Greg McElroy didn’t waste much time getting to the point when he looked at Indiana sitting sixth in the 2026 preseason AP Top 25.
The ESPN analyst, speaking on Always College Football on Monday, pushed back hard on the idea that the defending national champions should open that far down the board. Indiana finished 16-0 last season and claimed the first title in program history, yet five teams were placed ahead of the Hoosiers in the preseason poll.
McElroy wasn’t making a case for No. 1. He just thought sixth was too harsh.
"Now, we wouldn't have it been No. 1, but man, six feels low," McElroy said. "I know they lost a lot. I get it, but that is really low in my opinion."
Indiana did receive real respect from voters, even if the overall ranking didn’t reflect it. The Hoosiers picked up eight first-place votes, the third-most in the poll behind Ohio State’s 40 and Oregon’s 14. Notre Dame had six, and Miami got one.
That split tells the whole story: some voters clearly still view Indiana like a heavyweight, while the full panel settled on sixth. McElroy’s argument was that the reigning champs deserve better than that, especially after what they just pulled off.
The Hoosiers were buried at No. 20 in last year’s preseason AP poll before ripping through the season and winning the College Football Playoff national championship. In the Playoff era, no preseason projection has missed more badly on a champion, and Indiana’s rise is the kind of thing that makes preseason polls feel especially flimsy in the transfer-portal age.
The case for Indiana being higher starts on defense. Last year’s unit finished fourth nationally overall and second in scoring, giving up just 11.7 points per game.
Six starters are back for coordinator Bryant Haines, along with a defense that finished second in the FBS with 46 sacks and led the nation with 129 tackles for loss. Opponents averaged only 2.99 yards per carry against the Hoosiers.
There’s plenty of talent coming back on the other side, too, even with Fernando Mendoza gone. Josh Hoover is in at quarterback, and his numbers jump off the page: 65.9% completions, 3,472 passing yards and 29 touchdowns in 2025.
He enters the season as college football’s leading returning passer with 9,629 career yards and second in touchdowns with 71. The one blemish is the 13 interceptions, and that’s the area that has to improve.
The biggest knock on Indiana is the returning production figure. The Hoosiers bring back just 56% of their production, which ranks 52nd nationally and 13th in the Big Ten.
But that stat only tells part of the story in a roster-building era shaped by transfers. Indiana also has 139 returning starts back, seventh in the conference, plus 99 returning starts brought in through the portal, which ranks third in the league.
That’s not exactly a teardown. It’s a retool.
And Curt Cignetti has already shown he can do this on the fly. Hoover is his third straight starting quarterback brought in through the transfer portal, following Kurtis Rourke, who got Indiana to the Playoff in 2024, and Mendoza, who won the title in 2025.
The schedule helps the Hoosiers’ case, too. They have eight home games, including matchups with Ohio State and USC, and they avoid Oregon, Penn State, Illinois and Iowa. For a team with a rebuilt roster, that’s a pretty workable path.
So while the AP poll has Indiana sixth, McElroy sees something closer to the top tier. With a defense that can hit, a proven quarterback coming in, three returning offensive linemen and a schedule that doesn’t overload the calendar, he thinks the defending champs belong in the top three.
In Other News...
Indiana Just Got A Preseason Wake-Up Call After Its Title Run
Indianas perfect run to a national title did not translate into a preseason berth in the AP Top 5, as Curt Cignettis team landed at No. 6 entering the new season. For a program coming off a 16-0 march and a championship, it is a small number with some real meaning, because preseason polls have a habit of setting the tone for how others view the defending winner before a snap is played.
There is still plenty in Indianas favor to suggest the Hoosiers are built to push past that kind of history. Cignetti brings back his entire coaching staff, and the roster remains strong, which gives Indiana a steadier foundation than many defending champions have had when the next season arrived. The challenge now is proving the rankings were more warning sign than verdict, and that last years breakthrough was not the start of a slide. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana's Josh Hoover Debate Really Comes Down To Curt Cignetti
Indianas quarterback conversation has already shifted from what Fernando Mendoza meant to the program to what comes next, and Josh Hoover is walking into a spot that guarantees scrutiny. Any new starter gets measured against the last one, but in this case the standard is even higher after Indianas first Heisman winner left behind a season that changed the way the program is viewed and raised expectations across the board.
The real question is not whether Hoover can avoid the comparisons right away, because those will come. It is whether Curt Cignetti can do what he has done before and bring along a quarterback quickly enough for Indiana to keep building on its recent success in a rugged Big Ten race, where a team cannot afford a long adjustment period at the games most important position. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Has A Big Chance With An Elite In-State 2029 Prospect
Curt Cignetti and Indiana have made no secret of wanting to build their recruiting board around the best high school talent in the state, and one of the earliest names to watch is Austin Phillips. The East Noble standout has already emerged as a freshman linebacker and running back with the kind of profile that gets attention quickly, and he is set to spend the fall taking in several major college programs while his recruitment starts to take shape.
For Indiana, the appeal is obvious. Landing a prospect like Phillips would reinforce the programs push to keep elite in-state players from leaving the region, especially as more heavy hitters enter the mix and the competition for his commitment intensifies. The Hoosiers have a legitimate opening here, but with visits on the calendar and momentum still building, this one figures to stay busy for a while. [Read more 🡒]