Indiana football talks a big game, but Hoosiers won't play a big name
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The Indiana Hoosiers don’t operate a hype machine, and they don’t whine like the fellas do in the South.
But, boy, the Hoosiers sure know how to duck and run.
True to its nature, Indiana this week dumped a future home-and-home football series with Notre Dame.
Indiana, according to multiplereports, requested out of the series. Neither school's athletic department officially confirmed who triggered the cancellation, but this elimination of the Indiana-Notre Dame games scheduled for 2030 and ’31 aligns with Hoosiers' nonconference scheduling policy of avoiding opponents with a pulse.
Indiana, like a few of its Big Ten peers, embraces the path of least resistance. The Hoosiers don’t have a single Power Four nonconference opponent scheduled in any of the next several seasons.
Seek the meek. Beat the meek.
That's Indiana's scheduling philosophy.
That mindset made sense when Indiana’s administration was trying to figure out how to make a bowl game. But now, Indiana employs big, bad, braggadocious Curt Cignetti, he of college football’s first 16-0 team. You’re telling me Cigs and the boys can’t handle playing someone stiffer than North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky this September?
Or, Austin Peay, Eastern Michigan and Miami (Ohio) next year?
If you’re going to ooze conceit, as Cignetti does, then you shouldn’t schedule like you’re scared this Indiana revelation is a mirage.
Indiana avoids tough opponents in non-conference schedule
The next Power Four nonconference opponent Indiana schedules (and doesn’t cancel) during Cignetti’s tenure will be the first.
Notre Dame catches a lot of schedule flak, but the Irish replaced Indiana with Southern Cal.
No word yet on who’ll replace Notre Dame on Indiana’s schedule, but Cignetti’s bosses probably already checked on the availability of Southwest Cupcake State or Cannoli Tech to join Indiana State and Delaware on the 2030 nonconference schedule.
What’s Indiana’s schedule look like in real time? Consider Week 2. That Saturday, Ohio State will play Texas in a battle of war chests, Michigan will square off with blue-blooded Oklahoma, and Indiana will try to hang 100 on Howard. Indiana’s overmatched nonconference opponents didn’t fall out of a coconut tree. The Hoosiers brazenly scheduled them, exploiting Big Ten rules that allow members to play three cupcakes in addition to nine conference games.
Admire Curt Cignetti’s coaching, but loathe Indiana’s scheduling
There’s a lot to admire about Cignetti’s coaching ingenuity. I enjoy his swagger, too. He put on a rhetorical masterclass last week when he mocked the SEC without ever saying the name of the Big Ten’s rival conference.
“We don't run a hype machine up here in the Midwest,” Cignetti said. “We believe everything is earned, not given. When we fall short, we say: We fell short. We don't cry a river, whine and complain. That's why we're the best.”
In the South, they’d say Indiana’s run-and-hide scheduling philosophy helped them build college football's best record. That criticism has merit, and now Indiana has dumped Notre Dame, mere days after Cignetti’s tough talk at the mic.
I commend Cignetti’s warp-speed renaissance at Indiana. I loathe his contentedness to play a feeble nonconference schedule.
Big Ten allows Hoosiers to seek the meek
Indiana’s scheduling mindset predates Cignetti, but this Notre Dame cancellation happened under his watch. Anyway, when you’re the $13 million coach and the Big Man on Campus like Cignetti, nobody would stop him from updating Indiana’s cupcake philosophy and adding a little more beef.
Cignetti wants no part of that. He’s made that clear.
“I'm more focused in on those nine conference games,” he said last year.
He’s not the only coach who would seek the meek if left to their own devices. That’s where conference bylaws should step in and erect a roadblock to a full-fledged cupcake feast.
The SEC, Big 12 and ACC require their membership to play at least one nonconference opponent from either the Power Four or Notre Dame. The Big Ten has no such requirement. Its members are permitted to feast on three yummy confections from either the FCS or Group of Six. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC limit their membership to two such games after the SEC and ACC updated their scheduling rules before this season.
Some Big Ten schools still choose to play one big-boy nonconference game. Others, like Penn State and Nebraska, join the Hoosiers in scheduling a slapstick trio for September.
Blame Indiana for its schedule. It chose this.
Blame the Big Ten’s rules, too. It allowed this.
Just remember, Hoosiers, no crying if the selection committee takes one look at your strength of schedule and laughs. You can either whine and complain about how tough your schedule is, like they do in the SEC, or you can duck and run. You don’t get to do both.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Indiana football talks a big game, but Hoosiers won't play a big name
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