Who might Indiana football play based on latest CFP rankings?
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BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football heads into an off week ranked at No. 2 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings that were released on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
The Hoosiers (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten) are coming off a 31-7 win over Wisconsin that gave the program the longest active home winning streak in the country at 15 games. They haven’t lost a game at Memorial Stadium during coach Curt Cignetti’s tenure.
“We all understand what we’ve accomplished together and what’s down the road,” Cignetti said. “We don’t know for a fact that it is our last game here at home. We hope it is. It’s kind of weird to say; I get it. We’ll see what happens.”
Indiana is hoping to avoid playing at Memorial Stadium again this week by finishing in the top four of the CFP rankings and getting a first-round bye to the quarterfinals. Based on the current rankings, IU would matchup against the winner the matchup between No. 7 Oregon and No. 10 Alabama.
The Hoosiers close out the season against Purdue on Nov. 28 at Ross-Ade Stadium, where they haven’t won a game since 2019. They can clinch a spot in the Big Ten title game with a win.
“It’s really hard for me to step back sometimes and think about what we’ve accomplished here,” Cignetti said after beating Wisconsin. “But it takes people, the right coaches and the right players in the locker room, properly led, and got to have a blueprint plan, standards, expectations, and just improve daily and create the right mindset, and we’ve been fortunate to have great people…it’s been fun, and let’s have more fun.”
Week 3 CFP top 25 rankings
1. Ohio State 10-0 (-)
2. Indiana 11-0 (-)
3. Texas A&M 10-0 (-)
4. Georgia 9-1 (+1)
5. Texas Tech 10-1 (+1)
6. Ole Miss 10-1 (+1)
7. Oregon 9-1 (+1)
8. Oklahoma 8-2 (+3)
9. Notre Dame 8-2 (-)
10. Alabama 8-2 (-6)
11. BYU 9-1 (+1)
12. Utah 8-2 (+1)
13. Miami 8-2 (+2)
14. Vanderbilt 8-2 (-)
15. USC 8-2 (+2)
16. Georgia Tech 9-1 (-)
17. Texas 7-3 (-7)
18. Michigan 8-2 (-)
19. Virginia 9-2 (-)
20. Tennessee 7-3 (+3)
21. Illinois 7-3 (N/R)
22. Missouri 7-3 (N/R)
23. Houston 8-2 (N/R)
24. Tulane 8-2 (N/R)
25. Arizona State 7-3 (N/R)
How does the College Football Playoff work?
The 12-team field features the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked schools. The four highest-ranked schools are seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye.
The remaining schools will be seeded 5-12 based on their final ranking. If any of the five highest-ranked conference champions are outside the top 12, they will be seeded at the bottom of the bracket.
Those eight schools will play in the CFP first round with the higher seeds hosting the lower seeds on campus (or a designated site picked by the higher-seeded team). The committee doesn’t modify the bracket to avoid rematches and there is no re-seeding.
The top four seeds will be assigned to the quarterfinals hosted by the bowls, in accordance with historic bowl relationships. The Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl are hosting the quarterfinals this season.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana football in CFP rankings, games, bye, matchups, how it works
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