Indiana’s unbeaten run is gone, but the playoff path is still very much alive.
The Hoosiers fell to Ohio State in a close one, ending their 22-game winning streak, yet they did enough - and have done enough overall - to stay in the College Football Playoff conversation. After one of the wildest weekends the sport has seen in a long time, Indiana still sits in the mix as the rankings begin to take shape.
The loss doesn’t shut the door on the Hoosiers. It just tightens the margin.
Indiana’s schedule still includes one game against a currently ranked opponent, USC, on Nov. 14.
That matters because the Hoosiers are trying to stack enough quality into their résumé to hold position when the first standings release arrives Nov. 3.
There’s also a broader mess at the top of the sport, which helps keep Indiana in the frame. Half the top 10 lost over the weekend, and the team now ranked No. 1 needed double overtime to stay unbeaten.
In the Big Ten, only Ohio State and UCLA remain unbeaten in league play. The Buckeyes still have USC, Oregon and Northwestern ahead, while UCLA finishes the regular season against USC.
For now, the projection models still like Indiana. Joe Tansey of Bleacher Report has the Hoosiers 7th.
“As for Indiana, it sits at 6-1 with only one Top 25 opponent, USC, left on its schedule.
"The reigning national champion should be in a good spot to land a playoff berth, but it will have to likely win out to land a spot in the top four."
Bill Bender of Sporting News is even higher on Indiana, slotting the Hoosiers 5th. He pointed to how close they came to beating Ohio State, noting the final-minute near-touchdown that was wiped out when Nick Marsh was out of bounds in the end zone on a fourth-and-4 pass.
He also cited the second-half turnovers and the fact that Josh Hoover finished 20 of 40 for 296 yards and a touchdown without enough run support. Indiana’s next stop, he added, is Michigan in Week 8.
David Hale of ESPN also has Indiana at 7th, and his take centered on what has made the Hoosiers so tough to beat. He wrote that in 2025, Indiana’s edge was its consistency and clean football, but this season has looked a little different.
Against Ohio State, the mistakes piled up - fumbles, bad flags, missed throws and Nick Marsh’s wayward left foot - and that was enough to flip the result. Hale said Curt Cignetti called it a game the Hoosiers had in hand and didn’t finish, a hard lesson after going toe-to-toe with what may be the best team in the country.
Indiana’s remaining regular-season slate after Michigan is Minnesota, USC, Washington and Purdue, with a bye week in between. The full schedule, listed by dates in the source, shows where the Hoosiers have been and what’s left as they try to turn a narrow loss into a playoff resume that still holds up.
In Other News...
Indiana Was At The Center Of A Costly Officiating Controversy
Indiana has already found itself in the middle of one officiating controversy this fall, even before the wider fallout from the Notre Dame-BYU clock mistake became a talking point. In the Ohio State game, a roughing the passer penalty extended an Indiana drive and kept the momentum shifting at a key moment, another reminder of how one call can change the shape of a game long before the final score is settled.
The Notre Dame-BYU ending only added more attention to the issue, with a clock error costing the Cougars a final play and prompting the Big 12 to acknowledge the mistake and review its end-of-game officiating process. For Indiana, it is the kind of cross-connected storyline that lingers around a season when the biggest outcomes can hinge on the smallest details, and the latest uproar only sharpens the scrutiny on how these games are being handled. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Fans Have One Big AP Poll Debate After Costly Loss
Indianas loss on Oct. 18 landed in the middle of a wild Saturday for the AP Top 25, one in which five teams ranked inside the top seven went down. Notre Dame, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama and Texas all took losses, and the ripple effect should make the next poll one of the most shuffled in recent memory.
For Hoosiers fans, the bigger debate is less about the defeat itself and more about where Indiana fits when the rankings reset around it. With teams such as BYU, Oregon and Oklahoma State also in the mix after their own recent results, the new AP Top 25 could look significantly different, and Indianas place in that picture will be one of the most closely watched calls. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana's Big Ten Path Just Got A Lot More Complicated
The Big Ten picture got a little shakier over the weekend, with a few of Indianas upcoming opponents suddenly forced to navigate quarterback uncertainty. Michigan turned to freshman Tommy Carr at halftime after benching Bryce Underwood, and the offense responded with multiple second-half touchdowns. Across the league, Ohio State is also dealing with a major change after Julian Sayin suffered an arm injury expected to keep him out for several weeks, while freshman Luke Fahey has stepped into that role.
For Indiana, the timing matters because these are the kinds of moving parts that can reshape a conference stretch in a hurry. Michigans coaching staff is still leaving room to sort out its long-term answer under center, Ohio State has already shifted to a next-man-up approach, and UCLAs Ty Dieffenbach has at least given the Bruins some stability after their starters season-ending injury ahead of a looming matchup with Michigan. It is the sort of quarterback carousel that can turn a clean path through the league into something far less predictable. [Read more 🡒]