ESPN’s preseason strength-of-schedule numbers are once again leaning hard toward the SEC, and Indiana is nowhere near the top of the pile.
The network’s latest rankings put the seven toughest schedules in college football all in the SEC. Arkansas checks in at No. 1, with Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Florida also sitting near the top.
ESPN’s model goes even further from there, giving the SEC 14 of the top 15 toughest schedules in the sport. That group also includes Texas A&M, South Carolina, LSU, Missouri, Auburn, Tennessee and Alabama.
The only team outside the SEC to crack the top 15 is Ohio State, which lands at No. 8. That leaves the Big Ten with almost no representation in the upper tier of ESPN’s schedule rankings.
This isn’t exactly a new storyline. ESPN has long leaned into the idea that the SEC is loaded from top to bottom, even as the results have started to tell a different story.
Last season, the SEC finished 5-9 in the postseason, while the Big Ten went 3-1 in head-to-head games against the league. That stretch included Indiana’s 38-3 win over Alabama in the Rose Bowl.
Indiana’s own schedule comes in at No. 33 nationally, which places the Hoosiers 11th among the 18 Big Ten teams. The nonconference portion should be manageable, with North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky on the slate. The real test comes once Big Ten play begins.
Indiana’s conference opponents are Northwestern, at Rutgers, at Nebraska, Ohio State, at Michigan, Minnesota, USC, at Washington and Purdue.
There are some tricky spots in that group, especially with back-to-back road games at Rutgers and Nebraska. Indiana should be favored in both, but those trips still require care.
The biggest date on the calendar is Oct. 17, when Ohio State visits Bloomington. That game has the look of a major national showdown.
The very next week, Indiana goes to Michigan, turning that stretch into a demanding one-two punch. Matchups with USC and at Washington add even more intrigue to a schedule that is manageable overall, but far from harmless.
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The trip also included a look at Indiana commit Chase Branham, giving the Hoosiers a live check on a player already in the fold while the rest of the board keeps coming into focus. With DeVries and his assistants expected to keep moving from event to event through the evaluation period, the bigger question is how many of those in-person sightings turn into real traction once the summer circuit settles down. [Read more 🡒]