Indiana football: Facing off against preseason AP top 25 opponents

The Associated Press released its 2022 Preseason Top 25 poll on August 15 and, as expected, Indiana football did not make an appearance after being ranked 17th in the 2021 preseason poll for the first time since 1969.

While it’s disappointing, yet understandable, for Hoosier Nation to not be recognized in the AP Top 25, don’t be surprised if Tom Allen and Indiana football work their way to the Top 25 by the end of the season with all of the highly ranked opponents they have a chance to take down as the season progresses.

Of the 12 opponents on Indiana football’s schedule for the 2022 season, four of them are ranked in the top 25; #2 Ohio State (Nov. 12); #8 Michigan (Oct. 8), #15 Michigan State (Nov. 19), and #23 Cincinnati (Sept. 24). Three of the remaining eight teams on the Hoosiers’ schedule received votes in the AP poll as well; Penn State (Nov. 5), Purdue (Nov. 26), and Nebraska (Oct. 1). If the Hoosiers can go .500 or better against these seven teams this season, Tom Allen could see Indiana football back on the top 25 board sooner rather than later.

Despite the horrid season that was 2021, if Indiana football can work its way into the top 25 this upcoming season, it would be the fourth consecutive season where the Hoosiers make an appearance in the top 25, which they have never done in program history.

Tom Allen is 3-20 (.130) against Top 25 opponents since taking the head coaching role in Bloomington at the end of 2016. Four of the seven teams mentioned in this year’s AP poll belong to the Big Ten East, which further proves the point of Tom Allen and other Big Ten coaches on how Big Ten football is weighted to one side (the east). Even with all the odds against the favor of Indiana football, Tom Allen and his scrappy group looking to rebound from last season will hopefully make some noise this season and ruffle some feathers.