ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit: Indiana ‘wasn’t a team that should have been on that field’ vs. Notre Dame

On By Littum

The second guessing of Indiana’s playoff appearance has already begun.

No. 10 Hoosiers lost 27-17 at No. 7 Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Friday night. The score was not quite close. Notre Dame dominated the game, leading 27-3 before the Hoosiers scored two late touchdowns to make it a two-score game.

On Saturday morning’s edition of “College GameDay,” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said Indiana shouldn’t have played Notre Dame.

“I’m not going to sit here and say why Indiana was in, but Indiana with what you guys like to talk about, they’ve got 11 wins, they’ve got to be one of the best teams,” Herbstreit said. “Indiana got outclassed in that game … It wasn’t a team that should have been on that field when you think about other teams that could have been there. It’s not something that strikes Indiana, they had A great year. But we have to move on with the playoffs and hope the committee does a better job of weighing who the top 12 are vs. who is the most deserving, because by golly they got 11 wins , they didn’t hit other than they have 11 wins. It’s a bunch of BS. We have to find the best teams. And last night it was incredibly clear just to watch the game.”

Indiana won 11-1 in the regular season. The Hoosiers’ only loss in the regular season was a 28–15 defeat at No. 1 Ohio State. 8. Yes, it’s fair to say Indiana played a schedule that didn’t include many top teams, but the Hoosiers didn’t have an easy schedule when it was revealed. In addition to Ohio State, Indiana also played (and beat) the two teams that played for the national title a season ago in Michigan and Washington. Yes, those teams were worse in 2024 than they were in 2023. But that’s not Indiana’s fault.

Indiana may not have been one of the very best teams in college football, but a team that goes 11-1 in a power conference was always going to be a foregone conclusion to make the 12-team College Football Playoff. Had Indiana not made the playoffs when the field was chosen in early December, the reaction to the Hoosiers’ exclusion would have been uproarious and led to several calls for the playoffs to be revised after just one year.

And besides, there isn’t a good argument for who would have been in the playoffs instead of Indiana. Miami finished 10-2 after blowing a 21-point lead at Syracuse in the season’s final week. The Hurricanes’ defense is far from title caliber. Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina each had three losses.

Those losses also didn’t stop Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin from complaining on social media about Indiana during the game.

But Indiana took care of business against average and bad teams. Alabama and Ole Miss did not. The Crimson Tide lost two games to teams that finished 6-6. One of those defeats was a 24-3 loss to Oklahoma. Ole Miss beat Georgia, but the Rebels lost at home to a 4-8 Kentucky team. You can’t credibly claim you belong in the playoffs when you have three losses and a home loss to a team that didn’t sniff bowl eligibility.