USC football might feel underrated at No. 18 in the College Football Playoff rankings this week. USC's upcoming opponent, the Indiana Hoosiers, might also feel disrespected and undervalued. Despite not playing this past weekend, Indiana fell five whole spots in the new CFP rankings, tumbling from No. 4 to No. 9.
Purely in terms of analysis, the No. 9 ranking is fair to Indiana. The Hoosiers have not played dominant football this season, unlike most of 2025. Indiana lost to Ohio State, didn't play Oregon or UCLA, and scheduled weak nonconference foes. This is not a dynamic and overwhelmingly impressive collection of wins. Indiana is in second place in the Big Ten, but that's the only real achievement the Hoosiers have forged to date. If IU loses
to USC this coming Saturday, the Hoosiers probably won't even make the Big Ten Championship Game and will be in danger of missing the playoff entirely.
The concern for USC is that Indiana, having been downgraded so severely by the CFP committee, might play with a chip on its shoulder in this game against the Trojans. USC, though, has reason to feel disrespected in its own right. We can all agree on this, even if we might not agree on where either team should be ranked: USC and Indiana both have a ton to prove this coming weekend in Bloomington. The game is at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time, 3:30 Eastern, on CBS.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Indiana drops in College Football Playoff rankings before USC game
