Where Indiana football is in CFP rankings before Big Ten championship game

• Ohio State and Indiana remain the top two undefeated teams in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
• The two teams will face each other in the Big Ten title game for the first time as No. 1 and No. 2.
• The winner of the conference championship will secure a spot in the Rose Bowl and a top seed in the playoff.

BLOOMINGTON — The College Football Playoff committee kept the lone undefeated teams, No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana football, in the top two slots in the penultimate rankings released on Tuesday night.

It sets up the a first of its kind No. 1 vs. No 2. in the Big Ten title game this weekend in Indianapolis.

The Hoosiers (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten) have been nipping at OSU’s heels for five straight weeks in the CFP rankings. The winner of the conference title game will lock up a spot in the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team and top seed in the bracket.

“I had the opportunity to be a part of a couple of those at Alabama,” IU coach Curt Cignetti said Sunday. “We played Florida and (Tim) Tebow and Urban (Meyer) one verse two, two years in a row. It’s going be a great atmosphere.”

Based on the current rankings, Indiana would faced the winner of a matchup between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 10 Texas A&M.

The good news for Ohio State and Indiana is that the changes the CFP made to their strength of schedule metrics during the offseason should prevent the team that loses this weekend from falling out of the top four, the cutoff for receiving a first-round bye.

Under the new formula, the metrics rewards teams for defeating high-quality opponents while minimizing the penalty for losing to such a team.

Week 5 CFP top 25 rankings

1. Ohio State 12-0 (-)

2. Indiana 12-0 (-)

3. Georgia 11-1 (+1)

4. Texas Tech 11-1 (+1)

5. Oregon 11-1 (+1)

6. Ole Miss 11-1 (+1)

7. Texas A&M 11-1 (-4)

8. Oklahoma 10-2 (-)

9. Alabama 10-2 (+1)

10. Notre Dame 10-2 (-1)

11. BYU 11-1 (-)

12. Miami 10-2 (-)

13. Texas 9-3 (+3)

14. Vanderbilt 10-2 (-1)

15. Utah 10-2 (-2)

16. USC 9-3 (+1)

17. Virginia 10-2 (+1)

18. Arizona 9-3 (+7)

19. Michigan 9-3 (-4)

20. Tulane 10-2 (+4)

21. Houston 9-3 (N/R)

22. Georgia Tech 9-3 (+1)

23. Iowa 8-4 (N/R)

24. North Texas 11-1 (N/R)

25. James Madison 11-1 (N/R)

How does the College Football Playoff work? 

The 12-team field features the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked schools. The four highest-ranked schools are seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye. 

The remaining schools will be seeded 5-12 based on their final ranking. If any of the five highest-ranked conference champions are outside the top 12, they will be seeded at the bottom of the bracket. 

Those eight schools will play in the CFP first round with the higher seeds hosting the lower seeds on campus (or a designated site picked by the higher-seeded team). The committee doesn’t modify the bracket to avoid rematches and there is no re-seeding. 

The top four seeds will be assigned to the quarterfinals hosted by the bowls, in accordance with historic bowl relationships. The Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl are hosting the quarterfinals this season.

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