Indiana Football: Disrespect continues for IU in preseason rankings

Despite a lot of praise for the Indiana football program around the league, national writers continue to look past the Hoosiers.

Another day, another prediction of where the Indiana football program will end up in the Big Ten, and again they seem to be overlooked and disrespected in the media with 247Sports predicting them to have a worse record than in 2018.

After two straight 5-7 seasons and the top ranked recruiting class in program history you would guess Indiana’s outlook for 2019 would be better than before, but not so fast says a couple of 247Sports writers.

In their 2019 Big Ten Predictions article, they have the Hoosiers finishing 4-8 (1-8) on the season. Brad Crawford had this to say about the Hoosiers 2019 season.

"“Consecutive 5-7 finishes for Tom Allen at Indiana leaves a lot to be desired in Bloomington, but until the Hoosiers can start beating nationally-ranked teams, that feels like the ceiling under the current regime. There’s a good chance Indiana starts 3-1 this season before it begins to unravel.”"

As it stands in the article, Crawford has Indiana’s only conference win coming against Rutgers at home, with the remaining three wins being in the non-conference.

While I agree Indiana will most likely start the season at least 3-1, with the talent around the field, and especially in the skill positions for Indiana, just one conference win seems extremely unrealistic. A win against Maryland, albeit on the road, seems highly doable, plus two more games against Northwestern at home, and a Purdue team who lost one of their best quarterbacks in program history, those seem like two more games that could end up in Indiana’s favor.

No matter how you want to spin it, the season and bowl game potential all comes down to whether the Hoosiers can pull off at least one or two upsets on the season. Either way, I think a 4-8 record is a little harsh considering what Indiana is returning.