And welcome back to the Bison chat.
Galen Clavio, Joe Cronin joining you.
We got Emily Fox behind the scenes, pressing the buttons,
making the magic happen. We're back a day later than
normal. We had to too much going on
yesterday. IU basketball was playing, a
bunch of other stuff going on. But we're here tonight, whether
you're watching us live or whether you're going to be
tuning in on YouTube after the fact or listening on Spotify as
we talk IU football. Tons to talk about, Joe.
We've had the bucket game, we've had the most recent playoff
reveal, we've had national signing day, all kinds of things
going on in what is essentially an off week for IU as their
regular season is over and now they await whoever they are
going to face in the College Football Playoff.
Good to see you. How you doing today?
I'm doing great. Just want to preface first, this
isn't my room. I am not a Dodgers fan.
This is my roommate Zach. It's best for the Wi-Fi
situation that has been plaguing maybe, maybe the chats in in
weeks prior, but doing well. And Galen, I will say it's been
funny, like with the bye week before the Ohio State game and
then now, which is essentially the off week, seems like IU
still has plenty of attention in the football world, in the
College Football Playoff world, because that other bye week was
when Signetti signs that massive extension.
And then now, you know, National Signing Day is a big deal.
And then so much implication, so much chatter around, like what's
gonna happen here on a championship weekend.
It should be fun. And, you know, it's been it's
been a ride so far. And a lot of a lot of eyes are
gonna be glued to those, those championship games.
Yeah, just a ton to to be settled over the course of the
last weekend and and then not a lot of time to linger on it
because they're going to do the final College Football Playoff
reveal on Sunday at noon. You know, So we're going to go
like right from the afterglow of, you know, those 8:00 games,
you got Big 10 and ACC at 8:00. And then we're going to get
about 12 hours of sleep and we're going to figure out where
everybody's going and who they're playing.
And, you know, we're going to talk about that in a minute.
We're talking about where Indiana's spot is in a minute.
First, let's talk a little bit about that bucket game, Joe
Indiana, a historic whooping on Purdue, 66 to nothing.
And it was a magical day all the way around.
You know, it was one of those days.
Everybody was afraid of the weather.
It was, it was going to be really cold and then the snow
entered into the forecast and you got this almost magical
atmospheric condition going on in Memorial Stadium.
There were a lot of concerns about the crowd.
Crowd ended up being fine. A lot of people there, it was
loud and they got treated. If you're an IU fan, to one of,
if not the greatest moment for IU in the entire series dating
back to 1891. Absolutely.
I mean, 66 nothing can't really draw much of A better
performance. And the moment there when Mike
Kadik is sprinting, screaming with the buck, I mean at knowing
his story and what he's gone through six years now, it just
kind of it warmed the heart a little bit.
I mean, that's a that's a cool feel good story right there and
no one, no one better really to be the one lifting it up,
hoisting it. But wow, that was a whooping of
all whoopings saw in like the I think Purdue was ranked 133rd at
the end of the season out of 134 FBS teams.
So. They they are they.
They were bad. They.
Were bad thanking their lucky stars that Kent State exists.
It was ranked dead last. It was it was bad and this was a
historically bad Purdue season. We which we talked about last
week, they fired Ryan Walters, their head coach, the day after
the game. I'm actually kind of surprised
they waited that long given how bad Purdue was in that game.
You know, it's, it's funny, you know, 'cause Purdue, even though
they weren't great last year, they beat Indiana.
And if you kind of stopped at the end of the bucket game last
year and you thought about the trajectory of the two programs
at that point, Tom Allen was still the head coach.
You know, Ryan Walters hadn't been, they hadn't been
illustrated that he was going to be a complete disaster, which he
did end up being. But you could see some optimism
if you were a Purdue fan at that point.
And for IU fans, it looked like, God, we're going to have another
season where things aren't going to happen.
What a difference, what a difference a year makes.
It's it's hard. It's it's almost impossible for
anybody, fans, media, anybody involved in the program to
believe that. That was only a year ago that
Indiana was finishing off a three and nine season with a
depressing loss against the not very good Purdue team on the
road. And to win a game against Purdue
and launch themselves into the College Football Playoff, it
just, it does it. It boggles the mind.
You can't really make the connections effectively in your
head. Well, it was a little maybe not
funny, but interesting. Back-to-back seasons after the
bucket game, The, the, the loser head coach was fired and was no
longer there. And, and to your point about
Walters not being maybe fired in the mid season, I, I don't think
Purdue could have done that because he was only in his
second year. And I think one in 11 was
enough. Cause in year 2 where it's like
this is not getting any better. There was no juice within that
program. I mean, they go into that, sure,
it's still a rivalry game, but they go down, you know, 21 zero.
What, what more, what more fight does this team have?
What more are they playing for? And it seemed like that was the
sign right there that something needs to change.
And with Indiana last year, what they did right after losing is
they had a complete overhaul brought in or signetti.
And then really the rest is history.
Threw out all the buzz chatter, all the, you know, pick 17th in
the Big 10 finishing tied for second.
I think they blocked out enough noise to say the least, but just
a complete 18180 on top of that for Purdue.
I'm not really I think they just went from bad to worse.
But, you know, IU is is here and they are knocking on the door
of, you know, being a playoff team.
And I mean, I, I believe that they should be.
I don't think they'll be punished.
I think they'll be locked right in after this past week.
And I think it was good to see them locked in.
There should be much more motion, but one more ranking
remains. Yeah, one more ranking and
that'll be the one on on Sunday. And essentially IU is in I
think, really good shape. We'll talk about the rankings
here in a little bit. You know, the I'll wrap up on
the bucket game just by saying this.
It's really fascinating to me when you think about, you know,
IU and the investments that they made in football that allow them
to get to the point that they're at right now.
And they continue to make those investments.
And, you know, there was an article today I was reading
about Purdue where, you know, the there was an interview with
Ryan Walters, who, you know, I'll give him credit for doing
an interview so soon after being fired.
But he made some kind of comment about like, he's not sure what
the NIL situation is at Purdue. Like he doesn't seem to think
they have much of A plan. And this is where, you know, a
lot of times when we've had conversations about IU athletics
historically, the administration kind of gets criticized for not
providing support at the levels that you would think.
And that has been a historical issue with IU football.
But it is amazing, like two programs that are pretty similar
in terms of success. And, you know, they've kind of
gone back and forth where neither has been good together.
Like there's always 1 is good or the other is good.
It's just fascinating that IU just decided to hit the
accelerator and it's like, yes, we're going to go hire this
coach and his staff. We're going to give him all this
NIL money we're going to have this season.
Then we're going to build on that by extending him, paying
him $8 million a year, which is an astronomical figure for
either Indiana or Purdue. You know, increase the assistant
pool, increase the NIL pool. It is really fascinating with
this as a case study, watching these two programs who have
always been kind of joined at the hip.
Purdue's always been a little bit ahead of Indiana in football
and Indiana's like, we don't have time to trifle with this.
Now we have got to hit the gas and move forward.
And again, you know, I say this, I've said this pretty much every
week, but you got to give the administration credit for
finally stepping up to the plate and doing what needed to be done
to kind of elevate Indiana in this rivalry.
I will say in more of the brand, not not in basis of the rivalry,
but in the brand of college football, it was kind of a do or
die moment that if you're a name brand like Indiana, that's a
massive school. A lot of collective, obviously a
lot of distinguished alumni coming from Indiana.
That was the time that if they're going to invest in
football, it's when they bring in this new coach, It's when
they bring in this new culture. It makes it so much easier in a
sense that maybe, you know, they keep Tom Allen wins six games.
How hard or how easy is it to to kind of invest right then?
But you bring in this new guy with this new mindset, he's 6
and O and people start to believe the investment start to
roll in. And then, you know, kind of know
he gets that massive contract. And it was one of the more well
deserved contracts in all of college football.
And it's just part of the way that this college football
season has gone. I mean, one example is also with
SMUI Mean this was a team that was fantastic in the 80s and
they were doing NIL before NIL was legal.
They're paying players pretty under the table, over the table.
They got caught, they got caught.
There's no hiding it. Joe, they were.
Passing out cash. Filled envelopes in the locker
room. There's no hiding it.
I won't even say under the table.
It was blatant. They were handing players money.
They get severely punished, hit rock bottom.
Now they're in their first year in a power conference and pretty
much locked in for a playoff spot.
And it's a little different. They do have more history than
Indiana, but it's a kind of a similar thing.
It's like they could invest, make the jump at the right
moment. It's like.
Well, well, and it's that and SMU is kind of funny in that
what there's a there's a few things you left out a like SMU
boosters have more money. Yes, the the SMU boosters are
are are swimming. There's an insane amount of oil
money and what? Was what was the duck?
What's the duck's name that always dives in the gold coins?
Oh, Scrooge Mcduck. Scrooge Mcduck, Yes.
Just a bunch of bunch of those with SMU.
He was fascinating about SMU and we'll talk about this again when
we get to the playoff thing a little bit.
But this isn't a program that has been desperate to try to get
into a major conference. And they were so desperate to
get into the ACC that they agreed that they would not take
any television money for like 9 years just so they could be a
member of the ACC. Florida State, in their lawsuit
against the ACC trying to break the grant of rights agreement
that's holding them there until 2036, actually argued that
having SMU in the conference was going to hurt their strength of
schedule and was going to hurt the overall brand power of the
ACC. Which was maybe even more ironic
now by the fact that a, as you said, SM us in the driver's seat
for a College Football Playoff berth.
And of course, Florida State finished three and nine this.
Bad season for them, bad year. Anyway, back on Indiana and
Purdue, I'm I'll say this, you know, and I feel the same way in
basketball that I feel in football.
I would love nothing more than Indiana Purdue to be a rivalry
that was good every year that that had good teams playing,
that had teams that were playing for meaningful games in December
or January. And it's one of those deals
where it would be great if Purdue could figure out their
NIL situation. I I think Purdue kind of got
caught on the wrong side of an athletic director shuffle.
This was mentioned earlier by Matt Uel where they hired a
great athletic director for the previous era and the previous
era is gone. And now it's really about can
you get yourself into the playoffs?
Can you get your NIL collective up and running?
Can you get the the money that's needed to go out and be
competitive on the marketplace? And that's hard to do.
And you know, and it's especially hard when you're
hiring process is like, you know, you're not going to strike
gold like Indiana struck with with Kurt Zignetti.
And and as much as you praise that higher and that higher is,
you know, has been amazing, even Scott Dolson in his wildest
fever dream moments could not have predicted what happened
this year. It's a it's kind of lightning in
a bottle to some degree. Now.
I think it's sustainable. Maybe not at 11:00 and 1:00 or
12:00 and O every year, but I think 8910 wins is certainly
sustainable for Signetti. But you know, I remember I, I
had somebody come up to me the other day who doesn't follow
football that much. I might have shared this story
back earlier on in the in the year, but they were like, you
know, this new coach seems to be doing really well.
I'm like, you know, he's doing great.
She's like, well, well, why didn't they just hire a guy like
that before? And it's like, it doesn't really
work that way. Like you, you really don't know
if someone's going to totally work out.
I mean, I'll note in the Big 10, do you remember Joe who the
consensus Jonathan Smith was? It was Jonathan Smith at
Michigan State. And I don't think he's entirely
to blame for the situation there, because let's be honest,
he inherited quite a dumpster fire.
Yeah, I with everything that happened with the previous
situation, I do have to feel bad.
But but the reality is, like even Jonathan Smith, who had
great, great pedigree, did really well at Oregon State.
I mean, that's a guy with some talent on his team.
He couldn't get that team passed five and seven this year.
So even hires that everybody thinks are going to be dynamite
don't always work out. And that's where Purdue has got
some real problems. I mean when you only score, I
mean their their performance this year in the Big 10 is
reminds me a lot of like that that 2021 year that timeout had.
I did see something crazy, if they started every game with a
34 point lead they would be 6:00 and 6:00.
I like, I almost feel bad. Yeah, I, I mean, I, I don't feel
bad. I feel.
I that's what I almost like. There's a big difference there,
but anyway, Indiana 66 nothing as we mentioned, the the biggest
margin of victory for IU in series history, the second
biggest margin of victory ever. The other one is should not
count because it was in 1892. Purdue won 68 to nothing but
Indiana had so few players that like there was an article in the
Indiana daily student like shaming men on the IU campus for
not going out and playing on the football team.
That's how bad in the Indian football had only existed, but
at that point for five years and they hadn't they hadn't fielded
a regular team, but for one year.
This was still like a like a a group of guys hanging out in an
intramural field being coached by a professor.
That's how long ago that it was. So for for the modern era, this
was the largest margin of victory either way and a huge
tip of the cat. This is how this is one of those
things. It's like this is how you get
people unquestioningly devoted to you as a coach.
You you win big games and you go and beat the crap out of your
rival, right? Like that.
I mean, anybody that was in that stadium who was an IU fan for
the next however many years, Joe, when you're going to games
when you're 70, you know, and it's, it's whatever, 20/20/75 or
whatever you're going to be like, yeah, I was, I was in the
stadium when Indiana eat Purdue 66 to nothing.
These are the gifts that keep on giving.
Yeah, I mean, that's really what it's all about.
I they, what they did is what like, again, like I've said,
what these top level teams do to opponents of a, of a Purdue
caliber 66. That's a, that's a lot.
And considering there wasn't a touchdown, there wasn't a score
for the 1st 9 minutes, both teams went like 3 and out to
start the game. Or maybe not 3 and out, but both
teams had to punt on their first series.
But I just kind of it was the the cherry on top of a
tremendous, tremendous regular season for Indiana football,
historic one that one that, like you said, I'm going to remember
not just the game this whole season.
And I'll go back to your point about Scott Dolson and how maybe
in his wildest dreams he couldn't have thought 11 and one
playoff berth right on the right on the brink.
It was at UCLAI was down in the field and I was trying to stick
close to Sig watches, you know, fist up.
And I noticed Olson and he like he was like thanking the crowd.
And I don't want to say for sure, but it looked like he had
like tears in his eyes and was like he this was and this was
also the same moment that someone asked Mike Katie, we got
to talk to him on Saturday after the game.
He said that was also the moment he was like, OK, this is real.
Like what had what is happening with this team because those
first two games was, you know, FIU and Western Illinois.
So a little bit of a different brand of football and then they
go and that was the moment three and O in a just a whooping where
it's like, oh, this what is happening is, is real football.
This is a team that can compete and they have shown that they
can compete and they're about to in front of the entire nation at
the highest level. And I mean, it seems the fans
have invested. I mean, there was a packed house
at Memorial Stadium up until it's about like, you know, 5052
to 0 or whatever it was. So they, they had a good show
and students were there and of course it was cold and
significant. A funny moment.
He was like fans didn't say the whole time, I guess they were
cold or whatever. It was something like that.
I was like, wow, this guy just. All.
Cast all the time. He is a deadpan comedian.
It's always great to see. But no, you're right.
I mean, there was there, I remember I was at the UCLA game
too, and I remember Dolson coming off and, and it, it did
kind of look like he was emotional.
But I like a lot of people who had followed this team for a
long time were really emotional after that game.
It was, it was an early idea that Indiana might be good.
And I, I think I got asked this on another podcast, but it's
like, you know, what was the turning point moment where you
really felt like this team could be special, like really special.
And to me it was, it was almost certainly the Nebraska game, you
know, because, you know, you think about it like the
Northwestern game, you're like, OK, there's something real going
on here. But there was still some flaws.
The Nebraska game was such a flawless set of circumstances
that, you know, you, you couldn't help but being there
and listening to the crowd and watching the team perform to
that level and just be like, wow, what is going on?
And it's, you know, did the season end perfectly?
No, obviously, you know, you lose the game to Ohio State.
You've had some angst over whether Indiana is is safe in
the playoff. I think they are now.
But it, it is really fascinating kind of going back in your mind
and trying to think through like, at what point did you
change your mind about what you could, what this team could be?
And I think that it's a really fascinating thing that to walk
through just from a mental perspective and, and watching
people like Scott Dolson, who you see on the field after
games, watching Signetti slowly start to warm up to the crowds,
watching the team, you know, really like fully embracing the
students and the crowd and just becoming like the whole thing's
just kind of grown together in a way that is really, really fun
and wholesome in a way that we just don't normally attribute to
college football. They they were growing all at
the same time, 'cause I mean, freshmen on campus are
witnessing the best IU football team to ever be on Bloomington.
It'd be in Bloomington. And, and just with that Nebraska
game, I mean, there was feelings like what if they go beat
Michigan by 40? What if they go to Columbus and
beat Ohio State by two scores? Obviously that didn't happen.
Both those didn't happen. But I think the thing, and
obviously Ryan Day did say you got to learn how to lose and
Indiana learned how to lose. Another thing with that, there
was only one undefeated FBS team in the regular season.
Teams were losing and even that they squeaked by some games.
Wisconsin, Ohio State at home, Boise State at home, Oregon,
fantastic team. Definitely the number number one
team in the country by far, or just at least from being
undefeated, but it wasn't easy for them.
So this has been a fantastic just year of college football on
the national scale, not just with the Indiana.
And Indiana is just one of those pieces that makes it.
Just just such a special year around, I mean this new 12 team
format in the play offs and the storylines and IU is really at
kind of the front of this awesome college football story
that's happening. Well, they're at the front of
it. Unless you're a soulless bastard
like so many of these SEC stands are who are like.
Yeah, yeah, they didn't play. Anybody it's, it's been, it's
been amazing watching. But that's The thing is when you
start to get to haters, that's when you know you've made it.
That's. When you know, you've made it,
that's right. Well, before we get to the
haters in the College Football Playoff, let's talk a little bit
about national signing day. You know, Kurt Signetti
obviously taking the podium and talking about his class today,
talking about some of the the pieces that was that was not my
Paul Finebaum voice crying. I've got a different one for
that which I'm not going to uncork tonight, but we'll, we'll
save that for next week. But let's hear Sig talking about
the class and and and what he's got coming in here.
You know, it's all about people, the coaches you hire, the
players you recruit, right? And there's a lot of good
players out there. And I mean, you're looking for
people that are passionate about what they do, goal oriented,
know how to set goals and go about achieving them.
Now they're still young guys and they're going to need developed
and guide got it correct. I like the class.
I think all, I think these guys all have a chance and we're
excited about them. So pretty big class, not a
terribly high-ranking class when you think about what Indiana's
done this year, which isn't surprising because you got to
keep in mind like college football recruiting really
happens a whole year ahead of whatever cycle you're in.
But that said, they pick up with a couple of nice pieces towards
the end. They get a recommit from a
four-star that had decommitted from them earlier.
They've got a lot of line on both sides coming in, like a lot
of guys up front. And you know, it's one of those
things where Indiana's probably going to do most of their damage
in terms of the top line roster spots in the portal as opposed
to in the recruiting class. But it is nice to see Indiana
amassing a solid Class, A Top 40 ish class which can be a
building block for what they do, not just in the portal, but who
they decide to try to bring in next year as well.
Absolutely. And like you said, a lot of
these guys have been committed and all they needed to do was
just write their name on the piece of paper.
They they were ready to be an Indiana Hoosier.
So a lot of times don't really pay attention to the stars yet.
It's a solid recruiting class for Indiana football standards
in the long history. But it like you said, it just
paved the way. I mean, I'm it what you're going
to look at for 20/26/2020 7:00 That's where it's going to get
exciting. I think one thing noticing is
just some of the Indiana guys coming in, you know, getting
some three stars from there. There's the battle right there.
Indiana now has a real shot to be in a recruiting battle in the
state with Notre Dame. Obviously, it takes more than
just one season, but they have now put themselves in a position
above Purdue and Purdue is out recruiting Indiana in the state.
Now IU is all the leverage on their side.
And then like you trickle into Ohio, Kentucky, Ohio is going.
Ohio State is going to be attacking the four or five stars
and a lot of five stars. IU can poach a few four stars
from Ohio if they wanted to. I mean, if if they look at
anything that IU has done this season and you're choosing
between two schools, I feel like it's difficult.
If you have a toss up between IU and Ohio State and you're a
four-star and you're going to get playing time somewhere.
I don't know, you just kind of roll the dice on that one.
So it's going to be exciting these next four years with
recruiting, obviously this first year, it's not a ton.
You get to see some new faces. It's good to see them
highlighted, the respect that Cygnetti has for them as well.
But the, the, the, this will be a project here, kind of get them
developed into the system. I doubt many of these guys will
play this next season, but you know, get them sitting behind
probably some quality transfers. And again, the coaching staff
that is here, they have proven that they can take 3 star talent
and make them legit even less than two three star talent at
times. I mean Aidan Fisher was a two
star recruit and it's the first team all big 10 guy.
Yeah, well, and look, I I always look at recruiting like this,
you're you're probably not going to win many battles for four and
five stars in the state of Indiana against the Ohio
State's, the Notre Dame's, the Michigan's, the Alabama.
Alabama's come up and gotten a lot of people out of compete.
For four stars now. But well, but here's the thing,
and I've always believed this. Yes, you can compete for those
four stars, but I think the sustainable model for Indiana is
being able to beat out the Iowa's and the Wisconsin's for
the three star upside guys. Guys that might have just a
little bit off on their measurables.
Cause like realistically you don't become a national player
in recruiting overnight. That is a long bill that
requires a lot of years of 8910 win seasons.
But you know, Indiana, they this coaching staff and Signetti have
shown a real ability to develop talent.
And if you look at Iowa, you look at Wisconsin, you look to
some degree at Michigan State when they made the College
Football Playoff, you know, back in what, 2016 or 2015, they
didn't get there with a lot of four and five stars.
They got there with a lot of three star guys that they
developed and were able to put into a position where they
became all Big 10 or they became draft picks after not being that
heavily regarded. Now, I think the NIL landscape
changes that a little bit. Maybe development becomes
slightly less important, but if you can get a guy for two or
three years from that circumstance, I do believe that
that puts Indiana in good shape. And as you know, Signetti even
mentioned it on I forget if it was, I think I think it was the
the the 24/7 show that he was doing today where he talked
about how a lot of the benefits of the season they had this year
is really going to start popping up not just in the portal class,
but also in the recruiting class that you will see next year.
And so that's that's something to keep in mind.
Now one of the big question marks has been quarterback,
because obviously this is it for Curtis Rourke.
So Signetti was asked about that in the press conference.
Let's hear what he had to. Say, you know, we have two young
quarterbacks in the program that we like, Tyler Cherio and
Mendoza. So we didn't feel a real need to
sign a young quarterback this year.
We will definitely recruit a quarterback out of the portal.
And in terms of our other needs, I'll let you guys put pen to
paper and figure out who's coming back and who we're losing
and figure that out on your own. Notable that is a great answer.
Notable name not mentioned there.
Well, Emily and I were were talking about this beforehand
and I, I think that that that last drive in the Purdue game
where he ran in for the touchdown, that kind of felt
like his goodbye present. And you know, we'll see.
Maybe he's back. I don't think he, I don't think
he, there was no notice he was in the portal.
You know it, It's interesting, 'cause I thought he was fine in
that Washington game. He came in and, and did a good
job of spelling Curtis Rourke in the second-half of the Nebraska
game. But you just wonder, is he the
type of quarterback that they can build around given what they
like to do offensively? And I just don't know what the
answer to that is. So I'm really curious to see
what happens with Tavin Jackson, but him not getting mentioned
even in that answer probably tells us a lot.
Yeah, and I had a feeling that they would go and attack a
portal quarterback. And to the point of Tavin not
being in the portal yet, it's because I used still playing.
And if work goes down, then who's the next man up?
It's Tavin Jackson. It's not going to be Tyler
Sherry. So with with Tavin moving
forward, I mean, he's still just like that's the the build, the
skill set, it it's eye candy for recruiters, for coaches.
And he's 65, pretty mobile, has a good arm.
It's just some of the developmental things.
I think, you know, he's it's had it's been a tough ride for him.
He's bounced for schools already, the coaching change,
everything like that. And when he thought he's going
to be the guy last year lost the starting role to Brendan Sorsby.
And who knows what was going through his head this year
decided to ride with Signetti and be the backup.
But I will say there was a moment that it was after the
Nebraska game when Roark gets hurt, he's in his he was in like
a brace, sling, whatever the wrap around his hand.
And Taven had his arm around him as they both went to like
embrace the student session. So I, I do think Taven wants to
be a part of the team. It's just a matter of the, is he
the guy to be the starter? And I don't know.
I mean, I honestly thought that Washington game was going to be
a try out, but it's you, you can't base that one game off of
everything in the future. So they'll go attack the portal.
And I mean, again, like if you're a transfer quarterback,
you saw what Curtis work was able to do.
It's it's a hot market outside of some, outside of some big
name teams. The, the, the I was going to be
one of the hottest market for a quarterback outside of, I'd say
like Miami, Colorado probably. It's.
And maybe Georgia. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be a
very attractive place for not just quarterbacks to land, but
others who have seen what this group, you know, that was at
James Madison and is now coaching at IU have been able to
do with the various quarterbacks that they have brought in.
And, you know, it's like if you really do have a, you know, a
guy who's like a generational sort of this was always the
question with Julian Lewis. It's like, well, do you want to
spend that amount of money on a quarterback that's not going to
be able to start right away, that you're going to have to,
you know, bring along slowly? You still got to pay that guy
when he's on the bench and when you can go out and just get
somebody in the portal that is going to be able to produce at a
high level from the get go like Curtis Rourke has now.
They don't always work out as well as Curtis Rourke did.
I will say having coach Tino as the quarterback coach as
absolutely helpful. I mean he is a proven guy and I
mean if if Shanahan is to get poached at some point, I imagine
Tino's the next man up to the OC of IU football so.
Yeah, it's going to be fascinating watching that.
I mean, the the increased staff budget should help keep the
staff together, but you can't stop guys who are, you know
they're going to find a head coach, but.
You can't stop them from pursuing their long term
careers. So, you know, it's one of those
things where all you can really do is think about, you know, if
you're if you're a transfer quarterback, I'm going to come
in, I'm going to work with the staff.
They're going to be able to get me to where I want to go.
I mean, look at Curtis Work. Curtis Work, yes, he was Mac
player of the Year. No one was talking about him as
like a Heisman candidate coming into the season.
And yet, for all parts of the year, he was. 22nd ranked
transfer quarterback and I'd say he was this season.
He was probably the 4th best after production outside of like
Dylan, Gabriel, Cam Ward and I'm blanking on the other one.
I'd say third honestly. Third best is probably probably
right where he falls in SO. Yeah.
It's big jump right there. It's huge, you know.
So, and but that goes into the whole recruiting thing is this
staff had just has a knack of developing and and finding these
hidden gems and pairing them in systems and with other guys like
an Elijah Sarat, like a Miles Price, the double running back
of Justice Ellison, Tyson Lauden, and then a great
offensive like the pieces do were just all there for this
team. And it it's not a one man show.
I think that's the biggest thing.
There's no egos of players like the players are egoless.
They just ride with the team. The big ego is the head coach
and it takes a lot of attention away from the players.
And honestly, it works out in a way.
It means all the media attention to focus on Signetti, not on,
oh, what's Curtis Shork doing? Right.
So you know, the ultimately there's a lot of fascinating
things and, and Signeti even mentioned it like we're going to
have a lot of action in the portal.
There's going to be guys leaving, there's going to be
guys staying. This is the new normal when it
comes to IU, not just IU, but probably football in general.
And it's going to be fascinating watching all of that playing
out. So a lot of fun and a good
starting point for Indiana as they start to to mold their
roster together for this upcoming year.
And a complicated time period here, obviously, because as
Signeti mentioned in the press conference, you've got you got
your recruits that you just signed, you got two weeks of
prep for the playoff. You've also got portal guys in
and out and you got retention situations with the players that
are here because you know, they're, they're going to be
like, hey, what can I get for this next year?
There's just so much that's going to be happening here and
it's going to be fascinating watching all of it play out.
And I do wonder with Indiana, you know, it's interesting, you
got a lot of guys who probably aren't hopping in the portal
soon because they they're, they're playing a playoff game
in a couple of weeks. So that gives Indiana a little
bit of leverage in terms of of how they manage all of this
stuff. That's going to be fascinating
to see. I have to imagine any starter
that's projected to return is not entering the portal.
I would be shocked if an Elijah Sarat or Aiden Fisher were to
enter their name in the portal considering those guys followed
Signetti from James Madison. Those were just two of the names
that I thought of right now. But or like even Omar Cooper, I
mean, his production from last year to this year, it was
tremendous. And now heading into next year
on paper, he's the wide receiver too, right next to Elijah Sarat.
So he has a big, big, big shoes to fill, big shoes to step in
right there. So just again, I I don't think
that starters will be entering their name.
I think there might be some guys behind the scenes that maybe
didn't get as much playing time. But again, there's so many
seniors on this team. Yeah.
So they're already losing a lot of talent.
So with the guys that maybe didn't play that are junior
sophomores, it's like now it's the next man up mentality.
So it'll be interesting how it all shapes up between who they
bring in and obviously who thinks they can compete for
those those spots when it's all said and done.
Exactly. So let's change gears and let's
talk specifically about the playoffs.
So we heard Kurt Signetti talking a little bit about that.
Let's go ahead and get to that video.
So I guess my prediction did not come true.
OK, But we're going to play in the College Football Playoff
and, and you know, our, our destiny will be created by our
actions and what we do every single day leading up to there
in terms of our preparation, our performance between the white
lines. Yeah, I mean, true.
And and his prediction originally, of course, was
playing in the in the Big 10 championship game, which almost
happened. Joe, you know, it it's it's one
terribly coached PJ Fleck sequence in that Minnesota Penn
State game away from Indiana, playing Oregon this weekend in
the Big 10 title game. They were close, man.
They were they were really close.
Yeah. And so I'm, you know, as I, as
we look at the playoff stuff, I think let's first of all check
out what to expect based upon what we saw yesterday in the in
the draw. So we, we've got the bracket up
and I'm I, of course, I'm completely misplaced it.
There it is. So here's, here's the bracket
based upon the seating that occurred yesterday.
We're going to walk through all of this.
If you guys have questions that you want to put in the chat,
we'd be happy to try to answer them as we go along.
But Indiana, according to this, they were the ninth team
overall, which is where they were in the AP poll.
The AP poll is really lined up very much directly with the
College Football Playoff poll. That would have them facing
Georgia, who would be the seventh seed in this overall
racket. That game one of four first
round games, the other ones being Notre Dame, Alabama.
Alabama sneaks in with despite having the three losses, Penn
State and Arizona State, who in this calculation is the Big 12
champ. And then Ohio State hosting
Tennessee in the 8-9 game. And then of course your buys
Oregon, Texas, SMU and Boise State.
Now I guess the first thing to talk about here is remember the
format and remember how all this works out.
The top 4 conference champions in the mix get buys the 5th
conference champion and the and the only the top five make it
into the play offs. But the fifth one doesn't get a
buy. They just sit wherever they sit
within the rankings. And then you've got essentially
7 at large teams. And so Indiana at this point,
according to the the committee, sitting 9th at 11:00 and 1:00,
looks like they're pretty safe because if you look at the
overall rankings below them, Boise State is below them.
And then you've got Alabama, and then you've got Arizona State.
It's incredibly unlikely that Boise State would lose to UNLV
and UNLV would jump ahead of Indiana in terms of a ranking.
And it's very unlikely that either Arizona State or Iowa
State would win and get elevated above Indiana at 9th.
And so those are the really big things that I was watching out
for when the draw happened as far as Indiana being in the
playoff, as far as hosting. And we had a question in the in
the comments that got popped up earlier on from Ryan.
Should I cancel my Airbnb for the first round game in
Bloomington or is there still a hope?
I mean, I don't think there's still a hope based upon the
rankings. And this is where I wouldn't
cancel it till Sunday at like 2:00 just to be sure.
But it seems implausible that Indiana is going to jump the
multiple spots it would need because as the as the 10 seed,
basically they would not only need to to, they would basically
need to jump two teams in order to get to where they want to get
to. Some of that's dependent on what
happens with SMU and whether if SMU loses and becomes an at
large, they drop below Indiana. But it's also like even with
that, you would need to have some other mechanism to get that
next spot above. And it doesn't appear like
Indiana's got any way to get above Tennessee or get above
Ohio State. You could potentially see
Georgia drop, but Georgia dropping by itself would only
get Indiana up one spot, not the two that it would need to host.
Yeah, I, I don't see them hosting in this scenario.
Maybe they slip up to the the 98 as, as the road team.
I think no matter what they're going to be travelling and and
that's kind of the, the preparation end of these weeks
is I imagine outside of the the regular game plan day-to-day
stuff, that crowd noise is going to be a huge emphasis.
Maybe that will be addressed to the media.
I highly doubt that they'll just be like, oh, it's business as
usual. But that is going to be a major
focus because in the biggest Rd. test that Indiana had in the
regular season at Columbus against Ohio State, you know,
the noise mattered. It made a difference having to
go to that silent count in the way that house they was able to
time up their blitzes. They have to have a a better
scheme, a better plan, because something clearly was not
working when it came to adjusting to the noise.
And I know that's a huge factor we would have in that 12th man.
That's why it's called the 12th man is playing with an
advantage. But they have to be prepared for
for, you know, an go into Athens.
That is that's an environment. I mean, if if Ohio State was an
environment, this is all this is SDC ball that right there and
it's finest. So it's going to be tough
wherever they go. So we have a bunch of questions
in chat that I want to try to get to and and I want to try to
attack these in a kind of AII don't know if there's a
particular order. First of all, we do need to
acknowledge that, yes, PJ Fleck disappoints fans across the
spectrum, not just go for fans. It is it is a a it's a gift you
have to admit for him. Ryan asks, Who are we rooting
for this weekend there? Joe asks, can you decipher what
the committee's going to do with the conference championship
winners and losers? Ward Manuel's statement was
gibberish. Shockingly, a commissioner or,
you know, or a committee chairs messages may not be coming
through. So one of the things we've
heard, and I think this is important for everybody to
understand, we keep hearing that they say we're not going to
punish conference championship participants.
For losing the game, that that would be unfair.
I don't really understand where that's coming from because
that's not historically how it's worked.
And so I was I, I cooked this up.
I apologize for the fact that I wrote it in Apple Notes, but
hey, hey. The people got to see.
Here's what I did. I 'cause I, I find this whole
thing very weird that this argument, we're not going to
punish teams that lose in the conference championship when
that is exactly what they've done in certain cases in the
past. And so here's an example just
going back over the last three years and keep in mind, even
though we have a 12 team playoff instead of the four team playoff
that we had the previous three seasons, the rankings are
supposed to be the same. The committee is ranking what
they feel, given all the evidence is the top 25 teams in
football. It's just that up to this point,
it's always been just the top four teams that have made it.
Now you add 8 more teams to the mix, although 5, you know, five
of those teams are guaranteed as conference champions.
But here's what's happened the last three years, so I'll start
with last year. Georgia, if you'll recall, plays
Alabama in the SEC title game, loses, and they drop 5 spots,
whereas Alabama wins that game and jumps up four spots.
Oregon loses to Washington and drops 3 spots, and Ohio State
dropped a spot after they didn't.
They didn't play in the conference championship game,
but they dropped a spot because of some other things that
happened in 2022. People forget this, but USC went
into conference championship weekend in the College Football
Playoff like they were in the top four.
They get destroyed by Utah in that game, like 47 to 23 or
whatever it was, which did I say destroyed?
That's only what, a 24 point victory?
And they dropped six spots after that game.
And Utah ends up climbing three. You go back to 2021, Oklahoma
State was 5th going into the conference championship game.
They lose to Baylor and they dropped four spots.
Georgia ends up dropping 2 spots after Alabama beats them.
My point in all of this is the idea that there's not going to
be any punishments at all if you lose heavy in a conference
championship game is not backed up by the evidence of what the
committee itself has done over the course of the last three
years. And so it does make me wonder to
go to some of the questions that people are asking, like if Penn
State loses really heavily to Oregon, for instance, in the in
the Big 10 title game, do they get dropped four or five spots?
Because right now Penn State is third.
If they got dropped five spots, well, they'd be 8th.
That still wouldn't be enough for Indiana.
But then look at, but then you know, you look at at, you know,
Georgia, if they lose, I don't know how you have a three loss
team hosting when one loss and two loss teams above them that
didn't even if they like aren't supposed to be punished for what
happens in their conference championship game.
That part's really interesting because I I think Georgia will
drop if they lose probably 2 spots.
Thing is, I don't know if India is going to move much.
I I just don't really see it happening because that would
mean Georgia would have to drop 3 full spots to losing to what
is the number three team in the country in the SEC Championship.
I understand that teams do get punished, but that seems like
almost too severe of a punishment.
I understand that they are a three loss team and it's like
there's the justification, but because of that extra game, I
don't know if they'll get the the three or the three team
punishment as compared that they'll drop.
But I think India, my prediction is Indiana is just locked in at
the spot they're at and they will play whoever the seven is.
Maybe they get lucky, maybe they do if they if Georgia, they
decide that Georgia should drop 3, but I think they're pretty
locked in. A lot of it really is going to
come down to like what goes on in each of these games.
So let's let's take a look at the games that we're going to be
seeing this weekend and let's talk through what would be the
best case scenario for Indiana in these games.
I'm going to pop this up on the screen for those of you that are
watching along on YouTube and zoom in a little bit.
So we've got to start with on Friday, we've got UNLV at Boise
State. Now, I think in this one, you,
you, you, it really doesn't matter who you root for in this
game. I think if you're Indiana,
though, you'd probably want UNLV to win simply because it'd be,
you know, but it depends. Are they?
Are they going to punish Boise and knock them out?
It seems. Yeah, Boise State would be
knocked out. Of it would they though, This
becomes the question if if you think Boise State might not get
knocked out. Would they leave out the Big 12
then? Is that what you think?
No. No, no, they couldn't leave out
the Big 12, but that's where you start to get into trouble if
you're Indiana, since you're only two from the bottom, so to
speak, when it comes to the AT larges.
But this is what we don't know. So in this case, I would
actually say you want Boise State to win if you're Indiana
because they're already in. They're in.
Probably not, even if they jump Indiana.
It doesn't matter 'cause they're the by.
Exactly, they would have one of the four buys.
So in this one I would recommend rooting for Boise State.
What happens in the American doesn't really matter.
The only way the American is going to matter would be of Army
like destroys Tulane and UNOV seats Boise because because you
could have a scenario there where Army leapfrogs UNOV and
potentially becomes the fifth team in it's.
It's very unlikely, but it's at least something to keep an eye
on. I don't think it's actually
going to happen. I also don't think that would
affect anything with Indiana. Because that would.
Just push them at the 12. Then you get Arizona State and
Iowa State again. This is one of those games where
I don't think it's going to materially matter for Indiana.
One of these two teams is making the College Football Playoff as
the 5th. So, you know, the 5th conference
champion, a team that won't get a buy a team that'll probably be
the 12 seed because they're both under that threshold right now.
But you know, it's going to be interesting because if if again,
if Boise loses, that could be the route for the Big 12 to get
one of the four buys. But again, nothing that
materially is going to matter to Indiana as far as that's
concerned. So then you get to the last
three, Georgia versus Texas. In this case, you really have to
root for Texas because Texas. Even though Texas's resume is
weak, they are still second according to the College
Football Playoff committee. If they lose in this game, they
are not going to fall far enough.
They'll probably just swap. Well, that's the that that is a
question. And that would be the one
scenario where you might say, would you rather go to Athens
and play Georgia or would you rather go to Austin and play
Texas? I would rather play Texas.
I think actually Indiana's not that bad of a match up for
Texas, and Texas just doesn't have that many exemplary wins.
Yes, they wanted A&M, and that's really about all they've done so
far this season. When you get right down to it,
their, their record, their overall performance is very
similar to Indiana in a lot of ways.
When you get done this with this, I'll go through some of
the the match ups and speak my truth here, but I'll let you
finish up real quick. Did you just you just hit me
with it? I'm going to let you finish.
That's that's pretty OK. I love it.
Then we go to the next one, which of course is Penn State
and Oregon. Again, I think in this one you
got to you want to root for Oregon with the idea that if
Penn State loses, Indiana's the only one loss team left in the
Big 10. And is that going to be enough?
Would it drop Penn State 6 spots?
Probably not, although again, as we saw, we've seen teams drop 5
or 6 spots with heavy losses in conference championship games.
So I don't have to consider the rankings of both teams because
Utah was ranked like 12, I believe when they were playing
USC, when they when USC dropped six spots.
That's true. So there there is some weight
like Oregon is the number one team.
So how much punishment could Penn State have?
Unless if they're losing like 50, zero.
Or if there's an injury, you know, if if hey, that is.
That is true because they they've proven with last year at
Florida State that, you know, injury to a quarterback has
weight on the on the committee. Yeah.
So, so that's the, that would be the one there.
And then the last 1 is probably the one that I'm the most
intrigued and a little bit maybe not concerned about.
But I, I think it's one worth keeping an eye on.
And a lot of it comes down to the idea of does SMU get in
regardless if if SMU loses, they're ranked 8th right now.
They're one spot ahead of Indiana.
Does does do they manage to get in regardless of whether or not
they beat Clemson? Because Clemson obviously, if
they win would get one of the four buys.
Almost certainly they're coming in.
You know, they're ranked 17th. That has actually is the other
question. If Clemson, if Clemson wins that
game, maybe they don't even get a buy because right now they're
currently ranked the beneath both of the Big 12 teams.
There's just a lot of moving parts with all of that.
But I think the one scenario if if you if you're worried about
Indiana, the one scenario that you might be concerned about
would be a Boise State loss and an SMU loss where both teams are
kept in. I don't think that would happen.
I think one or the other would get dropped in that case.
But that's something to keep an eye on as as we go through this
process and think about who to root for.
In this case, I would recommend just rooting for SMU 'cause I
think it would be a lot cleaner for Indiana if SMU just knocks
Clemson out of the picture entirely.
Yeah, sorry, I gotta give Zach his code.
He's going to see Moana too here.
Well, it's fun, Zach. Yeah, it's good buys.
And chat. Zach.
Zach buys and chat. Yeah, he's been on before.
Oh, of course. Yeah.
Just to just to, I'm sorry, I kind of missed the question.
I was saying I can see where the importance lies with you.
No, my my point was simply that, you know, you probably want to
root for SMU if you're Indiana just to be safe.
Just to knock Clemson out. Because you just don't know if
you know, if they're really serious about, hey, if you made
a conference championship game and you're in, we're not going
to knock you out. That would be the one scenario
to keep an eye on. But I again, even if SMU were to
lose, I don't know how you would keep them in and not have
Indiana in this. This is where the committee's
kind of backed themselves into a corner with some of these items,
though. And I think that that's it's one
of those things to keep in mind. It's like you can't make all of
these things be true. And I think a lot of times,
committee chairman especially say things that they don't
really mean because they don't want to piss anybody off, but
they also can't really consolidate their own rankings
with the things that they've set up to that point.
It's hard to like, say something and live by it with all the
scenarios that happen. And no, I don't think the
committee always does the best job.
But I don't want to ever be a part of the committee.
I think it would be miserable because no matter what you do, a
fan base is going to be pissed off.
I mean, there's a very old chance to come Sunday when
Alabama's first team out there is outrage or something, and
somehow they're in which. They'll be outraged either way.
And then? They'll be outraged.
Either way. In or out, they'll they'll be
outraged. But, you know, part of part of
this whole week has just been, you know, the coach after coach
and athletic, you know, they would conference commissioners
come in and get in involved. It's, it's just kind of like, I
don't know, I, I. Work like crystal ball, what he
said. And then with Cam Ward about
Miami being first team out, being a two loss team, it just
that was surprising. Yeah, you know, it's there were
some other questions. I mean, Tana says IU drops 5
spots, losing to the number two team in the country.
Georgia's 7th and Texas is second.
So they only dropped Georgia 2 spots for a loss, but IU drops
5. Here's the thing.
The the thing to keep in mind is you can't just take the loss in
a vacuum. You also have to think about the
totality. And look, the reason why Georgia
is ranked high is that it's the same reason why Indiana's ranked
ahead of Miami right now. And, and why Miami's, you know,
rank behind Alabama is that you do have to take the rest of the
resume into consideration. You know, and, and everybody's
got something different. The SEC people have been
pounding on strength of schedule because it's a convenient
argument for them, because they all have a good strength of
schedule according to how that gets calculated.
But it's one piece of a much larger puzzle.
Indiana, no, they don't have a tremendously big great strength
of schedule, but it's better than SMU.
And unlike Miami, who has about the same strength of schedule
but struggled in a half dozen games this year and lost twice,
Indiana pulverized almost all of their competition, only lost one
game and that was to the number two team in the country.
That's really the distinction. And, you know, to go back to
what was noted earlier there about, you know, the that Ryan
noted about the the committee not respecting the ACC, You
know, this is this is where it's like if SMU loses that game, do
they get dropped entirely because now they've lost a game
to a three loss Clemson. It it seems like probably they
should. But again, it's like this is
where the committee tends to back themselves into corners and
has trouble explaining what they're doing and how they're
doing it because they can't apply the same criteria equally
for every team. And I think what most fans, and
that we see this in the NCAA basketball selection process,
fans want consistency. But you can't really do
consistency when nobody has the same set of data points, when
you're dealing with like radically different data points,
radically different schedules, unbalanced schedules, teams
having not played other teams. You know, you, you punish teams
that lose late in the season, but you're not going to punish
Notre Dame despite losing, you know, having the worst loss of
all of the teams simply because it happened in September rather
than happening in November. It's it is madding.
And it's just one of those things where the committee kind
of has to do the best it can. They don't always do a good job
of that. And I have a lot of questions
about what they've decided here. But as I look through this, I do
think Indiana's put themselves in as good of a position as they
possibly can, given what they had to deal with this year.
Yeah, they they will not be bounced from this playoffs.
They will be in. I am confident in that.
I can say it with almost full confidence now if committee
somehow and shocks me then I guess I'll eat my words and I'll
make a public apology about this to all all the vibes and chef
viewers. I will say I think the idea that
a one loss team in in one of the two power conferences not making
the the field would be, well, it's not even that it would be
criminal. It would be, but it's not even
that it would be criminal. It's that it would set such a
terrible precedent to say suddenly that a one loss team in
your conference, a big conference, was not worthy of
going to a 12 team playoff, but three loss teams or two loss
teams in other conferences were worthy.
That that to me would be that. I keep saying, like, if that was
the route that they went down, that could lead to a very quick
reorganization of the sport because what league is going to
be like, yeah, that's the rules that we want to sign up for, You
know, it's there. There's so much inconsistency in
how a lot of this is applied. Clearly, college football needs
some kind of a structure that makes it a little more even
because it's not like the NFL where there's, like, relative
equanimity in terms of who you play.
You've got a sampling of all the different divisions that you
play against. You play a ton of games in your
own conference. That's not how college football
works. Schedules are are largely the
conference schedules are not set by the teams.
They can't predict who's going to be good year to year.
And it's still a sport where winning and losing matters and
the less losing you do should be rewarded.
And, you know, you look down the list, it's like there are only
these are all of all of the teams that have one or or zero
losses right now. Oregon, Texas, Penn State, Notre
Dame, SMU, Indiana, Boise State and Army.
And that's it. You know, and, and you know, all
but one of those teams is likely going to be in the playoff and,
and that that's how it should be, I think.
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I I think they will
stick to their guns here because if a one loss, like you said,
it's one of the two power conferences, it's the SEC and
the Big 10. Those are the two biggest
conferences in college football. The Big 10's gonna have four
teams in the playoffs. The SEC looks like it could get
4 with sneakin and Bama just to match the Big 10.
But that right there, it's it's disrespectful one.
But also, like you said, with the scheduling like I, it's such
an interesting argument because they don't make the schedule.
The teams don't make their conference schedule.
And are you heading into the year again?
I we've said this time and time again, they've played the
national champion, the national running runner up Ohio State at
the shield UCLA on the road, a team that was what, nine and
three last year. That right there those four
games when you look at the schedule going in are those big
games. You're like, oh, wow, this team
could have some losses early on losses in conference play and
they won all but one of those. They can't control the way that
Michigan plays this year. They can't control what
Washington was or UCLA. So I don't know the whole this
whole schedule argument is I understand it, but it's the
schedule argument is so SEC biased because the eight people
love to slap those phone numbers next to their name at the
preseason. And then it's like you, you go 8
weeks in the years like, well, Alabama got that quality win
over Florida, Florida's team that's six and six.
It's like, no, they didn't. I don't know, sorry.
That was that was mean of me to make that accent.
But it's I think you get the point I'm making.
It's fine. Well, we'll see what happens.
Obviously a lot to talk through on Sunday and and we'll be doing
that on the the main Crimson cast show.
I don't know if we're going to go live from it or whether we're
just going to wait a little bit, but either way, there's going to
be a lot of of talk and a lot to talk about from championship
Saturday at Joe Finebaum. That's that's tremendous.
But I, I just, I'm fascinated to see where Indiana lands and, and
you look at the, the list of potential opponents.
I mean, it is a fascinating group of potential opponents.
You know, I mean, you think about it like you've got a
potential match up in State College against Penn State,
which I know a lot of people have been nervous about.
And like, wow, that's a terrible place to have to go if you're
Indiana. But I'll note last year Indiana
was tied at Penn State, a much worse Indiana team.
Yeah, it was a tie game with three minutes to go.
And Tom Allen did not seal the deal.
Let's just put it that way. Some, some, some bad coaching
decisions down the stretch. You got a potential.
So I, I think Indiana would be very competitive against Penn
State. I think if they could solve Penn
State's defensive line, they've got the offensive firepower to
be able to outpace Penn State. You've got a potential match up
at Notre Dame who everybody's like, well, Notre Dame's really
good. And they may be but, but, but
again, not a team that necessarily scares you in terms
of like the overall package. You know, I think Notre Dame's
played very well, but I am curious to see how Indiana would
fare. And that is not that hostile of
an environment to go into. You know, you've got potentially
a trip to Neelam Stadium, which is a hostile environment.
But a Tennessee team that if you look at their play against SEC
opponents, they're only averaging 25 points a game
against SEC opponents. It's not an offense that's
generating tons of points or has a ton of explosiveness.
It's a game. Indiana could stay in Texas, who
we mentioned earlier. Unlikely that Indiana would play
Texas, but it's possible if Texas loses big to Georgia and
you know, you could be walking into to to Austin and and having
a chance to play a Texas team who's, you know, yeah, they won
at A&M, but their best record or their their best win before that
was against Vanderbilt. It's like they they've not
beaten a lot of top teams. You probably want to I'd like to
avoid going back to Ohio State. I think that would that would
suck. Although you're catching an Ohio
State team. Whose fans hate themselves like
they hate their program. You know, there's there, there
are, there are quasi serious takes out there from Ohio State
pundits that they don't want Ohio State to win a national
title because they want Ryan Day fired at the end of the season
because they can't beat Michigan.
Like, this is the rhetoric right now coming out of a lot of Ohio
State people. The issue is is that Ohio State
team can very well still March into the national championship
game. This is what's so fascinating
about this season of college football.
And again with Oregon, yes, they're the clear number one
team, but I, I'm looking at the 12.
I can probably rule out a couple, but there's not a team
that I'm like, they are going to win.
And actually you can just like put it right there.
You can point at it because you've seen in the past couple
years, like Michigan was far and away the best team last year.
The two years before that, Georgia was fantastic and was
clearly the best team in college football.
That 2020 Alabama team right now, there is more balance
within the sport where it's like you can go 8 to 10 teams and
you're like, why not to some of these teams?
I, I did, there are some like with Penn State, it's like James
Franklin going to win a big game.
Who knows, Can IU actually match up with the big dogs?
Who knows. There's, there's so much unknown
with it. But like when looking at the eye
test stats, everything, that's the biggest thing for Indiana.
It's blocking out the noise and the actual noise of the crowd
because no matter where they go, it's going to be hostile.
If they go to Notre Dame, I think they'll have a stronger
Indiana contingent. I went to it was the Notre Dame
Cincinnati game back in 2021, that very good undefeated Cincy
team. And Cincy kind of took over the
stadium in a sense. They had like probably 30% of
the fans there. And I know a playoff game is a
bit of a different magnitude, but I think IU could have a
strong show and in South Bend, but no matter what, it's going
to be a hostile environment. But I think as far as team
performance, they can match up with these teams.
You look at talent on both sides.
Sure, the other teams will have the four or five stars talent
wise, but from production, from stats, from offensive rankings,
defensive rankings, I mean, I've said this the moment we started
the show, this team has played like, has looked like and is one
of the best teams in the country.
And they have a chance to make some serious noise.
And you know, if they pick off a team on the road that that
silences everything. If they get one win and that's
enough, that's that's all they need to do to like get the
respect of the country. Gary asked what's the visiting
team ticket situation? Gary, I got bad news.
They don't know A, we don't know.
But B, what little I've heard is not good.
Like there was a there was a note from Georgia athletics to
their fans basically saying. Do not sell your tickets.
Well, not only, well, not only do not sell your tickets, but if
we have to go on the road, we probably like, I think their
allotment is like 3500 tickets. And so if you are planning on
going anywhere, you are going to be paying a lot of money like
you're, you're. So my recommendation would be
you either buy early or buy really late.
Probably buy early because unlike these are going to be
some of the the hottest items. Yeah.
I mean, this is the first. This is the first of its kind.
As Matt notes, Georgia tickets today on StubHub are 300 to
$800. Right.
It's gonna get worse. I mean, especially when someone
you, you get some of these marquee names as matchups.
It's gonna get ugly for how expensive.
It's it's gonna be really pricey and it's gonna be one of those
situations where you're gonna, you know, you've got a lot of
futures. And it's interesting 'cause as
Ryan notes, like no tickets have actually been released, but like
I've got IU hosting tickets in my account now.
They don't match anything right now, but there's at least
barcodes I think that could be utilized there's.
No hypothetical. There.
That's right, these are hypothetical ticket prices.
You you need to you need to screenshot it and just have it.
Maybe print it out, frame it as like a?
Totally. That's.
A keepsake. This, this.
That's the thing you tell your grandkids like, oh, I almost
hosted a playoff. Game last thing I'll note is we
we have a, you know, you've got the ridiculous amount of money
that you're going to spend on College Football Playoff
tickets. And to answer the question from
earlier, yes, I will be there. I I will be there no matter
what, wherever Indiana's playing, I will be there.
But look at the look at the prices right now for getting
into the Big 10 Championship game.
The get in price, the get in price right now is is $32.
That's not bad. I mean, considering how far
these teams have to travel, yes, like it.
I guess it makes more sense. Like, had that been Indiana?
Oregon, like? Yep, it's.
Sea of red. So, you know, there's a lot of
different things that that you're gonna be interesting to
keep an eye on as we go through all of this with, with tickets
and with location. You're going to know very
quickly. You're going to know at noon
where Indiana's going. We we pretty much know where all
the potential locations are. And the nice thing is all of
them but one is drivable from Bloomington or, or from
Indianapolis. The only, yeah, the only one
that wouldn't be would be Austin, unless something truly
insane happens, like Oregon loses by 60 points.
Even then, I don't think they're getting knocked down to a point
where Indiana would be playing them, but just so many different
permutations, so many different things that could happen with
this. And we'll keep an eye on it
obviously here over the next few days and during Championship
Saturday as we check out what goes on with Indiana as we move
forward. Anyway, we're about to write
wrap up Bison chat. Any final thoughts from you Joe?
Well, I will say we didn't get to mention it, but a huge
congratulations 1 to Signetti for winning Big 10 Coach of the
Year. And then it's six guys on the
all Big 10 teams, 3 on the first team for defense, Fisher
D'Angelo Pons and of course Mikael Camero who I thought
should have won Defensive player of the year to Rourke Sarat.
Of course Mike Kadik. I mean what a career Mike Kadik
has had. I got to do a sit down interview
with him and just a great guy and very positive with
everything he's gone through. So Congrats to those six the
Arnold mentions as well and the Congrats to this team.
And it's been, it's been a ride, it's been a fun ride and ready
for more. Ready for more.
I, I'm, I'm, I'm so looking forward to it.
And you know, Indiana will be playing in 2 1/2 weeks
somewhere. And we know whether that's on
that Friday night or whether it's sometime that day, Saturday
following, it's going to be quite a ride And a place that
Indiana's never been before place really very few teams have
been before, which is the playoff and the expanded
playoffs, a new frontier for college football.
And, and it's exciting that, you know, barring a, an insane
catastrophe, Indiana's going to be in it for the first time.
And what a what a spot, what a what a situation for the
program. It's amazing.
So anyway, we appreciate everybody joining, whether you
joined us live or whether you're listening afterwards.
Joe, my thanks to you. Emily Fox in the producer chair.
Thank you as always. We will be back with more
Crimson cast. We're going to take a little bit
of a break this week. Not a lot of other action to
talk about, but we will be back with more on Sunday as we
breakdown what happened on the championship day and we talk
about Indiana's pairing in the College Football Playoffs.
So we will go ahead and put it on ice.
Until then for Emily Fox, for Joe Crudden, for the entire Back
home network and IU sports media families.
I'm Galen Clavio saying thanks for joining us here on Bison
Chat. We'll catch you folks.
On the flip side, stay never daunted.
So long, everybody.