RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 4 sourcesSOUTH BEND, IN - DECEMBER 20: Indiana Hoosiers and Notre Dame Fighting Irish football helmets on display at the ESPN College Gameday show before the Indiana Hoosiers play against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on December 20, 2024, during the CFP First Round playoff game at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Back in 2021, Notre Dame announced a home and home football series against the Indiana Hoosiers . While this announcement obviously came before Indiana’s meteoric rise in college football, fans were still excited to have this game on the books.
Despite being in-state, Notre Dame and Indiana have only played 30 times with the last time being in the 2024 college football playoff. The two schools played quite regularly from 1898-1958, but the only time the two have played since then besides the playoff game, was in 1990.
So… we got the playoff game, and now there’s currently a two game series on the books.
For now.
You know the game, and you know the game Indiana plays. The Hoosiers and Curt Cignetti haven’t been shy about stating their preference to play Group of Six or FCS opponents out of conference. The fact that Indiana won the national championship last season will likely only make their preference an unstated mandate.
Will Indiana try and back out of the series? If I had to bet on the situation, I’d put a fair amount of money down on the table and say YES.
Indiana hasn’t won an out of conference game against a Power 4 opponent since 2018 when they beat Virginia. Since then, they’ve only had one game against a Power 4 opponent — a loss to Louisville in 2023. (They played and lost to Cincinnati in 2021 and 2022, but the Bearcats weren’t in the Big 12 yet).
An open records request shows that a cancellation is pretty cheap in today’s college football market, and probably well worth the price for a school like Indiana that has no desire to actually play any competition outside of the Big 10.
While Notre Dame continually faces backlash for “having an easy schedule” despite playing 10 Power 4 games in a season, Indiana is getting a pass on being fickle about playing a tough opponent. Hats off to them, I guess, as they are the reigning national champions and it’s hard to criticize what has worked — but it’s still the path of a coward.
Lincoln Riley at USC got it done and Steve Sarkisian with Texas is well on his way way to getting the series against Notre Dame cancelled, so you shouldn’t underestimate Curt Cignetti’s determination to be a coward as well.
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