From Underdogs to No. 1: Indiana’s Unlikely CFP Triumph
Indiana football stunned the college football establishment by earning the program’s first-ever No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. The Hoosiers upset then–No. 1 Ohio State 13–10 in the Big Ten Championship Game and secured an automatic quarterfinal berth. Indiana will now enjoy a first-round bye and head to the Rose Bowl on January 1 in Pasadena, Calif., where they’ll face the winner of Oklahoma vs. Alabama. Should they advance, semifinals await in either the Fiesta or Peach Bowl, with a national title showdown slated for January 19 at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
Cheer up, college football purists: your long national nightmare of Indiana never mattering in the CFP is finally over! Yes, the Hoosiers have climbed Mount Fanciful—upsetting Ohio State in a game that surely left Buckeye fans questioning both gravity and the meaning of life. Now Indiana gets a cushy first-round nap before parading its newfound superiority in the Rose Bowl. It’s practically a fairy tale, except with more helmets and fewer pumpkin carriages. Meanwhile, the rest of the playoff field can practice their “I-told-you-so” interviews, because nothing says “we’re the elite” like having to beat Oklahoma or Alabama just to say you lost to the team that lost to the champions. College football: where Cinderella’s slipper is made of pigskin and instant replay.
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