Should Indiana Still be Considered a Playoff Team if They Lose to Ohio State?

Every year there are teams that get left out of the college football playoffs that people argue should’ve gotten in. Last year, Florida State had a perfect 13-0 record in the regular season and yet got left out of the college football playoffs because they lost their Heisman trophy caliber quarterback, Jordan Travis, a few weeks before the committee selected their playoff teams. However, that was in a 4-team college football playoff. This year, with the expansion to a 12-team playoff format, there is a lot more room for really good teams to make the playoffs. With an exciting matchup today between #2 Ohio State and #5 Indiana, could we see one of these teams fall out of the playoff race with a loss today?

Ohio State only has one loss on the season, which came at the hand of the #1 ranked Oregon Ducks back in early October. Their best win of the season was against #4 ranked Penn State earlier this month. With a win over Indiana today, that would likely cement Ohio State’s bid for the College Football playoffs. Outside of the big win against Penn State, Ohio State has for the most part just beaten up on bad teams. That makes winning this game today that much more critical for the Buckeyes to stay in contention for the CFP.

Indiana finds itself in a similar spot to Florida State last year. Although they haven't lost their quarterback to injury, they haven’t really played any difficult teams this year. If they want to be treated like a true contender then they have to, at the very least, remain competitive in this game with Ohio State. Indiana’s strength of schedule sticks out like a sore thumb against other teams vying for those precious playoff spots. The average strength of schedule for the other top 12 teams, besides Indiana, is around 31st in the nation. Indiana’s strength of schedule is 106th. It’s no surprise that they are undefeated and are blowing out teams so far this season given who they are playing against. However, if they get beaten badly by Ohio State today, I would strongly recommend leaving Indiana out of the college football playoffs in favor of an SEC team like Texas A&M or Tennessee who have played against much tougher opponents and proven that they can compete against some of the best teams in the country.