Indiana
Indiana football needed to beat Purdue to keep its CFP hopes alive. How the Hoosiers won was equally important.
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti told reporters he’s tried to avoid the chatter surrounding the College Football Playoff rankings, but the final score on Saturday said otherwise.
The No. 10 Hoosiers (11-1; 8-1 Big Ten) won 66-0 over Purdue in the most one-sided victories in program history.
Indiana’s starters stayed in the game into the fourth quarter — longer than they did in a similar blowout win over Western Illinois — and Cignetti even called for a fake punt with a 38-point lead late in the third quarter.
“Obviously style points are important this time of year, right?” Cignetti said. “And style points are earned.”
Those style points are what the CFP committee are using to help separate teams in the 12-team field. Committee chair Warde Manuel said as much when he talked to reporters earlier in the week about what separated Indiana and SMU, a fellow one-loss team with a weaker strength of schedule.
The Mustangs benefited from the eye-popping offensive numbers they’ve put up during a win streak they extended to nine games on Saturday.
“SMU has been playing really dominant football as of late,” Manuel said.
Indiana football needed to remind the committee this was a team that won its first nine games by 14 points or more while putting up 40-plus in seven of those games. Cignetti even brought up their impressive margin of victory after the game.
“I think we had the largest margin of victory of any team in the country up until last week. I’m not sure where we were coming into this game because obviously we did not beat Ohio State,” Cignetti said. “Most of the games we played, we’ve handled the opponent pretty well where we wouldn’t have the largest margin of victory in the country.”
Cignetti wasn’t the only coach looking for style points either over the weekend.
Penn State added a touchdown as time expired in a 44-7 win over Maryland that clinched them a spot in the Big Ten title game. The score led to a tense post-game conversation at midfield between PSU coach James Franklin and his counterpart Mike Locksley.
“We are trying to play as long as we can, make the playoffs and be seeded as high as possible, and scoring as many points and a point differential matters,” Franklin said, after the game. “All that matters.”
Indiana will now have to wait until Selection Sunday on Dec. 8 to find out their final postseason destination. The Hoosiers who spoke to the media after the game all expressed confidence their body of work was worthy of a CFP bid.
“Oh yeah, for sure, we’re going to be in there and the first game you are all going to see the dominance we put on tape,” Indiana defensive end Mikail Kamara said.
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.