Indiana’s Top Four Playoff Ranking Gets Blunt Reality Check From ESPN’s Pat McAfee & Co. After Curt Cignetti’s Bias Claim

Indiana is the reigning national champion, and that title is now part of the argument over where the Hoosiers belong. When the first College Football Playoff rankings came out Tuesday, the committee placed Indiana at No. 4 with an 8-1 record, two spots higher than its place in the AP poll.

ESPN’s analysts have been picking at that number since. The bigger question is whether Indiana earned the spot or is carrying last year’s reputation into it.

“Indiana, I give them all the credit in the world. They believe they’re going to win, and that’s a strength,” analyst Rece Davis said on The Pat McAfee Show. “That should be respected and valued. I wouldn’t say they’ve played like a team that looks like one of the four best teams in the country right now.”

Davis also noted the top four feels less settled than in past years. Meanwhile, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti sees it differently.

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“SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN, 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,” said Cignetti on Kirkwood & Dunn.

He added that the network’s writers, who aren’t technically on its payroll, follow that lead, which explains why so many SEC teams sit high while some good two-loss Big Ten teams sit lower.

Cignetti also posted a stat on Indiana’s five wins over .500 teams on X with the caption: “Facts are stubborn things.”

The record gives both sides something to point to. Indiana sits behind Miami (8-0), Georgia (7-1) and Utah (8-0), and its only loss came to Ohio State, 19-15, on October 17. Ohio State is ranked No. 12, eight spots lower.

Davis also pointed to the team’s two overtime games, against Michigan and Minnesota, and a desperation 60-yard field goal in that stretch, while crediting the Hoosiers for getting it done.

During an ESPN live broadcast on November 3, analyst Greg McElroy took the Ohio State side. He called Indiana at No. 4 and Ohio State at No. 12 the most confusing decision, since the Buckeyes hold the head-to-head win. He said an injury to quarterback Julian Sayin would make the gap easier to accept, citing how the committee treated Florida State after Jordan Travis went down.

His larger complaint was about scheduling. Ohio State lost a close game in Austin in Week 2, while Indiana’s nonconference slate was North Texas, FCS program Howard, and Western Kentucky. “Exhibit A: Why would we?” McElroy said of teams that schedule tough opponents.

Fellow analyst Joey Galloway thinks last year’s title is helping Indiana.

“Dominating games must not be that important,” Galloway said, adding that the Hoosiers are getting the benefit of the doubt as national champions.

McElroy made a similar point. “They’re a far cry from what they were last year,” he said, though he stressed it doesn’t mean they can’t get there.

The debate also reached how the committee builds its list. Chair Hunter Yurachek has said teams are only compared directly when they land in the same pod. Davis questioned how the groupings could keep teams like Indiana and Ohio State, or Alabama and Tennessee, out of the same pile, saying that should have been addressed.

McAfee asked whether sub-votes (multi-stage votes) shaping a final ranking are normal, and Davis said it is not how the AP Poll works. McAfee also said a committee member with a vote should not be the person explaining the decisions, and suggested the executive director do it.

Davis does not see the picture as final and said the committee gets something like a mulligan because 10 of the top 14 teams play each other, so a lot of this should “self-correct over time.”

Indiana gets a bye this week before hosting USC on November 14 at Memorial Stadium. Quarterback Josh Hoover, who got dinged up against Ohio State, was replaced by Grant Wilson at halftime of the Minnesota win, and Cignetti said the offense has been a struggle, but the team scored on its last three possessions.

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