4-Down Territory: Season Wrap-Up: Will There Now Be Big Ten Bias & Much More....

1^st Down: SEC Bias has Company Going Forward: The confetti has fallen, the trophies have just barely made it back to Bloomington and already the talk has turned to the “Way Too Early Top 25” rankings for next year as well as the talk of a 16-team playoff or even a 24-team playoff. ESPN posted a way-too-early Top 25 that is loaded with SEC teams. But they also threw in an equal serving of Big Ten teams. There are no non-Power 4 conference teams in these rankings even though this year’s final AP Top 25 featured 4 teams from outside the power 4 conferences (#18 Tulane, #19 JMU, #23 Navy, #24 North Texas). To show you the lack of ACC respect, UVA finished #16 this year with a bowl win over an SEC team and they are unranked in this early poll. With their starting QB graduating they replaced him with Missouri/Penn State transfer Beau Pribula and Pitt transfer Eli Holstein. That would seem to at least get them a way-too-early mention after a school-record 11-win season.

The Big Ten is now getting the same benefit of the doubt (or bias?) matching the SEC’s 8 way-too early ranked teams. That’s what happens when your conference wins a 3^rd-straight National Title and dominates the bowl season. The SEC Teams are: #2 Texas, #4 Georgia, #9 Ole Miss, #10 Texas A&M, #12 Oklahoma, #15 LSU, #21 Alabama and #24 Tennessee. The Big Ten has #1 Indiana, #5 Oregon, #6 Ohio State, #13 USC, #16 Iowa, #18 Michigan, #19 Washington and #22 Penn State.

But keep in mind, the Big Ten’s strength has been building before this season. If you go back the last 4 years (2 years of the 4-team playoff & 2 years of the 12-team playoff) 8 different teams have played in the National Title Game. Four of them are current members of the Big 10 (Michigan, Ohio State, Washington & Indiana), 1 is from the SEC (Georgia), 1 is from the ACC (Miami), 1 is from the Big 12 (TCU) and 1 is Independent (Notre Dame). The Big Ten has won the last 3 National Titles with Georgia winning it all back in 2022.

On paper, this could be the deepest the Big Ten has been since the 10-year era from 1993 through 2002 right after Penn State joined the conference. In those ten seasons eight of the eleven Big Ten teams won the conference title and the automatic BCS bowl bid. The only three that missed out were Minnesota, Michigan State and………..Indiana.

As the defending National Champions and the way-too-early #1 team, the Hoosiers have come a long way.

2^nd Down: Indiana’s Brand—Goodbye Edsel, Hello Ferrari: Indiana loses key players, chief among them Heisman-winning QB Fernando Mendoza. But Indiana’s “Brand” has been re-made. They are now seen as a team that can re-load rather than take a step back to rebuild. Exhibit A: Heading into 2025 IU was coming off a playoff season, had to replace a QB and was ranked #21 because many people still did not believe in the program’s ability to post that kind of performance in back-to-back seasons. That is not the case now.

And if you want any more confirmation about how the IU brand was seen at 6:00 p.m. on January 19th and how it is now consider the following; #1 Indiana was 15-0 with wins at Oregon, over Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, a rout of Illinois (who beat Tennessee), a win at Iowa (finished #17) and playoff routs of Alabama and Oregon. And yet every College Game Day panelist picked Miami to win except Pat MacAfee. Note: Kirk Herbstreit rightly recused himself as he does with every game he calls on TV.

Perhaps what was most impressive about the Indiana win was where they did it. This was the 4^th time Miami had played for a National Title in their home stadium and Indiana was the first team to beat them at home with the title on the line. Interestingly on TV and hearing from people who were there in person it sure seemed like the IU fans made it their home field. They overran South Florida, even after trips to Pasadena and Atlanta. Curt Cignetti may have permanently awakened a giant fan base.

One last note on Miami; “The U” is now 0-2 against the Big Ten in National Title Games (Ohio State 2002 & IU 2025). Against all current members of the Big Ten the Canes are 3-3 with wins over Nebraska in 1983, 1991 and 2001 and losses to Penn State in 1986 to go with the OSU & IU losses.

3^rd Down: Playoff Demands: The format is thankfully staying at 12 teams for this year. But the Big Ten ultimately wants a 24-team playoff, and the SEC wants a 16-team playoff. They are both demanding automatic qualifying slots for their conference members. Far be it for us to ask for a playoff that just selects the top 12 teams or top 16 teams rather than teams being guaranteed a slot because they finished in the top 4 in their conference.

And while assigning these slots, they’ve demanded that the Big Ten and SEC get twice as many slots in the playoff as the ACC and Big 12. Are they right? The performance of the ACC and Big 12 this bowl season might tell you otherwise. The Big 12 was 3-1 against the Big Ten and SEC (1-0 vs SEC, 2-1 vs the Big Ten). As for the ACC, they finished with a 5-2 record against the Big Ten and SEC (1-2 vs the Big Ten and a 4-0 sweep of the SEC).

4^th Down: Expanding The Playoffs—What No One is Talking About: The push to go to 16 games would mean that the 16-0 Indiana Hoosiers would have one more game to win. Anyone who watched the hits that IU QB Fernando Mendoza took in that game knows how brutally physical this game can be. He wasn’t alone. Linemen and linebackers deliver and absorb big hits over and over. Concussions can be an issue.

But the FCS division has a 24-team playoff so why shouldn’t the FBS division? A year ago, in talking with Jim Tressel who won a national title at Ohio State and multiple national titles at FCS school Youngstown State, he reiterated that there was a difference in the size and speed at the two levels. There are far more NFL types at the FBS level than the FCS level and stacking up 17 games would be placing massive physical demands on the players at the FBS level.

But the rush is on to expand this now. Why? Schools across the FBS division are spending their way into oblivion and they need to squeeze every cent they can get out of these players. The dirty little secret is also that they want this done now before a collective bargaining agreement with the players comes into effect and thereby gives the players a voice at the bargaining table.

Coaches get Bowl and playoff bonuses, so why shouldn’t the players get a cut of the money? Right now, they have no across-the-board national representation to demand that the CFP and the powers that be set aside 20% or 25% of the playoff revenue be given to the players that are now forced to play anywhere from 1 to 4 extra games. Indiana had a bye and played 3 playoff games. A 16-team field eliminates the bye for the top 4 teams so the Hoosiers would need to play a 17^th game in that format.

Players should be demanding a hold on any further expansion until they have representation and then negotiate guarantees. At least we would be being honest about who we are and what College Football has become.

Post-Game Analysis: Next Year: If you thought January 19^th was late to finish the college football season……next year New Year’s Day and the quarterfinal bowl games fall on a Friday. That means the semifinals will be played on January 14^th and 15^th and the National Title game in Las Vegas will be played on Monday January 25^th.