Veteran ESPN commentator Sean McDonough called out the Indiana Hoosiers, Curt Cignetti's decsion making and questions College Football Playoff committee's Big Ten bias at the end of the game last night when Notre Dame beat Indiana.
Notre Dame was able to control the game start to finish and beat IU, 27-17 in a matchup that wasn't as close as the final score indicated.
The Irish were dominate against the Hoosiers well into the fourth quarter before Indiana scored a late touchdown and converted a two-point conversion to cut the lead to 16 points. The Hoosiers then kicked, and recovered, an onside attempt and regained possession with 1 minute and 27 seconds on the clock, scoring another TD, thrown by Kurtis Rourke to Elijah Sarratt.
Sean McDonough during that time went into full rage mode going in on the B1G, CFP and Indiana.
“I didn’t understand why Indiana wasn’t included in that conversation,” McDonough said of the bubble, that more or less boiled down to SMU, Ole Miss and Alabama and yes, “I know they’re 11-1 but what was it about their resume that said they were clearly more deserving than SMU or Alabama.”
"To be honest, this game's been a little bit of a dud. I don't think anybody would deny that,"McDonough said late in the fourth quarter. "Disappointing, I think most of us thought it would be a more competitive game, and there will be a lot of analysis going forward about whether Indiana was worthy of this."
Sean McDonough just hit on something that — until now — I never heard a national commentator say.
— Josh Graham (@JoshGrahamShow) December 21, 2024
He said he doesn’t get why the Big Ten is viewed to be head and shoulders above the ACC.
It’s something I’ve said for years: that the B10 is a lot closer to the ACC than the SEC.
I think they need to lose the assumption that the SEC and Big Ten are clearly head and shoulders ahead of everyone else, particularly the Big Ten,"McDonough continued in the game's final minute. "The SEC has the recent history—Alabama, Georgia—but the Big Ten's won two national championships in college football since when? 2002? That's 22 seasons."
Sean McDonough dropping truth bombs: “I don't understand why there's this presumption that the Big Ten is so much better than the ACC or Big 12, I'm not sure what that's based on."
— A.J. Black (@AJBlack247) December 21, 2024
With Ohio State Buckeyes in 2014 winning the national title and in 2024 with the Michigan Wolverines winning just last season over Washington, he is technically correct but the B1G has consistently been looked at as the second best conference behind the SEC. The B1G also just added Oregon who is the No. 1 ranked team in the nation along with UCLA, USC and Washington from the Pac-12 which makes the conference even deeper.
Indiana and Curt Cignetti will have a lot to prove next season, as they failed miserably under the lights in primetime again just like the Ohio State match up. But for yes one to go 11-2 after a 3-8 season I believe Indiana is in the right direction moving forward as a program.