28th rated defenses, being a few inches away from doing so against the No. 3 rated defense and owning the No. 1 rated defense to itself.
Are the margins slim? Yes. But wins are wins! Indiana’s strength of record sits at No. 4 nationally in ESPN’s Football Power Index, just behind UCLA, Kentucky and Miami.
So about “quality losses”…
Indiana’s sole loss on the 2026 season came at home against Ohio State, which sits eight spots below the Hoosiers at No. 12 in the rankings after suffering road losses at No. 7 Texas and No. 20 USC.
The Hoosiers, as previously mentioned, were a few inches shy of beating the Buckeyes. The nature of the loss probably factored into Indiana’s first ranking, as did those of No. 2 Georgia to unranked Auburn and No. 5 Alabama to Georgia and No. 13 Tennessee.
If you don’t punish Georgia, almost at all, for losing to an unranked opponent or you can’t really justify doing so for Indiana losing to Ohio State. Much less Alabama losing to two ranked foes and ending up right behind the Hoosiers anyway.
The Hoosiers have some control over their ultimate playoff fate
Indiana has three games left in 2026 and the opportunity to pick up a ranked win at home over USC with both teams coming off of a bye week. After that it’s Washington on the road and Purdue at home.
It isn’t impossible to see Indiana falling to USC dropping in the rankings nor winning out and somehow still losing out on a top-4 spot. The loss to Ohio State still puts Indiana under the influence of the teams around it, but it can help itself greatly with a 3-0 record to close out the season.
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