Indiana made quick of Indiana State on Friday night, routing the Sycamores 73-0. One night later, roughly 200 miles north of Bloomington, Indiana, in South Bend, Notre Dame dropped another thriller. This one was a 41-40 loss to Texas A&M that dropped the Fighting Irish to 0-2.

Aside from the obvious in Texas A&M, Indiana may have just been the biggest winner in college football because of that.

Indiana Football’s Current Setting

Indiana sits at 3-0 after Friday’s drubbing of Indiana State and is now preparing for No. 9 Illinois in one of the biggest games in the history of Memorial Stadium. Both the Hoosiers and Fighting Illini have realistic College Football Playoff hopes, and Saturday’s showdown will go a long way in determining who has a step up.

A win by Indiana Saturday would put it in the driver’s seat for a College Football Playoff spot ahead of Notre Dame, even if the Irish win out and finish 10-2.

Beating No. 9 Illinois on Saturday night would mean Indiana has a top ten win to its name, something Notre Dame is almost guaranteed to not have all year, as it sits 0-2 and only has one game remaining against a team that is currently ranked (Oct. 18 vs. No. 25 USC).

Indiana’s Remaining Schedule:

Coaches hate looking ahead and understandably so. However, we’re not coaches here, and can look ahead without getting punished for it.

Of its nine remaining games, Indiana figures to be favored in seven. Only trips to Oregon and Penn State would appear to make the Hoosiers underdogs at this point.

College football rarely goes as we expect it to far out, but what happens if Indiana simply beats the teams, it should, with Saturday’s game against Illinois included in that?

Indiana would finish 10-2 and feature a top ten win. The best Notre Dame could currently do is run the table and finish 10-2, but that would almost certainly come without a win over a top 15 team, let alone a top 10 one.

College Football Playoff Outlook:

Would the College Football Playoff committee agree? It can say it doesn’t favor brands over resumes all it wants, but sometimes the evidence is too strong against that. Notre Dame losing its two games by a combined four points only would be part of its case, but should margin of defeat even matter in CFP cases?

Indiana didn’t even play Saturday night but depending how the rest of the regular season goes, it may have just been the biggest winner in all of college football Saturday night, short of Texas A&M.

The New York Knicks hope to do what the Indiana Pacers were able to accomplish this past season by winning the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Pacers stunned the Knicks in six games to advance to the NBA Finals, where they pushed the champion Oklahoma City Thunder to a Game 7 despite losing star point guard Tyrese Haliburton to a torn Achilles midway through the final matchup.

The Pacers should be different without Haliburton in the upcoming season, opening the door for the Knicks to take over as the top team in the East. Even though Haliburton won’t be on the court, the Pacers should still have a solid team.

Andrew Nembhard is expected to have significant duties as the team’s point guard while Bennedict Mathurin will likely be his partner in the backcourt.

Aaron Nesmith, who torched the Knicks throughout the entire Eastern Conference Finals, will likely be the team’s starting small forward. Pascal Siakam will be expected to lead the team in scoring from the power forward position while the team has question marks surrounding the center spot.

Myles Turner won’t be with the Pacers for the first time in a decade after he signed a contract with the division rival Milwaukee Bucks over the offseason, so the team needs to figure out what it will do to replace him.

“By far, the biggest question with the lineup is the center position. There is no guaranteed starter, although Isaiah Jackson is the favorite. Jay Huff and James Wiseman will likely back him up,” Indiana Pacers On SI contributor Ryan Stano wrote.

“There’s a chance that Indiana changes who they want to start at center at some point during the season, so that is a fluid spot. Tony Bradley will fight Wiseman for the third-string minutes.”

The Knicks should be favored over the Pacers during the season, but this is a team whose core was one win away from winning the championship just a few months ago.

Therefore, the Knicks have to take the Pacers seriously if they want to overtake them in the Eastern Conference hierarchy.

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