Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti is unimpressed with the College Football Playoff selection committee’s decision to drop his team five spots in its second ranking of the season.
The Hoosiers started at No. 4 but are now ranked No. 9 after falling behind Alabama, UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas and Tennessee.
“Bad losses don’t count anymore? Are first downs always 10 yards?” Cignetti wrote in a social media post Thursday accompanied by laughing and clown emojis.
Indiana could strengthen its case for gaining ground in the CFP rankings with a win Saturday over visiting No. 18 USC.
This isn’t the first time Cignetti has criticized the CFP selection committee’s decision-making this season. He cited bias against the SEC when considering the committee’s initial ranking of Indiana, behind Miami, Georgia and Utah.
“The SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN and all of their writers, who they don’t technically pay, but march to their beat,” Cignetti told Don Fischer during a Nov. 4 appearance on the Inside IU Football radio show. “So, and that’s why you see all these SEC teams up there, and some good two-loss Big Ten teams, not as high.”
Indiana, coming off a bye week, is 8-1 after losing to its only ranked opponent of the season so far in an Oct. 17 game against Ohio State.
The Hoosiers began the season with a non-conference slate against North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky. The team has gone to overtime in each of its last two wins at Michigan and against visiting Minnesota.
UCLA moved into the top eight after going 9-0 to start the season, while Alabama (7-2, losses to No. 2 Georgia and No. 14 Tennessee) and Notre Dame (8-1, loss to No. 8 BYU) suffered only losses to ranked opponents.
Other teams above Indiana in the latest CFP rankings remained on track for a playoff bid despite losing to unranked opponents.
That includes 7-2 Texas — which was No. 1 in the AP Top 25 before conceding back-to-back losses to Oklahoma and Florida — and 7-2 Tennessee, which conceded a loss to top-ranked Texas but also suffered a loss at South Carolina.
Indiana would risk dropping out of the playoffs altogether with a loss to USC. Cignetti’s hopes of leading his team to defend its national title could be on the line when the game tips off at 3:30 p.m. ET in Bloomington.
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