Indiana Football: Hoosiers would make Big 12 title game this year

The Indiana football team currently is not playing in the fall but if they had a chance to play in the Big 12 they would make the title game.

Indiana was poised to make a splash in the Big Ten this year. They had one of the best returning offenses in the conference and an improving defense. Tom Allen is building something special in Bloomington and this was the year it was supposed to come together.

But the Big Ten canceled its football season (at least for now) and now the Hoosiers are left thinking about what if. It left us thinking about what could have been and what we are missing not getting to see the Cream and Crimson run out on the field.

Rumors have started to swirl that some Big Ten teams are none too happy and are looking to possibly play outside of the Big Ten to maks sure they get to play. Teams have said they would join the Big 12 or ACC and it may have the Big Ten backtracking a little bit.

With the rumors, though, got us thinking about what would be best for the Hoosiers. What conference would be most beneficial for Indiana to join? We rated them yesterday and said the ACC would be the best landing spot for them for a variety of reasons, but if they were in the Big 12 big things could happen.

We think that is the Hoosiers joined the Big 12 as it is today, they would make the title game this year. Yes you heard us right, Indiana would be playing in a conference championship game, and it’s not as far fetched as you might think.

Indiana’s strength is their offense and the Big 12 is not going to be confused for being a good defensive conference. Last year there were only three Big 12 teams in the top 50 in scoring defenses. One of which was Kansas State and they weren’t exactly a scoring machine themselves.

To put that into perspective, the Hoosiers were widely considered as one of the worse defenses in the Big Ten and they were ahead of all but Kansas State and Baylor in the Big 12.

The Hoosiers could score on any team in the Big 12 team this year and that includes Oklahoma, who has been the best team in the conference for a while now. The question is if Indiana could stop them?

They may struggle to stop some of them but overall I think they could slow them down enough to let their offense win games for them. Yes, the Hoosiers struggled to stop the top of the Big Ten last year, but they should be much better this year. They played well against Tennessee and were looking to carry that momentum into this year.

The bigger thing is who couldn’t the Hoosiers beat in the Big 12? Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Baylor look to be the top teams this year. The Sooners are tough but are replacing a quarterback yet again.

Texas has supposed to have been back for a couple of years now, but Maryland has beaten them in each of the last two years. Baylor was solid but just lost their head coach and Oklahoma State will score a lot of points and have Chubba Hubbard, but can they stop anyone?

The bottom is Iowa State, Kansas State, West Virginia, TCU, Texas Tech, and Kansas. Indiana could very well be a favorite in each one of those games. We are going to be optimistic and say they win all of those games. That is six wins and probably could split the other four and be 8-2 and make the championship game.

That isn’t unreasonable to believe. An offense of MIchael Penix Jr, Stevie Scott, and Whop Philyor leading the way would score a ton of points in the Big 12. Then if they start to stop them you hit them with Ty Fryfogle and Peyton Hendershot. The offense is stacked for the Hoosiers and would win a bunch of games in the Big 12 right now.

It isn’t unrealistic to think that Oklahoma could run the table so all the Hoosiers would need to do is get a little help from the top to beat each other up and then boom they are in the championship game.

We won’t ever get to know if this could happen so it is easy for us to say this, but we truly believe that the Hoosiers in the Big 12 would be playing for some hardware.

The Big 12 would take any Big 10 with open arms this year but would be wary of Michigan, Ohio State, or Penn State being able to win the conference. But if they have been paying attention, they don’t want Indiana either.

If they accepted them the Hoosiers would be playing in the title game.