INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana slid to 10th in this week’s College Football Playoff rankings.
The Hoosiers’ tumble down the top 25 comes on the heels of the 38-15 loss they suffered to No. 2 Ohio State in Columbus last week. Despite its move down the standings, Indiana is still projected to make the College Football Playoff as the No. 11 seed. If the season ended today, the Hoosiers would play 6th-seeded Penn State in the first round of the playoff.
Notre Dame moved up to fifth in this week’s rankings. The Fighting Irish are projected to be seeded seventh and play 10th-seeded SMU in the first round of the playoff.
Though it has a 10-1 record, Notre Dame can’t break into the College Football Playoff bracket’s top four. That’s because the bracket’s top four seeds are allocated to the four highest-ranked conference champions at the end of the season, and the Fighting Irish’s football team isn’t part of any league.
Indiana still has a remote chance to win the Big Ten Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and earn one of the playoff’s top four seeds.
First, Indiana needs to beat 1-10 Purdue and win the Old Oaken Bucket on Saturday. Second, the Hoosiers need both Ohio State and Penn State to lose their respective season finales. The 4th-ranked Nittany Lions and the No. 2 Buckeyes play the 4-7 Maryland Terrapins and 6-5 Michigan Wolverines, respectively, on Saturday.
The Fighting Irish will wrap up their season with a matchup against the USC Trojans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday. Because it isn’t in a conference, Notre Dame will have a week off between the end of its season and the start of the College Football Playoff.
Notre Dame, however, may have a difficult time making the playoff should it lose to USC this week. The Fighting Irish lost to the Northern Illinois Huskies at home in September, and they’ve been clawing their way back into the national conversation ever since.
The final College Football Playoff rankings of the year will be released in two weeks — after conference championship games have concluded.
