The National Championship is set after the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff and it is clear the new system has worked as the championship is between the 8-seed Ohio State and 7-seed Notre Dame.
If we were still in the 4-team era, these two teams would not have even made the College Football Playoff, so clearly the expansion did what it was supposed to do. Now, Indiana fans may be asking why they should care about who made the Championship, cause they lost in the first round.
Well, take a look at Indiana's season. They finished the 2024 season 11-2 with one loss in the regular season and then, of course, the loss that ended their season. The only two teams that Indiana lost to this season were Ohio State and Notre Dame, the two teams in the championship.
Now, does this mean that Indiana is the third-best team in the country? Well, some will say yes, and probably a lot of people will say no, but the conversation, at the very least, needs to be had. There were times in the season that Indiana struggled against other teams that weren't Ohio State and Notre Dame, but what team didn't? Oregon went undefeated until the playoffs but still had issues this season.
It should be noted, though, that the only two losses on Indiana's record happen to be the two teams in the National Championship. Indiana did not play a lot of ranked opponents this season, but no one can say for sure that if the Hoosiers had faced Penn State or Oregon, they would or would not have beaten them.
Basically, what this all boils down to, and it will be said one last time, Indiana belonged in the College Football Playoff, and this just continues to prove that. The Hoosiers are a team on the rise under head coach Curt Cignetti, and the rest of college football should be on notice.