The preseason US LBM Coaches Poll landed on Tuesday, and the Indiana Hoosiers immediately became the team some people wanted to argue about.
USA Today’s Blake Toppmeyer was among the loudest voices pushing back, saying Indiana was far too low at No. 6 behind Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Notre Dame. His case centered on how the Hoosiers would be viewed if they carried a more familiar blue-blood label.
"Indiana got hosed. Imagine the Hoosiers as defending national champions, with this stacked defense they return, and now stitch Ohio State or Alabama or Oklahoma or some other blue-blooded name across the front of the jerseys.
Where would they be ranked? Higher than sixth, I’ll tell you that," Toppmeyer said.
That criticism opens the real question: is Indiana being undervalued, or is the poll simply reacting to how much the roster changed?
The Hoosiers lost a long list of key pieces, including star CB D'Angelo Ponds and LB Aiden Fisher to the 2026 NFL draft, along with defensive end Mikail Kamara and safety Louis Moorre. On offense, Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza is gone too, and several of his top targets followed him to the pros.
Curt Cignetti has built a program that clearly gets more out of its parts than most teams do, but the roster turnover is still hard to ignore. Even with coaching continuity, there’s a lot being asked of this group.
Maybe the coordinator stability deserved more credit. Maybe not.
There is at least a path for Indiana to prove the doubters wrong. If TCU Horned Frogs transfer quarterback Josh Hoover lives up to the hype and the Hoosiers’ defense keeps its culture intact, then this could end up looking like a miss.
But preseason polls are a dangerous business. Texas was No.
1, Penn State was No. 2, Clemson was No. 4, and two of those teams wound up in the Pinstripes Bowl last year.
That’s the problem with putting too much stock in August rankings. They miss plenty.
And this is where Ohio State enters the picture. The Buckeyes are the kind of program that usually gets the benefit of the doubt because the résumé behind them is so much stronger.
They don’t lean heavily on the portal, and they still finished ahead of Indiana in this latest cycle. Under Ryan Day, Ohio State has years of recruiting dominance and far more signs of stability than the Hoosiers.
So while Indiana’s fan base may feel slighted now, the bigger lesson might be simpler: sometimes the poll really is reading the tea leaves correctly.
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