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ESPN completely disregards Indiana in their 2026 College Football Playoff prediction

The Hoosiers put together their greatest season in program history and it feels like it means nothing going forward.
ByEricka Brockish|
Dec 20, 2024; Notre Dame, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Donaven McCulley (1) runs against Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Xavier Watts (0) and Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Adon Shuler (8) during the first half at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images
Dec 20, 2024; Notre Dame, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers wide receiver Donaven McCulley (1) runs against Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Xavier Watts (0) and Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Adon Shuler (8) during the first half at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-Imagn Images | Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

As everyone begins to turn the page on the college football season, Indiana fans are just wanting to hold onto it a little bit longer. The 2024 college football season is one the Indiana Hoosiers will truly never forget, but it seems like everyone else already has.

After finishing the season 11-2 with a College Football Playoff appearance, the media didn't even really give Indiana their flowers for the way the season went. Instead, they continued to talk about how they didn't belong. The Hoosiers lost to the team that made the National Championship, and their other loss on the season came to the eventual National Champion, so tell Indiana fans how that means the Hoosiers didn't belong.

Either way, the season is over, and it's time to start looking at the 2025 season and 2026 College Football Playoff. ESPN released their first prediction of who would make and win the 2026 College Football Playoff, and to the surprise of every single Hoosier fan, Indiana was nowhere to be found.

ESPN predicted three Big Ten teams to make it in, and one of them even won it all. They had Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State making it in, with the Nittany Lions winning it all. No Indiana though, which seems like something crazy.

Indiana is losing a lot of pieces this next season, but head coach Curt Cignetti has worked hard in the transfer portal to bring in guys to replace the holes on both sides of the ball. The Hoosiers brought in Cal transfer quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who was a top-ranked quarterback in the transfer portal and is ready and hungry to get better.

To just think that Indiana is going to fall off next season after such a great season in 2024 just seems downright disrespectful, but at this point, Indiana works better when they are playing against the noise of everyone doubting them. Just like Cignetti said to the Hoosier faithful on Sunday in Assembly Hall, they aren't done yet, which should scare the rest of not just the Big Ten, but college football as a whole.

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