Sorry, Lane Kiffin: Indiana earned a Playoff spot. SEC groups that bought omitted didn't

Curt Cignetti, as soon as once more, didn’t maintain again. His workforce was lower than two hours away from kicking off its first Faculty Soccer Playoff recreation, and the 63-year-old Indiana head coach sat in the course of the “Faculty GameDay” set and went proper on the skeptics.

“We don’t simply beat Prime 25 groups, we beat the s— out of them!” Cignetti stated, referencing that his groups had crushed Nebraska earlier this yr and Coastal Carolina when he was at JMU. It was a rewind-the-TV second. As in, did he actually simply say that?! It additionally wasn’t true. The Huskers had fallen out of the ballot by the point they performed the Hoosiers. Ohio State was ranked, although, and beat Indiana 38-15.

Cignetti’s bluster in the end fell flat. The Hoosiers had been whipped on the line of scrimmage Friday night time by Notre Dame. They had been two steps slower, and once they had been down 20-3 with 11 minutes left within the recreation, Cignetti punted and coached like he hoped to not get routed.

A damning stat about Cignetti’s workforce this yr: Towards 11 unranked opponents, Indiana averaged 46 factors per recreation. In two video games in opposition to ranked groups, Indiana averaged 16 factors and didn’t have a play of 30 yards or longer.

As a result of the Hoosiers had been getting dealt with for a lot of the night time — they trailed 17-3 at halftime — the school soccer world had loads of time to vent. Some tried to relitigate whether or not Indiana truly belonged within the 12-team Playoff area.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin didn’t miss his probability to stir the pot, mocking Indiana and the choice committee.

Actually thrilling aggressive recreation @CFBPlayoff 🧐. Nice job!! https://t.co/HEjQ1AcXba

— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) December 21, 2024

However the fact is, nobody who didn’t make the 12-team Playoff earned their means into it. No matter occurs on the sector over the following month received’t change the truth that the groups that didn’t get picked merely didn’t do sufficient to get in.

Kiffin’s Ole Miss workforce? The Rebels misplaced three video games, together with one at dwelling in opposition to a dreadful Kentucky workforce that didn’t win one other SEC recreation and completed 4-8. That loss by itself, coupled with the Rebels’ 28-10 dwelling win over Georgia, wouldn’t have saved them out, however that they had two different losses in opposition to unranked LSU and Florida.

Alabama? The Tide additionally beat Georgia, however that they had an embarrassing 24-3 beatdown by the hands of a mediocre Oklahoma workforce in late November. Alabama additionally gave up 40 factors in a loss to 6-6 Vanderbilt and misplaced to Tennessee.

South Carolina? It bought blown out 27-3 by Ole Miss at dwelling, and it additionally misplaced to Alabama and unranked LSU. The Gamecocks do have a highway win over ACC champion Clemson, although.

GO DEEPER

Rexrode: Indiana deserved its Playoff bid even when its schedule helped it get there

Indiana went 11-1 within the common season. The Hoosiers don’t have spectacular wins on their resume. Not one. However they did blow out nearly everyone they confronted. Solely 7-5 Michigan, the workforce that upset Ohio State on the finish of the season, bought inside two touchdowns of them till the Buckeyes. However Indiana performed who was on its schedule. That schedule did have the 2 groups that really performed for final season’s nationwide title — the Wolverines and Washington — however each of them needed to substitute their head coaches and most of their beginning lineups. You play who you play, and it’s not IU’s fault how different groups turned out in 2024.

In the event you don’t assume Indiana deserved to make the Playoff, you’re saying it had a one-game schedule this fall at Ohio State, and since it misplaced that one recreation, nothing else it did mattered.

There’s little doubt a few of this criticism of the Hoosiers is rooted in the truth that they’ve nearly by no means been good earlier than. As the printed Friday night time repeatedly famous, Indiana is the losingest program in faculty soccer historical past. However the Playoff is meant to think about solely what occurred this yr, not the previous, even when it’s at all times been laborious for human nature and people biases to not creep into the thought course of.

Cignetti didn’t do himself any favors, both, when he stated earlier than he took the job that he checked out Indiana’s suspect 2024 schedule and bought extra excited concerning the Hoosiers’ teaching emptiness.

One concern as faculty soccer moved to a 12-team Playoff was that it will devalue the common season. The TV scores this fall would point out that it hasn’t. But when the Playoff choice committee disregards wins and losses as a result of it desires to simply go by its personal eye check or what Vegas thinks about potential matchups or what NFL personnel individuals consider a workforce’s “expertise,” it will devalue the common season, and that’s not value it for all the second-guessing and knee-jerk reactions because the revisionist historical past seeps into the dialogue.

Anticipate extra of this if and when the Playoff expands to 14 or 16 groups. That will simply imply extra groups with much more flawed resumes will get in, and extra may also be sitting at dwelling watching it.