Indiana Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti listened last season as his team was criticized for a “soft” schedule ahead of its inclusion in the College Football Playoff over SEC teams such as Alabama and Ole Miss. Now, Cignetti and the Hoosiers are facing a new round of criticism after cancelling a 2027-28 home-and-home contract with Virginia.
Removing the Virginia series leaves future Indiana schedules with no Power Four opponents until a home-and-home series with Notre Dame that starts in 2030. This season, Indiana begins its campaign with a trio of home games against Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State before Illinois comes to Memorial Stadium.
During Big Ten media days, Cignetti responded to a question about Indiana’s scheduling philosophy by taking a few shots at the same SEC teams who criticized Indiana’s playoff inclusion last season.
“Here’s the bottom line: we picked up an extra home game, and we play nine conference games,” Cignetti said. “The two best conferences in college football, any football guy that’s objective will tell you, are the Big Ten and the SEC. Twelve of the 16 SEC teams play three G5 or an FCS team. Twelve of those teams play 36 games, 29 G5 games and seven FCS games, and one less conference game [than Big Ten teams].
“So, we figured we would just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy. Some people don’t like it. I’m more focused in on those nine conference games.”
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In the College Football Playoff landscape, keeping an easier out-of-conference schedule is a reasonable choice. The Hoosiers were propelled into the bracket last season with comfortable wins in nearly every game of a regular-season schedule that saw them only play one ranked team (Ohio State).
The Ohio State game proved to be a reality check as the Buckeyes won 38-15, but an 11-1 record was good enough for the playoff committee to slot Indiana at No. 10, ahead of several 9-3 SEC teams who believed their tougher strength of schedule merited inclusion.
Cignetti said he has the answer for those criticisms as well.
“Not only do we want to play nine conference games and have the four-four playoff format, we want to have play-in games to decide who plays in those playoffs,” Cignetti said. “Championship weekend, let’s play 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5. You want to decide that on the field and make sure everybody’s strength of schedule is what it needs to be? Let’s make everybody play nine conference games, and on championship weekend, No. 3 will play No. 6, and No. 4 will play No. 5, and there’s still room for another at-large in that format.
“And why shouldn’t the Big Ten have four [automatic playoff qualifiers]? Because Ohio State actually finished fourth in the conference at the end of the season. Indiana and Penn State were tied for second; they won the tiebreaker. Ohio State won the National Championship.”
In the end, Cignetti’s philosophy comes down to what he told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg earlier in the day Tuesday: “Nobody deserves to be in the playoffs because they’ve been in the playoffs four of the last five years. Do it on the field. If you get upset by a couple teams, you shouldn’t get upset by it.”
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