Indiana
Ranking Indiana’s potential College Football Playoff opponents, from most exciting to most boring
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti didn’t spend much time celebrating his team’s historically lopsided win over Purdue.
He was already looking ahead to a potential College Football Playoff appearance for the No. 10 Hoosiers (11-1; 8-1 Big Ten) during his brief opening statement after a 66-0 win over Purdue.
“They are not done yet,” Cignetti said, emphatically. “You know, they are not — they want more. They are going to get more.”
More is likely to be one of college football’s traditional powers in the opening round of the first ever 12-team playoff. There’s some incredibly exciting potential first-round matchups, here they are ranked from thrilling to least:
Ranking Indiana football’s most exciting potential first round CFP opponents
Georgia (10-2): Taking down a perennial title contender like Georgia in the heart of SEC country would erase any doubts about IU being the real deal. The Bulldogs have won two national titles in the last three years and have the fourth most wins in CFP history.
The trip to Athens would be a first for the Hoosiers — the programs have never played each other — and haven’t played an SEC opponent on a non-neutral field since facing Kentucky in 2004.
Indiana playing between the hedges at Sanford Stadium in the postseason was not a scenario anyone envisioned at the start of the year.
Notre Dame (11-1): Notre Dame and Indiana are in the same state, but the football programs have spent much of their existence on separate continents. The Fighting Irish almost have more national titles than IU has bowl appearances.
The Hoosiers could break out of that shadow in a big way by eliminating them in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
Indiana fans would probably take a bit of extra pleasure in getting a CFP win before Notre Dame does. The Fighting Irish have made a pair of appearances in the event (2018 and 2020), but lost those games by a combined score of 61-17.
The fact that the teams have rarely played in the modern era of college football makes the potential matchup all the more exciting. The teams haven’t played since Notre Dame beat IU, 49-27, in 1991.
It was the only game between the programs going back to 1958.
Penn State (11-1): Indiana’s past and present could collide in State College.
The Hoosiers former head coach Tom Allen landed on his feet as PSU’s defensive coordinator. The Nittany Lions finished the regular season with the fourth ranked defense in the FBS (266.8 yards allowed per game) and sixth in scoring defense (14.0).
Indiana facing its former coach would create plenty of intrigue between two longtime Big Ten rivals especially since Cignetti’s brash style is so diametrically opposed to Allen’s LEO era.
There’s an added irony to the teams playing in the first round since IU was excited about finally being free of facing Penn State on an annual basis in the Big Ten East division. The Hoosiers wouldn’t have any objections to continuing the series in the postseason.
Texas (11-1): This would be a fun matchup considering the head coaches from both teams are former Nick Saban pupils.
It would also be a meeting of great offensive minds.
Cignetti’s respect for Texas coach Steven Sarkisian actually played a role in Indiana’s success this season. That admiration is what led Cignetti to hiring IU’s current quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri when he was at JMU.
“I spent that whole COVID fall studying Alabama when Sarkisian was there with Matt Jones and those receivers,” Cignetti said, back in December. “I really liked what they were doing. I was looking for new ideas in the pass game. Tino was Sark’s right hand man.”
On top of it being a great chess match, this isn’t a matchup that comes around very often. Indiana is winless in three games against Texas and the teams haven’t played since 1966.
Ohio State (10-2): Indiana players would welcome a rematch against Ohio State. The Hoosiers didn’t feel like they played their best game in Columbus and are frustrated by the narrative that they can’t compete with the Buckeyes.
Bouncing back with a win over OSU in the first round would be a heck of a way for IU to end a 30-game losing streak in the series, but from a fan’s perspective this lacks the same excitement over a game they didn’t see just weeks earlier in the exact same venue.
Tennessee (10-2): Indiana would get a chance to avenge a 2020 loss to Tennessee in the Gator Bowl if they headed down to Knoxville, but that would provide little motivation for the guys in IU’s locker room since there isn’t anybody still on the roster that played in that game.
This would give the Hoosiers a chance to Big Ten some bragging rights over the SEC, but there’s just not as much juice to this game compared to the rest of the list.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Hamilton County teen on Friday said he’s excited for his first convention as a voting delegate.
Jackson Massillamany, who just turned 18 and graduated from high school in May, is no stranger to politics. His father, Mario, is the chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party and his mother, Amy, serves on the Hamilton County Council.
Jackson said he signed up to be a delegate at this weekend’s Indiana Republican Party convention in Fort Wayne after Mario asked if he was interested.
“It’s kinda cool to see how this is done and what my dad actually does,” he said. “At first, I wasn’t really excited for it, but I’m here now and I’m having a blast.”
Mario Massillamany, who is a contributor to “All INdiana Politics,” said Jackson is the youngest delegate at the convention. He said he has been taking Jackson along to party functions ever since he was an infant.
“It’s a great opportunity for him to get more active and involved in politics, and I think we need to try and get the younger generations involved in our political process,” he said. “I think this is a great opportunity for him to come here, have a good experience and then go back and talk to his friends about why it’s important to get involved.”
Jackson will be one of 1,800 delegates tasked with picking a nominee for secretary of state. It’s a closely watched race. Current Secretary of State Diego Morales, who is seeking a second term, has faced numerous controversies since he took office. Knox County Clerk David Shelton and conservative activist and 2024 gubernatorial candidate Jamie Reitenour have been running against Morales for months. Last month, Max Engling, a staffer for Sen. Jim Banks and a 2024 congressional candidate, joined the race at the last minute with Banks’ backing.
The Republican winner in November will have to face Bayh family scion Beau Bayh, a Democrat, along with Libertarian Lauri Shillings and, potentially, former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who is running as an independent under the Lincoln Party label.
Mario said he’s telling Jackson to keep his eyes and ears open and to meet with all of the weekend’s candidates.
Both Massillamanys said the key to getting young people to vote and to get politically involved is to, first, encourage them to register to vote and, second, to elevate more young people who are in politics.
“I feel like many people are scared to be involved in politics because nobody else younger does it,” Jackson said. “So, like, me and other people my age, being able to reach out to others to try and get involved, I feel like, is the best way for people my age to get involved.”
Delegates to the 2026 Indiana Republican Party convention will make their selections on Saturday. Besides secretary of state candidates, they will choose nominees for state treasurer and state comptroller. The current occupants of those offices, Daniel Elliott and Elise Nieshalla, respectively, are running for second terms and are unopposed.
Government reporter Garrett Bergquist will be in Fort Wayne on Saturday and will have a full report on the results of the convention at 6, 10 and 11 p.m. on WISH-TV.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
Crime Resources
Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
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