BREAKING NEWS :Todd’s Take: We’re No. 3? Indiana Football Fans Deserve To Have Fun With It……….
The criticism lobbed at Indiana after its College Football Playoff loss was ridiculous, so if Hoosiers fans want a laugh at the expense of their critics, have at it.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Sometimes good things come to those that wait.
Like everyone else, after Indiana lost 27-17 at Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff, I took note of the disparaging comments made by Kirk Herbstreit, Paul Finebaum and others regarding Indiana’s College Football Playoff worthiness.
I disagreed with those comments, but I kept my powder dry. As in all things, it’s usually better to see how things play out before making hard-and-fast judgments.
So as the College Football Playoff worked its way to a championship game matchup between Notre Dame and Ohio State – the two teams Indiana lost to in its 11-2 season – I observed it all with a wry smile.
Bonus material for Indiana fans came from the bowls where poor, put-upon Alabama – a program that should play in a church confessional given how much forgiveness for shortcomings the Crimson Tide get from the national media – lost 19-13 in the Reliquest Bowl to a Michigan team that went 5-4 in the Big Ten, including a loss to the Hoosiers.
I watched as another supposedly hard-done-by SEC team – South Carolina – lost 21-17 in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl to an Illinois team that was barely inside the top 25.
Only Ole Miss upheld the honor of the Deep South with a 52-20 win over a four-loss Duke team in the Taxslayer Gator Bowl.
For me, it all played out as comedy. A slow-rolling series of belly laughs that provided everything any fan could have possibly wanted from the college postseason as Indiana was concerned once the Hoosiers bowed out. Schadenfreude – deriving enjoyment from the misfortune of others – served up with all of the crow they could eat.
Some see vindication, too. I wouldn’t go that far. It’s a weird flex to crow about losses. Not a space I’m comfortable living in, but I understand the sentiment. Even if I do think it’s a weird flex, I endorse the barbs coming from Indiana fans, because they endured unfair ones pointed in their direction in December.
What bothered me about the criticism at the time was how illogical it was. Herbstreit, in particular, lost the plot.
“Indiana was outclassed in that game. It was not a team that should’ve been on that field when you consider other teams that could’ve been there,” Herbstreit said at the time of Indiana’s loss.
That was the comment that got a lot of attention. I don’t agree with it, but playing devil’s advocate, it’s a position that can be argued. Indiana did get comprehensively beaten by Notre Dame, the 10-point final margin not really a reflection of how much the Hoosiers struggled.
I took the biggest issue with what he said afterward.
“It’s no knock on Indiana — they had a great year — but we’ve got to move forward with the Playoff and hope that the committee does a better job of weighing who the best 12 versus who’s the most deserving.” Herbstreit railed.
“Because, by golly, they got 11 wins. They didn’t beat anybody, but they got 11 wins. That’s a bunch of BS. We need to find the best teams.”
You need a supercollider to harness the collision of sanctimony and illogic in that statement.
For starters, Indiana was punished for its weak schedule in a preemptive sense.
There was little chance Indiana was going to have the leeway to get into the field as a two-loss team without an obvious quality win on their schedule. Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee and Texas all got that benefit of the doubt. Indiana was not going to get it.
Once Indiana lost to Ohio State, the Hoosiers were firmly on the bubble. Other programs, including several SEC schools, had the chance to put the Hoosiers outside the bubble, but none of them took their chances to do so.
That is not Indiana’s fault. That is the fault of the teams that couldn’t clear the bar. And it goes to the heart of another nonsensical part of Herbstreit’s broadside. The part about finding “the best teams.”
It’s a not-so-coded message that the royalty of college football deserves a perpetual free pass. That style and buzz reigns supreme over substance.
Wins should be judged on their substance, but they shouldn’t be ignored altogether. Particularly when the blue bloods don’t hold up their alleged end as a superior product with those pesky losses they can’t sweep under the rug.
I hate this creeping notion – and it happens in the college basketball world too as NCAA Tournament worthiness is concerned – that wins are supposed to take a back seat to hoodoo that suggests a team is better than their record indicates because of … reasons.
In basketball, it comes from otherwise useful advanced metrics data being misused and misinterpreted. In football, it’s even more subjective. The combination of our addiction to recruiting star ratings and the eye test of size, speed and strength.
I have zero doubt that both Alabama and Ole Miss whip Indiana in the size, speed and strength department. Both undoubtedly have Indiana bested in recruiting rankings, too.
None of which should matter one iota once they take it between the lines. Alabama managed to lose three regular season games – two of them to teams with losing records in the sainted SEC.
But it is still “best” or “deserving” over a one-loss team? On what planet does that dog hunt?
Indiana, for all of its alleged shortcomings, took care of business in all but one of its regular season games – and hammered nearly every team it faced.
The Hoosiers earned the right to be there. Indiana had to fight for its right to be there. It was not going to get any free pass that reputation gives programs that are more proven winners over time.
So if Indiana fans want, they should absolutely have fun with the fact that Indiana’s only losses will be to the national champion and national runner-up. And that some of the anointed teams left out of the CFP fell on their collective faces.
Never has “We’re No. 3!” felt so satisfying.
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