Indiana
College Football Playoff rankings: Ohio State and Indiana on top (again) as SEC teams dominate the top 10
The third College Football Playoff rankings propelled the event closer to an endgame guaranteed to roil the masses.
Are you ready for five SEC teams?
The conference took a giant leap toward gobbling almost half the bids to the 12-team event when the rankings were unveiled Tuesday evening.
Oklahoma vaulted three spots, to No. 8, following its victory at Alabama. But critically, the 10th-ranked Crimson Tide did not drop below the cut line for CFP inclusion despite sustaining their second loss.
Add No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Georgia and No. 6 Mississippi to the Sooners and Crimson Tide, and the SEC would have five participants if the field were selected today: one automatic qualifier (the conference champion) plus four at-large teams.
Last year, in the first year of the 12-team event, the Big Ten led all conferences with four bids (one automatic and three at-large).
With two Saturdays remaining in the regular season, plus championship weekend, there is time for tumult.
But at this point, the SEC has a firm grasp on the pole position — at the expense of everyone else:
— The Big 12 is staring at another disappointing outcome if No. 5 Texas Tech wins the conference championship.
Both No. 11 BYU and No. 12 Utah are precariously positioned given the lack of schedule juice remaining (e.g., no ranked opponents) and the potential for teams just below them to move up.
The likelihood of the Big 12 collecting a single bid, as it did last year (Arizona State), is increasing by the week.
— The ACC faces a comparable fate with No. 13 Miami as the conference’s highest-ranked team.
Notably, the Hurricanes are four spots below Notre Dame even though they have the same record (8-2) and Miami won the head-to-head matchup.
But committee chair Hunter Yurachek, the Arkansas athletic director who took over as chair last week when Baylor AD Mack Rhoades stepped down, said the teams were not close enough for the head-to-head result to be considered.
The difference in resumes, he said, is rooted in the quality of their losses: The Irish lost to No. 13 Miami and No. 3 Texas A&M, while the Hurricanes lost to two unranked teams, SMU and Louisville.
— And what of the Big Ten? The third installment of the CFP rankings wasn’t much more encouraging for the conference than either of the first two.
Yes, No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana held their ground and are effectively locks for the CFP. But Oregon is No. 7, a tad too close to the current cut line (between No. 10 and 11) for comfort.
If the Ducks (9-1) lose at home to USC this weekend — or at Washington in the season finale — they could fall out of the field.
ESPN analyst Greg McElroy noted the precedent set by the committee’s treatment of Alabama, which fell six spots after losing at home to Oklahoma.
“If you’re Oregon, you better win out,” McEloy said, “because a six-slot slide will have you out of the field.
“They just did it to Alabama. They can do it to you.”
The Trojans (8-2) are currently on the outside looking in. Yes, they moved up two spots, to No. 15, after beating Iowa, but they are behind six teams with two losses.
A victory in Eugene would polish their resume, but would it be enough to climb five positions and gain a foothold in the field?
Put another way: It’s not difficult to envision the Big Ten as a two-bid conference when the field is announced on Dec. 7.
Add the ACC and Big 12 champions, plus No. 9 Notre Dame and the highest-ranked team from the Group of Five (currently Tulane), and that’s six teams.
If the SEC gets five, there would be one bid remaining for a third team from the Big Ten, a second from either the ACC or Big 12 or … yes, we’ll say it … a sixth from the SEC.
There are too many possible permutations to evaluate at this point.
But the most likely outcome, by far, has the SEC owning the day when the field is announced.
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Dan Bongino announces he will be leaving the FBI in January
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced he is leaving in January after less than a year as the law enforcement agency’s number two official.
At some point in 2025, the FBI helped a local police agency foil an “ISIS-inspired plot” that at least one minor planned to carry out at an unnamed central Indiana school, according to an annual summary released by the federal agency’s Indianapolis field office on Jan. 5, 2026.
FBI agents “disrupted an ISIS-inspired plot targeting a Central Indiana high school through rapid coordination with local partners,” according to the news release.
Beyond that, the agency provided few details, sharing neither the name of the school involved nor the city or town in which the school was located. Nor did the agency clarify why the report characterized the plot as ISIS-inspired.
Chris Bavender, an FBI spokesperson, declined to answer an IndyStar request for additional information about the foiled attack, responding in an email that “this matter is ongoing.”
“Because the student had immediate access to firearms, FBI Indianapolis worked closely with the high school and our local law enforcement partner to remove all firearms from the house, and the student was expelled from school. DOJ did not file charges as the individual is a juvenile,” Bavender wrote.
Bavender did not provide any information on whether the student is facing charges in the juvenile justice system.
Although high schools in both Mooresville and Westfield were the site of high-profile threat investigations in 2025, neither matched the details mentioned in the FBI report.
In February 2025, Trinity Shockley, 18, was arrested after sharing plans for a Valentine’s Day school shooting at Mooresville High School. Though the investigation into Shockley began after the FBI received a tip, Shockley was not a juvenile at the time of her arrest. Nor did court documents filed in her case reference any connection to ISIS.
The Mooresville Police Department did not immediately respond on Jan. 5 to a request for comment.
In September 2025, Westfield High School was placed on lockdown after a “potential threat.” Billy Adams, the assistant chief of the Westfield Police Department, said there’s no indication the lockdown “had anything to do with an ISIS-inspired plot.”
IndyStar reached out on Jan. 5 to multiple police agencies in central Indiana, including the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the Southport Police Department, the Speedway Police Department and the Beech Grove Police Department.
Officials for IMPD, Southport, and Speedway police said their agencies handled no such threat. Beech Grove’s police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Temperatures in Central Indiana are expected to remain above normal through late this week, with highs near 60 degrees expected by Thursday and Friday. Rain showers are predicted from Thursday through Friday night, with the possibility of isolated thunderstorms.
Today:
Dry and mild, with high temperatures ranging from the mid 40s to low 50s. Just a mix of sun and clouds with light winds should make for a pleasant afternoon.
Tonight:
Lows in the mid 30s to low 40s, with patchy drizzle or fog possible late.
Tuesday:
Mostly cloudy skies and breezy conditions with wind gusts of 20 to 25 mph, elevating highs into the lower to middle 50s. A few light showers will be possible through the day as well.
Wednesday:
Should be the best day of the week, featuring more sunshine and lighter winds, with highs in the low to mid 50s.
Late week storm system:
Highs on Thursday and Friday are set to approach 60°, which will be pushing a few records across the state.
A warm front moving through Thursday evening will spark scattered showers and possibly some thunderstorms across the area starting Thursday afternoon.
A stronger storm or two can’t be ruled out.
Showers will continue into the first half of Friday, before the cold front pushes out of the state later in the day.
As the weekend approaches, the cold front will move through, leading to a significant drop in temperatures. Conditions will become cooler and breezy, with spotty flurries possible as temperatures return to seasonal norms for this time of year.
Looking ahead, the weekend is expected to bring a return to cooler temperatures and near-seasonal norms, with potential light snow flurries in the forecast as a cold front passes through Central Indiana.
BLOOMINGTON — Curt Cignetti reinforced his running back rotation, which will need an offseason makeover due to eligibility related attrition, on Sunday with the commitment of Boston College running back Turbo Richard according to multiple media outlets.
Richard helps relieve the stress created by the departures of Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby, the Hoosiers’ leading rushers in 2025, both of whom will exhaust their eligibility at the end of the current season. Cignetti and his staff add Richard to a running back room already anchored around Lee Beebe Jr., returning from injury, and Khobie Martin, the one-time Fishers star who flashed meaningful potential this season.
Here’s what to know about IU’s newest running back:
Turbo Richard provides proven production
Indiana has, in Cignetti’s two seasons in Bloomington, shown a repeated desire to add skill players who’ve shown impact in numbers and film. Richard fits that bill.
Across two seasons in Chestnut Hill, he posted 1,027 yards and 11 touchdowns on 200 carries, with another 275 yards receiving and two more touchdowns through the air.
Last season, Richard accounted for 962 total yards and 11 scores.
He’s shown explosiveness too: Richard posted at least one carry of 10-plus yards in seven different games last season, with single-game highs of 18, 43, 46 and 71 yards.
How much eligibility does Turbo Richard have remaining?
Cignetti often refers to players with more than one year of eligibility remaining as more valuable in the portal. His program will get as many as two from Richard.
Additionally, the Charlotte native played right away at Boston College, in 2024, meaning he has a redshirt year if he needs it for any reason as well.
Fit to type
Listed at 5-8, 207 pounds, Richard looks on film a lot like the kind of back Indiana has had success with in Cignetti’s tenure.
He’s quick and nimble enough to get involved in the pass game, but powerful enough to make an impact between the tackles. He also shows excellent burst — as evidenced by those explosive numbers — potentially replacing the second- and third-level burst that made Black and Hemby so dangerous this season.
Indiana led the Big Ten in rushes of 10-plus yards in 2025. Richard profiles as the kind of back that can help sustain that production into 2026.
Back rotation settled?
It’s not clear exactly where Beebe stands in his recovery from a season-ending injury suffered in September. If IU is confident in his return to form, coupled to Martin’s development, this could wind up as Indiana’s running back rotation into next season.
The Hoosiers have reportedly hosted other portal running backs, so it’s possible IU isn’t done here. But especially given Martin’s flashes this season (74 carries, 463 yards, six TDs), if Indiana is settled here, then the Hoosiers appear to have handed position coach John Miller another healthy stable of backs to build a run game around.
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